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Old English

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The spelling of this entry has been normalized according to the principles established by Wiktionary's editor community or recent spelling standards of the language.

Etymology

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Borrowed from Latin platea, from Ancient Greek πλατεῖα (plateîa). This must have been borrowed into early Old English after Anglo-Frisian brightening, but before i-mutation as *platiǣ, cf. Læden, mæġester.[1] The Aldredian stem plæċ-, and the Rushworth Gospel gloss plæ(t)s-, illustrate a change in later Old English whereby the sequence -tj- began to be conflated with -ċċ-, cf. ortġeard, fetian; thus serving as evidence that both palatalization, and later affrication, did likely also occur in Old Northumbrian. [2]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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plæċe f (Northumbrian)

  1. place, open space
    Synonym: worþ
  2. street
    Synonym: worþ (Northumbrian)
    Synonym: strǣt

Declension

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Weak:

singular plural
nominative plæċe plæċan
accusative plæċan plæċan
genitive plæċan plæċena
dative plæċan plæċum

Mainly found in the dative plural, no singular forms are attested. The form plætsa (acc. pl.) shows regular loss of final -n in late Old Northumbrian; although the ending -an is usually spelled -o, this inconsistency can be explained by late unstressed vowel confusion.

Descendants

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References

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  1. ^ Hogg, Richard (2011), A Grammar of Old English, Volume I: Phonology, →ISBN, pages 126-127
  2. ^ Ringe, Donald, Taylor, Ann (2014) The Development of Old English (A Linguistic History of English; 2), Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, pages 203-204