Südgermanische Runeninschriften

Abstract

Abstract This paper deals with three South Germanic runic inscriptions that are highly relevant to language history. 1. The Frienstedt comb, which dates to the second half of the 3rd century A.D., bears four runes kaba = WGmc. ka(m)ba m. ‘comb’. The nominative sg. marker -a < PGmc. *-az represents the oldest attested West Germanic dialect feature (opposite PNorse -az, EGmc. -s). 2. noru on a neckring found near or in Aalen (ca. 500) renders a woman’s byname Nōru ‘the little one’. Final -u is best interpreted as nominative sg. of an ō-stem; it thus reflects the intermediate stage between PGmc. *-ō and Pre-OHG -Ø in later 6th century inscriptions. 3. The inscription on the Wurmlingen spearhead (presumably early 7th century) reads dorih, representing a dithematic name Dōr(r)īχ(χ) m. (< PGmc. *-rīkaz). This is the first example of Second Consonant Shift /k/ > /x(x)/.