Money Talks: Reconstructing Old English

401 Pages·1991·11.273 MB·English

by  Fran Colman

Money Talks
Trends in Linguistics
Studies and Monographs 56
Editor
Werner Winter
Mouton de Gruyter
Berlin · New York
Money Talks
Reconstructing Old English
by
Fran Colman
Mouton de Gruyter
Berlin · New York 1992
Mouton de Gruyter (formerly Mouton, The Hague)
is a Division of Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin.
© Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines
of the ANSI to ensure permanence and durability.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Colman, Fran, 1949-
Money talks : reconstructing Old English / by Fran Col-
man. p. cm. — (Trends in linguistics. Studies and
monographs ; 56)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 3-11-012741-5
1. English language — Old English, ca. 450 — 1100 —
Etymology — Names. 2. English language — Old English,
ca. 450—1100 — Phonology. 3. Names, Personal — English
(Old) 4. Numismatics — England. 5. Coins, Anglo-Saxon. 6.
Anglo-Saxons. I. title, II. Series. PE262.C64 1992
429'.2 —dc20 91-34452
CIP
Die Deutsche Bibliothek — Cataloging in Publication Data
Colman, Fran:
Money talks : reconstructing Old English / by Fran Col-
man. — Berlin ; New York : Mouton de Gruyter, 1992
(Trends in linguistics : Studies and monographs ; 56)
ISBN 3-11-012741-5
NE: Trends in linguistics / Studies and monographs
© Copyright 1991 by Walter de Gruyter & Co., D-1000 Berlin 30
All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this
book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Typesetting and Printing: Arthur Collignon GmbH, Berlin. —
Binding: Lüderitz & Bauer, Berlin. — Printed in Germany.
For Eleanor Colman
and, in mentoriam,
Ernest Colman
— without whom ...

Contents
Foreword 1
Chapter One: Opening an account 3
1. The data and their uses 3
2. Some claims 6
3. Orthography and phonology 7
4. Onomastics 12
5. Numismatics 16
6. Summary 20
Chapter Two: The game of the name 21
1. Preamble 21
2. Etymological classification 22
3. Vocabulary 23
4. Combination of name-elements 25
5. By-names 29
6. Nationalities of name-elements 31
7. A synchronic account of an Old English onomatic system .... 34
8. Inflectional morphology 53
9. Name-changes 55
10. Paronomasia 67
Chapter Three: Person, place or thing?: Rose is not a rose 71
1. Introduction 71
2. The names and their etymologies 75
Chapter Four: Hidden talents 127
1. The coin types 127
2. Arguments for the chronology of types: internal evidence of
the coins 130
viii Contents
3. Arguments for the chronology of types: external evidence
of hoards 133
4. Arguments for the chronology of types: external evidence of mints
and moneyers 149
5. Summary of evidence for the type-sequence 149
Chapter Five: The die is not cast 153
1. The epigraphic symbols and identification of errors 153
2. Explication of epigraphic errors 159
3. Conclusion 162
Chapter Six: The money talks 163
1. Introduction 163
2. Stressed vowels 164
3. Reflexes of Pro to-Germanic stressed vowels represented on
the coins 165
4. Main vowels of second elements 181
5. Vowels of unstressed syllables 191
6. Conclusions about developments of unstressed vowels 194
7. Consonants 195
8. Consonants in simplex names and in pro to themes of non-simplex
names 196
9. Consonants of second elements 209
Chapter Seven: That'll do nicely 219
1. Stressed vowels 219
2. Root vowels in second elements of non-simplex names 222
3. Unstressed vowels 223
4. Consonants 223
5. The current account 225
Appendix: A catalogue of moneyers' names on coins of Edward
the Confessor 231
Notes 359
References 363
Index of moneyers' name-elements 383
Index of subjects 389
Foreword
The corpus of data on which this book is based grew from that presented
in my 1981 D.Phil, thesis (Oxford). The subsequent publication of new
volumes in the Sylloge of coins of the British Isles series, not to mention
the activity of metal-detectors, has considerably enlarged the original
catalogue of coins and the name-forms recorded thereon. Parts of the
account in the thesis, notably of the coins and their chronology, and of
the name-etymologies, have informed the present work; but the latter
reflects a more recent pre-occupation with the significance of theory —
of onomastics in relation to theories of linguistics — in interpretation of
material data as evidence for reconstructing Old English. Money Talks is
therefore a new offering to the field of Old English language and numis-
matics.
The data presented in the Appendix consist of forms of moneyers'
names on coins of Edward the Confessor (AD 1042 — 1066), in museums
and private collections in Britain, Scandinavian countries, and elsewhere
in Europe, as well as in America. The Appendix includes a good deal of
material not published systematically (if at all) elsewhere (notably, coins
in the London Museum, and those acquired this century by the Royal
Coin Cabinet, Stockholm). The coins are arranged by mint, and then by
moneyer's name and type. The Index of moneyers' name-elements pro-
vides cross-references to the Appendix, as well as to Chapters 1 to 7.
Etymologies are given in Chapter 3 under the first elements of names
arranged in alphabetical order, along with a list of mints associated with
each name. Cross-reference between Chapter 3 and the Index of moneyers'
name-elements gives ready access to the individual name-forms listed in
the Appendix.
The following conventions are followed:
— Bold type identifies the head form of a name: e. g. /Elfrsed
— Italics identify the citation form of a common word: e. g. celf, reed
— < ) enclose an epigraphic (or orthographic) form: e. g. (ALFRED)
(or (Alfred))