L
In the later specimens of the West Saxon dialect those words in which the vowel
a immediately preceded a combination of consonants beginning with
1 are generally found to have undergone a change which was represented by writing
ea instead of a. This change does not occur to the same extent
in the earlier specimens, and seems not to occur at all in the Northumbrian dialect, or in the kindred languages.
Thus in the translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care and in the Parker MS. of the Chronicle
alle, onwald are found as well as ealle, onweald, while in Ælfric's Homilies
they are regularly written in the latter form. So the West Saxon forms, healdan, sealt, healf,
are found in the Northumbrian Gospels as halda, salt, half, and in Gothic, O. Sax., Icel., O. H. Ger.
the vowel also is a. In the Runic alphabet the character, which in name and form agrees with
the Scandinavian rune ᛚ , lögr, was ᛚ , lagu. The same name seems to have been
given to the corresponding letter in the Gothic alphabet, though it occurs only in a, corrupt form
laar = lagus. The meaning of this word may be seen from the verses in the Runic poem that are
devoted to the letter:
Entry information
Citation
Bosworth, Joseph. “L.” In An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary Online, edited by Thomas Northcote Toller, Christ Sean, and Ondřej Tichy. Prague: Faculty of Arts, Charles University, 2014. https://bosworthtoller.com/20875.
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