11. The OE vowel system. Major changes during the OE period
The development of vowels in Early oE consisted of the modification of separate vowels, and also of the modification of entire sets of vowels. The PG short [a] and the long [a:], which had arisen in West and North Germanic, underwent similar alterations in Early OE: they were fronted and, in the process of fronting, they split into several sounds.
The PG diphthongs [ei, ai, iu, eu, au] – underwent regular independent changes in Early OE; they took place in all phonetic conditions irrespective of environment. The diphthongs with the i-glide were monophthongised into [i:] and [a:], respectively; the diphthongs in – u were reflected as long diphthongs [io:], [eo:] and [ea:].
| Change illustrated | Examples | ||
| PG | OE | OE | NE |
| a + i | a: | stone | |
| e+ i | i: | mine, my | |
| a + u | ea: | east | |
| e + u | eo: | choose | |
| i + u | io: | deep | |
12. The development of monophthongs in ME
The OE close labialized vowels [y] and [y:] disappeared in Early ME. In Early ME the dialectal differences grew. In some areas OE [y], [y:] developed into [e], [e:], in others they changed to [i], [i:], in the South-West and in the west Midlands the two vowels were for some time preserved as [y], [y:] but later were moved backward and merged with [u], [u:]. OE fyllan – ME Kentish fellen [], ME West Midland and South Western fullen [], ME east Midland and Northern fillen [] (NE fill). In early ME the long OE [a:] was narrowed to []. This was an early instance of the growing tendency of all long monophthongs to become closer; the tendency was intensified in Late ME when all long vowels changed in that direction. [a:] became [] in all the dialects except the Northern group. ME Northern stan(e) [], ME other dialects stoon, stone [], (NE stone). The resulting ME [] must have been a more open vowel than the long [o:] inherited from OE. The two phonemes [] and [o:] were well distinguished in ME, though no distinction was made in spelling: o, and double o were used for both sounds. The short OE [] was replaced in ME by the back vowel [a]. In OE [] was either a separate phoneme or one of a group of allophones distinguished in writing []. All these sounds were reflected in ME as [a], except the nasalized [a] which became [o] in the West Midlands. ME that [], NE that, ME blak [] NE black, ME West Midland lond [], ME other dialects land []. Most of the modern words going back to the OE prototypes with the vowel [a] have [a], e.g. NE man, sand, and, which means that they came from any dialect except west Midland; some words, however, especially those ending in [], should be traced to the West Midlands, e.g. long, song, strong, from, bond.
13. Diphthongs in the History of English
OE period. Under the influence of succeeding and preceeding consonants some Early OE monophthongs developed into diphthongs. The glide (if a front vowel stood before a velar (задненёбный) consonant), together with the original monophtong formed a dipthong. The front vowels [i], [e] and the newly developed [], changed into dipthongs with a back glide when they stood before [h], before long (double) [ll] or [l] plus another consonant. The changes is known as breaking or fracture. Breaking produced a new set of vowels in OE – the short dipthongs [ea] and [eo]. Diphthongisation of vowels could also be caused b preceding consonants: a glide arose after a palatal consonants as a sort of transition to the succeeding vowel. After the palatal [k’], [sk’] and [j] short and long [e] and [] turned into diphthongs with a more front close vowel as their first element. This process known as diphthongization after palatal consonants. ME period. One of the most important sound changes of the EaME was the loss of OE dipthongs and the growth of new dipthongs, with new qualitative and quantative distinctions. The vowel system lost two sets of diphogs, long and short. In Ea ME the sounds [j] and [] between and after vowels changed into [i] and [u] and formed diphthongs together with preceding vowels. These changes gave rise to two sets of diphthongs:with i-glide and u-glide. e+j= ei, e:+j=ei, +j=ai, a+ =au, o+ =ou, a:+w=ou, a:+x=au+x. NE period. The Great Vowel Shift: during this period all the long vowels became closer or were dipthongised.i: – ai (time) pr ME, a: – ei (maken), o: – ou (stone) – preserved from ME, u: – au (mous – mouse), but au – o: (cause). In Ea NE [r] was vocalized when it stood after vowels, either finally or followed by another consonant. It reduced to neutral sound, which was added to the preceding vowel as a glide thus forming diphthong. Formed э – glide diphthongs – iэ beer (бэр), eэ (there – зэрэ), uэ (moor o-+).
