Our current project (PID2021-125840NB-I00) extends the scope of its predecessors (FFI2017-88725-P, FFI2014-56583, FFI2011-28272), which centred on Northern varieties of Old English, and is dedicated to the study of the oldest surviving witnesses written in Anglian dialects, in particular those of Mercia. The most representative texts of these varieties are the glosses to the Vespasian Psalter (London, BL, Cotton Vespasian A. i), regarded as the precursor of the dialect known as AB (Corpus MS Ancrene Riwle and Bodley MS Katherine Group), and the Mercian section of the Rushworth Gospel gloss, Rushworth 1 (Matthew, Mark 1-2.15 and John 18.1-3)).
In spite of the fact that interlinear glosses to Latin texts have traditionally been considered to be of value from only a lexical perspective, later studies have demonstrated their importance for the study of Old English morphosyntax. Building on expertise developed in previous projects, we will carry out a quantitative and qualitative analysis of aspects of the nominal and verbal morphology of the Mercian glosses. We aim to examine processes of analogical extension of the genitive singular and nominative/accusative plural endings from the a-stems to nouns belonging to other declensions. Similarly, we hope to discover if there is evidence of grammaticalization of certain prepositions which take on the function of the accusative/dative cases. The category of grammatical gender will also be explored, in particular how the generally assumed double system of agreement for gender in Old English works in the Mercian glosses, within the noun phrase (according to formal criteria) and in anaphoric/cataphoric reference (according to semantic criteria). Taking the hypothesis of a native origin for the third person plural pronouns they, them, their as a starting point, our project will analyse the demonstratives with pronominal function in the Vespasian Psalter and Rushworth1 and compare them with those found in the Lindisfarne and Durham Ritual glosses. Regarding verbal morphology, the possible confusion of the categories of indicative and subjunctive will be analysed in the Vespasian Psalter gloss and comparison made with the Lindisfarne and Durham Ritual glosses.
At the level of derivational morphology, a study will be carried out on the adverbial suffix -lice (vs. -e) in the Vespasian Psalter, with the aim of shedding light on the formal conditions that triggered the formation of adverbial {ly} in English, unlike other Germanic languages. At the lexical level, a detailed study will be conducted of terms associated with the lexical field of emotions. In addition, the Vespasian Psalter will be studied in the context of psalters written in other dialects of Old English with the aim of establishing possible relationships among them.
Finally, we will try to determine whether there is any evidence in the language of the Vespasian Psalter for the emergence of a Mercian proto-standard predating the West-Saxon literary standard of the Alfredian period.