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Article published In: NOWELE
Vol. 75:1 (2022) ► pp.1–22

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A contact-induced strategy of femininisation

Middle Dutch and Middle High German nouns in ‑erse

 | Basel University
Published online: 16 March 2022
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https://doi.org/10.1075/nowele.00060.vaa
Abstract
Middle Dutch and Middle High German possess a femininizing suffix ‑erse, of which reflexes survive in some modern dialects. Its Old Germanic preform arose from the grafting of Latin ‑issa onto the masculine suffix *‑ārja‑ in Dutch and German dialects closest to the Gallo-Romance area in the Early Middle Ages. The main aim of the present contribution is to provide hitherto underexposed details on the Dutch linguistic area, to show that the mainstream historical explanation for ‑erse in Dutch historical linguistics must be given up, and to provide a unified and more detailed account for the rise of this suffix formation in the medieval contact zone between Gallo-Romance and Germanic.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Middle Dutch ‑erse
  • 3.Dutch dialectal reflexes of ‑erse
  • 4.Late Old High German ‑erissa, ‑ersa, Middle High German ‑erse
  • 5.Schönfeld’s metathesis theory
  • 6.Frings’ Gallo-Romance theory
  • 7.Native *‑issa?
  • 8.Gallo-Romance ‑issa
  • 9.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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