Dialectal Features in Old English Psalter Glosses

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This research has aimed at the throughgoing comparison between the Mercian Vespasian Psalter (PsGlA) and the early West Saxon Regius Psalter (PsGlD) and the consequent reinterpretation of the relation between the A-type and D-type glosses and between each extant glosses of the Psalter。 In addition to the comparison between full words, function words, prefixed elements, suffixes or inflectional endings, element order, verb forms and spelling variants are all taken into consideration so as to show how different the two glosses, which represent the two distinct dialects, are. The following are the summary of results : (1) the one-fourth of the whole lexemes in PsGlA and PsGlD are different ; (2) some full words and function words show dialectal distinction, but most words and forms are chosen as renderings of the Latin original ; (3) function words and other minor elements show different disciplines of the two glosses in their lexical choice ; (4) late West Saxon glosses show both variety and conformity to PsGlD, the most faithful one being the Stowe Psalter (PsGlF) and the least Arundel Psalter (PsGlJ) ; (5) the A-type Junius Psalter (PsGlB) and Cambridge Psalter (PsGlC), not being Mercian but West Saxon, do not always follow PsGlA but at times choose their own lexemes, and they often disagree in their choice ; (6) the difference between the Roman and the Gallican texts of Latin affects the choice of Old English renderings especially in full words, which may represent the differences in lexical choice between early and late West Saxon.