A three-fold development of Old English y in Middle Kentish place-names

Abstract

The intention of the present dialectal research is to contribute to a better knowledge of Middle Kentish, traditionally regarded as a Middle English dialect in which sounds and linguistic changes behave differently. This will be done through the formal analysis of Old English , dialectally relevant in Kentish, in medieval place-names. Name-forms provide, according to different authors, real information about the behaviour of certain phonological distinctions whose evidence has only been attested in these forms. Consequently, I will focus on the analysis of this onomastic material to contrast my own conclusions with other place-name studies, but also with the more traditional phonological distributions attained by authors who have based their analyses on individual literary works that reflected the regional variety in question.