Lecture 4

Diachronic changes in the system of vowels

I. Preliminary remarks

OE is so far removed from Mod English that one may take it for an entirely different language; this is largely due to the peculiarities of its pronunciation.

The survey of OE phonetics deals with word accentuation, the system of vowels and consonants and their origins. The OE sound system developed from the PG system. It underwent multiple changes in the pre-written periods of history, especially in Early OE. The diachronic description of phonetics in those early periods will show the specifically English tendencies of development and the immediate sources of the sounds in the age of writing.

II. Word Stress.

The system of word accentuation inherited from PG underwent no changes in Early OE.

In OE a syllable was made prominent by an increase in the force of articulation; in other words, a dynamic or a force stress was employed. In disyllabic and polysyllabic words the accent fell on the root-morpheme or on the first syllable. Word stress was fixed; it remained on the same syllable in different grammatical forms of the words, and, as a rule, did not shift in word-building either. For example, the Nom. hlāford, cynin9, Dat. hlāforde, cynin9e.

Polysyllabic words, especially compounds, may have had 2 stresses, chief and secondary, the chief stress being fixed on the first root-morpheme, and the secondary stress on the second. For example, Norðmonna, here the chief stress fall on the first component, while the second component gets the secondary stress; the Gen. plural ending – a is unstressed.

In words with prefixes the position of the stress varied: verb prefixes were unaccented, while in nouns and adjectives the stress was commonly fixed on the prefix:

ā-` risan, `mis-dæd

3. Old English Vowel System

The system of OE vowels in the 9^th and 10^th centuries is shown in the table below

Monophthongs

Short vowles

Long vowels

Front vowels

[i] fisc, scip [y] fyllan, pytt [e] sprecan, helpan

[i:] wīn, tīd [y:] brÿd, wÿscan [e:] fēt, tēθ

Back vowels

[u] sunu, cumin [o] folc, cos [a] faran, caru [a] – positional variants: [æ] glæd, hwæt [o] mann,(monn) cann (conn)

[u:] hūs, tūn [o:] fōt, bōk, 9ōd [a:] ān, wrāte

Diphthongs

[ea]healf wearm (before 1, r + cons., and before h instead of [a]	[ea:] hēah, ēare
[eo] steora, feohtan	[eo:] deop, leoht
[io] siofun (f pronounced v in intervocal pos.)	[io:] stīoran
[ie] scield, nieht	[[ie:] cīese, hīeran

OE vowels underwent different kinds of alterations: qualitative and quantitative, dependent and independent. In accented syllables the oppositions between vowels were clearly maintained. In unaccented positions the original contrasts between vowels was weakened or lost; the distinction of short and long vowels was neutralised so that by the age of writing the long vowels in unstressed syllables had been shortened. As for originally short vowels, they tended to be reduced to a neutral sound, losing their qualitative distinctions and were often dropped in unstressed final syllables.

- Changes in the system of vowels:

- Fracture/breaking (преломление) – diphthongization of short vowels ‘a’, ‘e’ before the clusters: ‘r+ con.’, ‘l + con.’, ‘ h+ con., final ‘ h’: ærm – earm, herte – heorte, selh – seolh;

- Gradatio n /ablaut: (alternation of vowels in different grammatical forms:

E.g. in strong verbs: Infinitive (9iban), Past sing. (9af), Past Pl. (9ebum), Second Part. (9ibans);

- Palatalisation: diphthongisation of vowels under the influence of the initial palatal consonants ‘g’, ‘c’ (before front vowels) and the cluster ‘sc’ (all vowels): gefan – giefan, scacan – sceacan;

- Mutation/Umlaut (перегласовка)- a change of vowel caused by partial assimilation to the following vowel:

i-mutation – caused by ‘i’, ‘j’ of the following syllable: namnian – nemnan, fullian- fyllan;

back/velar mutation – phonetic change caused by a back vowel (u,o,a) of the following syllable, which resulted in the diphthongisation of the preceding vowel: hefon – heofon;

Contraction: if after a consonant had dropped, two vowels met inside a word, they were usually contracted into one long vowel: slahan – sleahan – sle:an;