14. Quantative changes of vowels in the History of English
They are: 1. Because of the consonants [ss], [st], [ft], [nt], the vowel [a] became longer pla:nt, a:fter, mж ss. 2. Shortening of vowels – occurred in Early NE before single dental and velar consonants [T, d, t, k]. The long vowels subjected to this shortening – [e:] and [u:] – were changing, or had already changed under the Great Vowel Shift breeth – [brE:T – breT]. The long [u:] which became short before [k], and sometimes also before [t], was a product of the shift. Early ME lengthening of the vowels – before ld, nd, mb in open syllables. Shortening – before other consonant clusters. 1. Short vowels were lengthened before two homorganic consonants, a sonorant and a plosive [wi:ld], 2. All other groups of two or more consonants produce the reverse effect: they made the preceding long vowels short kepte-kept. 3. Short vowels became long in opensyllables [e], [a], [o], O:pqn, na:mq.
15. Major vowel changes in NE. Great vowel shift. Vocalisation of [r]
Extensive changes of vowels are one of the most remarkable features of English linguistic history. A variety of changes affected vowels in stressed syllables. The Great Vowel Shift, – which involved the change of all ME long monophthongs, and probably some of the diphthongs. The Great Vowel Shift is the name given to a series of changes of long vowels between the 14th and the 18th c. During this period all the long vowels became closer or were diphthongized. It affected regularly every stressed long vowel in any position. Some long vowels – [u:], [i:] and [a:] – broke into diphthongs [au] (хус – hause), [ai] (ликэ – like) and [ei] (take такэ), o: – u: (хо-who), – e: – i: – клэн – clean), au – O: (кауз-cause). As we see, the Great Vowel Shift did not add any new sounds to the vowel system; in fact, every vowel which developed under the Shift can be found in Late ME. [ou] (го – go) was preserved from ME. The pronunciation of all the words with these sounds was alerted. During the Shift even the names of some English letters werechanged: a: – ei, e: – i:, o: – ou, i: – ai, be: – bi:, ka: – kei. Changes of short vowels: only 2 short vowels out of 5 were altered: [a] – [ж] (man, that) and [u] – [0] (кумэн, come). The vocalization of [r] took place in the 16th or 17th c. In Early NE [r] was vocalized when it stood after vowels, either finally or followed by another consonant. [r] changed into the neutral sound, which was added to the preceding vowel as a glide forming a dipthong [TE:re – Deq]. Sometimes the only trace left by the loss of [r] was the compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel [arm] – [a:m], [fOr – fO:]. If [r] stood in the final unstressed syllable after [q], the vocalization of [r] to [q] resulted in the survival of the ending [ri:dqrq – ri:dqr-raidq]. If the neutral [q] produced by the vocalization of [r] was preceded by a diphthong, it was added to the diphthong to form a sequence of sounds named «triphthong» [Su:r – Sauq]. O+r= O: for, a+r= a: bar; I, e, u+r =q: first, q+r= q brother/ long vowels i:+r=aiq shire, e:, E:+r= iq ear; E:+r= Eq there; a:+r=Eq hare, O:+r= Oq/O: floor; u:+r=auq flower. There developed a new set of diphthongs, and also triphthogs, with q-glides: [iq, Eq, uq, etc]; there arose a new central long monophthongs [q:]; the new long [a:] filled a vacant position in the system, since ME [a:] had been diphthongized under the GVS.
16. The OE consonant system. Grimm’s and Verners Laws, treatment of fricatives
The changes of consonants in PG were first formulated in terms of a phonetic law by Jacob Grimm in the early 19th c. and are often called Grimm’s law. It is also known as the First or Proto-Germanic consonant shift. By the terms of grimm’s law voiceless plosives developed in PG into voiceless fricatives (Act 1) p-f, t – T, k-x, IE voiced plosives were shifted to voiceless plosives (Act 2) b – p, d – t, g – k and IE voiced aspirated plosives were reflected either as voiced fricatives or as pure voiced plosives (Act 3) bh – v, dh – D rudhira rauDs, gh – Y (or g) hostis – gasts. Verner’s law explains some correspondences of consonants which seemed to contradict Grimm; s law and were for a long time regarded as exceptions. According to verner’s law all the early PG voiceless fricatives [f, T, x] which arose under Grimm’s law, and also [s] inherited fromPIE, became voiced between vowels if the preceding vowel was unstressed; in the absence of these conditions they remained voiceless. F-v – heafod – huvud, T-D, d pater, fadar, x – Y, g socrus – swaihro, s-z auris-auso. /////// PG voiced fricatives tended to be hardened to corresponding plosives while voiceless fricatives, being contrasted to them primarily as fricatives to plosives, developed new voiced allophones. The PG voiced [D] was always harderned to [d] in OE wasida – werede, The two other fricatives, [v] and [$] were hardened to [b] and [g] initially and after nasals. 