Etymologically
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sprecan

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈspre.kɑn/[1]

Forms

sprecan (strong class 5; third-person singular present spricþ, past singular spræc, past plural sprǣcon)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *sprekan (“to speak”).[1][2] Its cognates are Old Frisian spreka, Old Saxon sprekan, Old Dutch sprekan and Old High German sprehhan.[3][4][5] Ringe and Taylor list it among the West Germanic words that are more or less isolated etymologically, and prefer to reconstruct such words only for Proto-West Germanic.[2][6]

Kroonen derives it from a root meaning “to crackle”, with Lithuanian spragėti (“to crackle, sputter”), and rejects the comparison with Ancient Greek σφαραγέομαι (spharagéomai, “to crackle”).[3] Orel accepts the Greek word and adds Welsh ffraeth (“funny, odd”).[4] Holthausen compares the Welsh word and the Gheg form Albanian shpreh (“to express”), on which Wiktionary bases an alternative root.[7][1]

Beside sprecan Old English has the form without /r/, specan, used in the Beowulf poem.[8][9] Kroonen explains it by an old alternation in the past tense, or by the influence of an iterative verb.[3] Holthausen treats specan apart and compares Old High German spehhan.[10] The Mercian gloss of the Vespasian Psalter has spreocan, with back mutation.[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is first recorded in the Vespasian Psalter, whose interlinear gloss was added in the middle of the ninth century: Ðætte he ne sprece muð min glosses Latin “Ut non loquatur os meum”, “that my mouth may not speak”, at Psalm 16.[12][13] The Pastoral Care (Hatton 20, 890×897) asks that a teacher ne suigige ðæs ðe nyttwyrðe sie to sprecanne, ne ðæt ne sprece ðæt he suigigean scyle “should not keep silent about what is useful to speak, nor speak what he ought to keep silent about”.[14][13]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller begin with the faculty of speech, as when the dumb speak, then talk and conversation, then speaking words, with the word as object.[9] Toller's Supplement adds speaking of something and sprecan fore “speak on behalf of”, and an agreement that “speaks”, that states its terms.[15] In the laws it also means to make a legal claim, with on “against”.[16] In glosses it renders Latin “loqui” and “dicere”.[5]

It lived on, in the form without /r/, as Middle English speken, now English speak.[17][18]

Timeline

  • s. ix med. – ne sprece “may not speak” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.[12][13]
  • 890×897 – to sprecanne “to speak” in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).[14][13]
  • s. x/xi – spræc and the infinitive specan in the Beowulf manuscript.[19][8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. to speak, to have and use speech.[9]
  2. to talk, converse.[9][5]
  3. to say, utter (words).[9][5]
  4. to speak of;[15] sprecan fore to speak on behalf of.[15]
  5. (law) to make a claim; with on, to sue.[16]

Word family

  • ġesprecan
  • forsprecan
  • wiþsprecan
  • ymbsprecan

Descendants

  • Middle English speken (→ English speak; English speyk; English spek)[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 127
  3. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 469
  4. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 366
  5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. sprecan
  6. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 128
  7. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 313
  8. ^ a b Fulk, R. D.; Bjork, Robert E.; Niles, John D., eds. (2008), Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg, 4th ed., Toronto: University of Toronto Press (glossary), p. s.v. sprecan
  9. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 904
  10. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 309
  11. ^ Ringe, Don; Taylor, Ann (2014), The Development of Old English, A Linguistic History of English II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 326
  12. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 329
  13. ^ a b c d Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
  14. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 499
  15. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 708
  16. ^ a b Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 200
  17. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  18. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  19. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 344