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Article published In: NOWELE
Vol. 72:1 (2019) ► pp.42–59

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Lat. scrībere in Germanic

 | University of Iceland
Published online: 12 April 2019
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https://doi.org/10.1075/nowele.00019.tar
Abstract
The present article deals with the reflexes of Lat. scrībere in Germanic. It is proposed that the word was borrowed into Germanic at quite an early stage (1st century AD) as a result of contacts between West-Germanic-speaking populations and the Romans. Special stress is put on the importance of the Roman military in introducing the practice of writing among those that served in the army. Special attention is given to the North Germanic reflexes of Lat. scrībere in order to tentatively explain the morphological difference found in that branch of Germanic, where the verb is found both in the first class of strong verbs and in the second class of weak verbs. It is proposed that the former conjugation is primary, and that the rise of the latter is due to later developments such as lexical analogical processes and language-external causes. Furthermore, the present study confirms from a different perspective that English influence on writing is primary in the Old-West-Norse-speaking area. Finally, Schulte, M. 2015. Runology and historical sociolinguistics: On runic writing and its social history in the first millennium. Journal of Historical Sociolinguistics 1(1). 87–110. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar proposal is re-read in the light of terminological evidence from England and Scandinavia.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Earlier etymologies: A survey and critical account
  • 3.Lat. scrībere in Germanic: Age and path of borrowing
  • 4.Lat. scrībere in North Germanic: Strong vs. weak conjugation
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
References (59)
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