The Inflection of Latin Feminine Proper Names in the Old English Martyrology

Abstract

This paper focuses on the inflections of Latin feminine names in Old English. Whereas most Latin loanwords are perfectly integrated and behave like Old English words as far as their morphology is concerned, like scientific loans, names can take inflectional endings from both Latin and Old English. Ruiz Narbona (2023) has shown that, in the case of masculine names, the distribution of both types of inflections followed certain clear patterns. Following the model of that study, the analysis of the 125 tokens from the Old English Martyrology shows that certain rules can also be established in the case of feminine names. In general terms, the inflections of these names are modelled after Old English weak n-stems, although nominative inflections are invariably Latin. The case with the more widespread variation is the genitive, where both Old English and Latin inflections are consistently used. The latter, however, are heavily restricted to introductory sections and function solely as post-modifiers.