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Article published In: NOWELE
Vol. 78:2 (2025) ► pp.121–177

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Futurity and modality in the Old Frisian Skelta Riucht

ORCiD logo with link | Bergische Universität Wuppertal
ORCiD logo with link | Universiteit van Amsterdam
Published online: 11 December 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/nowele.00098.ada
Abstract
The paper investigates the grammatical means of encoding futurity and modality in Old West Frisian. The analysis, conducted on the archaic text of the Older Skelta Riucht (SkRa), as attested in Codex Unia (U-SkRa), aims at characterising the category of future along the dimensions of temporality and modality. The focus of the study remains specifically on the grammatical marker skela. The study investigates its semantics, typical functions that it served, as well as the linguistic contexts in which it was used. The analysis reveals that skela primarily carries its original modal meanings of obligation, but it occasionally explicitly refers to future events in contexts in which typically the simple present tense forms (futurate presents) appear. In a range of such contexts, characteristic traces of the incipient grammaticalization process can be captured.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Future tense and modality: Theoretical considerations
  • 3.Material and method
  • 4.Expressions of futurity in Old Frisian (with focus on U- SkRa)
    • 4.1Futurate present
    • 4.2Skela as a future tense marker (for modality see § 5)
    • 4.3Willa: Meaning and functions
    • 4.4Other markers of futurity: Wertha, gerundivium, subjunctive
    • 4.5The role of the subjunctive mood in the expression of future tense
    • 4.6Subjunctive of Old Frisian wesa with future meaning
  • 5.Skela: Modality and tense
    • 5.1Dynamic/participant-internal modal meaning
    • 5.2Circumstantial and existential modal meaning
    • 5.3Evidential and epistemic modal meaning
    • 5.4Deontic modal meaning
      • 5.4.1Deontic obligation
      • 5.4.2Moral obligation
      • 5.4.3Permission
      • 5.4.4A brief excursus on obligation: Āga vs. skela
    • 5.5Findings from the quantitative analysis of skela
    • 5.6The modal vs. temporal interpretation of OFris. skela: Conditioning factors
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (90)
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