Lengthening of Vowels: before ‘nd’, ‘ld, ‘mb’: bindan – bīndan; climban - clīmban

ME: In the ME period a great change affected the entire system of vowel phonemes. OE had both short and long vowel phonemes, and each of these could occur in any phonetic environment, that is, they were absolutely independent phonemic units. As a result of important changes coming into the vowel system in the 10th-12^th centuries, the ME vowel system was basically different. While in OE quantity (length/shortness) was a distinctive phonemic feature, in ME (by the 13^th c.) quantity of vowels becomes dependent on their environment, exactly on what follows. In some phonetic environments only short vowels can appear, while in others only long vowels can appear. Thus quantity is no longer a phonemically relevant feature and becomes a merely phonetic peculiarity of a vowel sound. Let’s consider the changes that took place during the ME period.

Word Stress.

During the MdE period stress acquired greater positional freedom and began to play a more important role in word derivation. It was caused by phonetic assimilation of thousands of loan-words adopted during this period. New accentual patterns are found in numerous MdE loan-words from French. Probably, when they first entered the English language they retained their original stress on the ultimate or penultimate syllable. This kind of stress could not last long. Gradually, as loan-words were assimilated, the word stress was moved closer to the beginning of the word in line with the English (Germanic) system. This shift is accounted for by what is known as the ‘recessive tendency’ In disyllabic words the accent moved to the first syllable in conformity with the pattern of native words. In words of three and more syllables the shift of the stress could be caused by the recessive tendency and also by ‘ the rhythmic tendency’, which required a regular alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables. Under the rhythmic tendency, a secondary stress could arise at a distance of one syllable from the original stress: reco`mmendan – recommend. In many polysyllabic words both tendencies, the recessive and the rhythmic operated together and brought about several changes. For example, in MnE consolation we find the results of the shift from the final to the preceding syllable [lei] due to the recessive tendency and a secondary stress on the first syllable. Sometimes the shifting of the word stress should be attributed to certain morphological factors. Thus prefixes of many verbs were not stressed in accordance with the OE tradition while corresponding nouns received the stress on the first syllable: present –pre-sent. This example shows that the role of word accentuation has grown; word stress performs a phonological function as it distinguishes a verb from a noun. The position of word stress became relatively free and its phonological application has widened: it can be shifted in word derivation, though it is never moved in building grammatical forms.

Vowel Changes in MdE and Early MnE.

Unstressed vowels

Levelling of unstressed vowels: all unstressed vowels were as a rule weakened and reduced to a neutral vowel, which was denoted by the letter –e. Thus, the infinitive suffix – an was reduced to – en: tellan – tellen, in a similar way: sunu – sune, sone. This weakening of unstressed vowels is closely connected with developments in declension and conjugation. From the 13^th c. onwards, some dialects showed certain vacillation in spelling unstressed vowels, which probably reflected peculiarities of pronunciation: askid, stonus.

Stressed Vowels

One of the most important sound changes of the Early MDE period of the loss of OE diphthongs and the growth of new diphthongs, with new qualitative and quantitative distinctions.

Monophthongization of OE Diphthongs: all OE diphthongs were monophthongized in ME.: eald – ald, healf-half, earm –arm (poor). But before ‘ld’ ‘ea’ yielded different results in different dialects. OE short ‘eo’ changed first into the vowel ‘ö’ spelt ‘eo’. In other dialects it changed into ‘e’ heorte – hörte-herte. (heart). OE long eo: changed into long closed e:, often spelt ‘ee’: deo:p – de:p, deep.

At the same time a new set of diphthongs developed from some sequences of vowels and consonants due to the vocalization of OE [j] and [γ], that is to their change into vowels: these sounds between after vowels changed into [i] and [u] and formed diphthongs together with the preceding vowel: OE dæ9 developed into day[dai]. These changes gave rise to two sets of diphthongs: with i-glides and u-glides {ei, ai, au, ou). In addition to the diphthongs developed from native sources, similar diphthongs – with i-and u-glides are found in some MdE loan words: boy, joy, pause, cause. The formation of new diphthongs was an important event in the history of the language. By that time the OE diphthongs had been contracted into monophthongs; the newly formed MdE diphthongs differed from the OE in structure: they had an open nucleus and a closer glide; they were arranged into a system consisting of two sets o (with i-glides and u-glides) but were not contrasted through quantity as long to short.

