Word-initial lenition in Old English

This document contains Old English words of the Old Norse origin, as found in Random House Webster’s College Dictionary (2001) and Collins Online Dictionary (2022), and thus English words of the Old Norse origin which were loaned into Middle English are excluded, such as vǣngir ‘wing’ and vindauga ‘window.’ A specific trajectory of the word-initial onset in Old Norse to the counterpart in Old English shows that the lenition of /v/ ~ /hv/ > [w] had occurred at what may be generally considered as “strong positions” (Ségéral and Scheer 2008: 131) in the Old English era. The strong positions refer to a position within the syllable where the occurrence of lenition is not favored, such as a word-initial onset position and a post-coda position (Honeybone 2012).

本数据集收录采自《兰登书屋韦氏大学词典（2001版）》（Random House Webster’s College Dictionary）与《柯林斯在线词典（2022版）》（Collins Online Dictionary）的、源自古诺斯语（Old Norse）的古英语（Old English）词汇；同时，本数据集排除了借入中古英语（Middle English）的古诺斯语源英语词汇，例如vǣngir（意为“翼”）与vindauga（意为“窗”）。针对古诺斯语词首音节首（onset）对应古英语对应形式的演变轨迹可见，古英语时期，/v/~/hv/弱化为[w]的音变现象普遍发生于通常被称为“强势位置”（Ségéral与Scheer, 2008：131）的语境中。强势位置指音节内部不倾向于发生音弱化（lenition）的位置，例如词首音节首位置与韵尾后（post-coda）位置（Honeybone, 2012）。