Middle Dutch Sentence and Word Phonology

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Our knowledge of the linguistic systems of early Germanic come from manuscripts. In this project, we plan to examine two separate Middle Dutch manuscripts, dated about 25 years apart. The first manuscript, Marshall-29 is held at the Bodleian Library and is one of the most complete surviving Middle Dutch manuscripts (dialect of Brabant), comprising 102 folios. Written in a single hand around 1375 it contains absorbing details about word and sentence phonology. Since the manuscript is complete and has not been made accessible by a reliable edition so far, it provides new material for the study of Middle Dutch phonology. The second manuscript we are interested in is the Comburg manuscript, dated between 1380-1425 written in Flemish and fairly close to Marshall-29. Since the dialects are different, varying changes in different social contact situations will be of special interest.Our central goals are to: A. Trace the sentence and word phonological system for a period of 600 years, from Middle to Modern Dutch, based on our transcription of little-known medieval manuscripts. B. Establish the conditions under which phonological and syntactic structure differ. C. Trace the time-course of dialectal variation from manuscripts which are closely related but geographically apart. More specifically we plan to achieve the following:i) On the basis of the transcription, we will provide a comprehensive synchronic analysis of 15th-century Middle Dutch sentence phonology ( including cliticisation, prosodic word formation and and prosodic phrasing) and trace the development to Modern Dutch, touching on 14th and 17th century systems based on other manuscripts.ii) Analyse the segmental phonology of Middle Dutch and trace its development to Modern Dutch, with emphasis on both qualitative and quantitative aspects. We analyse across-word as well as within-word phonological alternations.iii) Produce a transcription of the complete text of Marshall-29 that will be made accessible by e-publication. Since Marshall 29 is one of the few complete manuscripts of Middle Dutch non-religious texts and has yet been little studied, e-publication will enhance the options for linguistic as well as literary research of this period. This will be an invaluable addition to Middle Dutch philology.We believe that our work will be vital for scholars working on the syntax-phonology interface, historical linguistics, and dialectologists. Within a broader perspective, the results will be added to the Dutch dialect atlas, providing invaluable data concerning sentence-phonology of medieval dialects and tracing the development to modern times. The transcription and critical edition will be of interest to scholars in Dutch poetry and literature, as well as provide information on medieval Dutch culture.