Quantitative vowel changes

Shortening and Lengthening of Vowels: a long vowel before two consonants is shortened: OE – ce:pan (infinitive), ME ke:pen, but Past tense – kepte; but it remains long in other environments. But long vowels remain long before ‘ the lengthening’ consonant groups: ld, nd, mb: we:nen (think), but we:nde (past simple). Long consonants also remain long before – st: lae:sta (least) – le:st. In the 13^th c. short vowels were lengthened in open syllables. Lengthening affected the short vowels a, e, o.: talu (tale)- ta:le, macian – ma:ken, etc. The narrow vowels i and u remained as a rule unaffected by this change, and thus the difference between short i and long and also between short u and long retained its quality as a phonemically relevant feature.

Changes of individual vowels:

Short and long ‘a’: OE short ‘a’ usually remained unchanged in ME. OE a/o before a nasal developed differently in different dialects. In West Midland ‘o’ was preserved: mon, con; in other dialects (Northern, East Midland and Southern) there is ‘a’ man, can. OE long ‘a’ also developed in different ways in different dialects. In N. it remained unchanged, while in Midland and Southern it changed into long ‘o’: fa:- fo: (foe); ha:m - - ho:m, etc.

Short ‘ae’ and long ‘ae’. OE short ‘ae’ in most dialects developed into short ‘a’: glaed – glad, aeppel – appel. But in the West Midland and Kentish it developed into ‘e’: gled, eppal. OE West Saxon long ‘ae’ changed into long open ‘e:’: slae:pan – sle:pen (sleep); in other dialects this ‘ae:’ had changed into closed ‘e:’. This closed ‘e:’ is preserved in ME.

Short Y and long Y: OE short ‘y’ developed differently in different dialects. In N. And E..Midland it changed into short ‘i’. In Kentish it became ‘e’ in the remaining dialects it was unchanged. Hence three dialectal variants: ‘first’, ferst’, ‘fyrst’. For example, the word ‘ bury ‘- here the pronunciation is Kentish, but the spelling is South-Western. OE long’y’ developed in the same way as the short ‘y’.

Conclusion: The ME sound system differs from the OE system: 1) OE dipthongs or ‘ea’ and ‘eo’ type disappeared 2) diphthongs of the ‘ei’ ‘ ai’ type arose 3) vowel quantity became dependent on phonetic environment 4) the affricates [ch], [dg] arose. From the phonemic point of view the following points should me stated: 1) vowel quantity lost its phonemic significance, that is two vowel phonemes can no longer be distinguished by quantity”:length versus shortness. Thus the number of vowel phonemes was reduced. 2) on the other hand, the appearance of new diphthongs [ai], [ei] [ au], [ou] marks the rise of four new vowel phonemes. In this way the reduction in the number of vowel phonemes due to changes in quantity is partly counteracted. 3) the number of consonant phonemes increased; the sounds [f, v] which had been allophones of one phoneme, became separate phonemes, no longer dependent on their environment, the same is true with [s,z].

MnE:

Vowels: 1) loss of the neutral sound of unstressed endings (in the 15^th c.2) 2) loss of vowels in intermediate syllables: chapiter = chapter, medicine 3) change of [er] into [ar] with some exceptions: ferre = far, sterre – star, but occasionally this change did not take place: certain, prefect, etc. when it didn’t change into [ar], it eventually developed into [e:], but ‘clerk, ‘Derby’.

The Great Vowel Shift: began in the 15^th century: all long vowels were narrowed and the narrowest were diphthongized:

Take [ta:ka] – [teik]; beat [be:t] [ bi:t]; meet [me:t] [mi;t]; like [li:ka] [laik]; boat [bo:t] [ bout]; tool [to:l] [ tu:l]; house [hu:s] [haus]. All those changes show one general tendency: narrowing of long vowels and diphthongization of the narrowest of them. All these changes occurred gradually, without being noticed by the speakers. Reasons (?)

