Old English būtan / Old Frisian būta: How an adverb turns into conjunction

What is it about?

It is well established that Old English is more closely related to Old Frisian than to any other West Germanic language. This fact rests especially on phonological, morphological and lexical evidence. Syntactic arguments are few and far between. In this article, the author argues that the Old Frisian conjunction būta ‘but’ and its Old English parallel būtan ‘but’ do not derive their behavioural similarities to an erstwhile Anglo-Frisian pre-stage, but must be explained as having arisen from a similar, but independent, process of grammaticalization.

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Why is it important?

The article explores the close relationship between Old English and Old Frisian.