2. PG [z] underwent a phonetic modifications through the stage of [Z] into [r] and thus became a sonorant, which ultimately merged with the older IE [r]. This process, termed rhotacism, maize-mara-more. 3. Voiceless fricatives [f, T, x, s] and also those of the voiced fricatives which had not turned into plosives, that is, [v] and [$], were subjected to a new process of voicing and devoicing. In early OE they became or remained voiced intervocally and between vowels, sonorants and voiced consonants; they remained or became voiceless in other environments, namely, initially finally and next to other voiceless consonants. V – v, f hlaifs – loaves; f – v, f wulfos – wolves, T – T, D sauT – seeDd, $ – $, x dagos-daZs – days; s-s, z kaus – chose. Old English consonant system. The system consisted of several correlated sets of consonants. According to manner of articulation All the consonants fell into noise consonants and sonorants m, m:, w, n, n:, r, l, j, N. The noise consonants were subdivided into plosives and fricatives; plosives were further differenriated as voiced b, b:, d, d:, g’:, g, g: and voiceless p, p:, t, t:, k’, k’:, k, k:, the difference being phonemic. The fricative consonants were also subdivided into voiced v, z, D, $, $’, j and voiceless f, f:, x’, x’:, x, x:, h, s, s:, T, T: The most universal distinctive feature in the consonant system was the difference in length. Place of articulation: labial, labiodentals p, p:, b, b:, f, f:, v, m, m:, w/ forelingual (dental) t, t:, d, d:, s, s;, z, T, T:, D; n, n:, r, l/ mediolingual (palatal) k’, k’:, x’, x’:, j,$/ back lingual (velar) k, k:, g, g:, x, x: h.
17. The general features of the OE noun declension system. The peculiarities of the a-, n, r–and root – stem declensions
The most remarkable feature of OE nouns was their elaborate system of declensions, which was a sort of morphological classification. The total number of declensions exceeded 25. All in all there were only 10 distinct endings and a few relevant root-vowel interchanges used in noun paradigms; yet every morphological class had either its own specific endings or a specific succession of markers. The OE system of declensions was based on a number of distinctions: 1. The stem-suffix, 2. The gender of nouns 3 genders, a derivation suffix reffered a noun to a certain gender, 3. The phonetic structure of the word, 4. Phonetic changes in the final syllables. In the first place, the morphological classification of OE nouns rested upon the most ancient grouping of nouns according to the stem-suffixes. Stem-suffixes could consist of vowels vocalic stems, e.g. a-stems, i-stems, of consonants (n-stems), of sound sequences (-ja-stems, – nd-stems). Some groups of nouns had no stem-forming suffix or had zero-suffix; they are usually tered root-stems and grouped together with consonantal stems, as their roots ended in consonants. A-stems included MASC. and NEUt. Nouns. The forms in the a-stem declension were distinguished through grammatical endings (including zero ending). In some words inflections were accompanied by sound interchanges: nouns with the vowel [ж] in the root had interchanged [a],
18. Preterite-present verbs in OE and their further development
In OE there were twelve preterite-present verbs (the had indicative, subjunctive moods; sin, pl, 3 persons, present and past tense). Six of them have survived in Mod. E – owe, ought, can, dare, shal, may, must. Most of the preterite-presentsdid not indicate actions, but expressed a kind of attitude to an action denoted by another verb, an Infinitive which followed the preterite-present. In other words, they were used like modal verbs, and eventually developed into modern modal verbs. In ME and early NE several preterite-present verbs died out. The surviving verbs lost some of their old forms and grammatical distinctions but retained many specific peculiarities. They lost the forms of the verbals which had sprung up in OE and thedistinctions between the forms of number and mood in the Present tense. In NE their paradigms have been reduced to two forms or even to one. Now dare has – s ending in the 3rd person and Past form dared.
19. The anomalous verbs in OE and their further development
Among the verbs of the minor groups there were several anomalous verbs with irregular forms. OE willan (past wolde) was an irregular verb with the meaning of volition and desire; it resembled the preterite-presennts in meaning and function, as it indicated an attitude to an action and was often followed by an Infinitive. Eventually willan became a modal verb, like the surviving preterito-presents, and, together with sculan developed into an auxiliary. Some verbs combined the features of weak and strong verbs. OE dLn formed a weak Past tense with a vowel interchange: and a Participle in – n: don-dyde-Zedon. Two OE verbs were suppletive. OE ZAn, whose Past tense was built from a different root: ZAn-eLde – Ze-Zan. BeLn. In ME verb willan was used as a modal verb expressing volition. In course of time it formed a system with shall, as both verbs, shall and will began to weaken their lexical meanings and change into auxiliaries. ZAn – in ME it acquired a new Past tense wente, which came from an entirely different verb, OE wendan