Influence of [r]: when a long vowel was followed by ‘r’, new phonemes came into being: (ia], [ea], [ua]: fare [fa;r] – [fea]; tire [ti:r] [taia], [power [pu;ar] [ paua].

Some words have sounds which do not correspond to the general law of the shift.

Long [u:] remained unchanged when followed by a labial consonant: droop, room; [i:] remained unchanged in words borrowed from French: machine, police, etc.; long open [e:] did not always change into [i:], it was shortened in some words head, death, etc.

Other changes:

- short ‘a’ into ‘ae’: hat, cat; but when it was preceded by [w] it it developed into [o]: what, was, ec.

- In the 16^th c. 2 new long vowels arose [a:], [o:]

- [a:] – before: bath, father, brass, cast, ask, clasp, calm

- [o:] – before: cork, port, autumn, dawn

- long [u:] was shortened before [k]: book, cook; also in good, foot, etc.

- rise of long [e:] – fir, sir, fur, curtain, worm, word, heard, learn

- short [u] changed into [^]: cut, but, love, son, rough, enough; blood, flood; remained unchanged before labial consonants: pull, full, bull, etc.

- unstressed vowels were reduced either to [i] or [a]: begin, wishes, mountain, etc.

- development of [x]: 1) before [t] it is lost: bright [brixt] – [bri:t} – [brait], brought [brouxt] [ bro:t]2) final [x] changes into [f]: enough, cough, laugh, etc. In a few words it was lost:though, through.

- Loss of consonants: in clusters: lamb, climb, damn, hymn, castle, whistle, muscle, grandmother, landscape

- Loss of consonants in initial clusters: kn, gn, pn, wh: knight, gnat, pneumonia, psyche, etc. [h] in unstressed syllables: shepherd, forehead, Nottingham, etc.

The system of OE vowels in the 9^th and 10^th centuries is shown in the table below

Monophthongs

Short vowles

Long vowels

Front vowels

[i] fisc, scip [y] fyllan, pytt [e] sprecan, helpan

[i:] wīn, tīd [y:] brÿd, wÿscan [e:] fēt, tēθ

Back vowels

[u] sunu, cumin [o] folc, cos [a] faran, caru [a] – positional variants: [æ] glæd, hwæt [o] mann,(monn) cann (conn)

[u:] hūs, tūn [o:] fōt, bōk, 9ōd [a:] ān, wrāte

Diphthongs

[ea]healf wearm (before 1, r + cons., and before h instead of [a]	[ea:] hēah, ēare
[eo] steora, feohtan	[eo:] deop, leoht
[io] siofun (f pronounced v in intervocal pos.)	[io:] stīoran
[ie] scield, nieht	[[ie:] cīese, hīeran

OE

- Changes in the system of vowels:

- Fracture/breaking (преломление) – diphthongization of short vowels ‘a’, ‘e’ before the clusters: ‘r+ con.’, ‘l + con.’, ‘ h+ con., final ‘ h’: ærm – earm, herte – heorte, selh – seolh;

- Gradatio n /ablaut: (alternation of vowels in different grammatical forms:

E.g. in strong verbs: Infinitive (9iban), Past sing. (9af), Past Pl. (9ebum), Second Part. (9ibans);

- Palatalisation: diphthongisation of vowels under the influence of the initial palatal consonants ‘g’, ‘c’ (before front vowels) and the cluster ‘sc’ (all vowels): gefan – giefan, scacan – sceacan;

- Mutation/Umlaut (перегласовка)- a change of vowel caused by partial assimilation to the following vowel:

i-mutation – caused by ‘i’, ‘j’ of the following syllable: namnian – nemnan, fullian- fyllan;

back/velar mutation – phonetic change caused by a back vowel (u,o,a) of the following syllable, which resulted in the diphthongisation of the preceding vowel: hefon – heofon;

Contraction: if after a consonant had dropped, two vowels met inside a word, they were usually contracted into one long vowel: slahan – sleahan – sle:an;

Lengthening of Vowels: before ‘nd’, ‘ld, ‘mb’: bindan – bīndan; climban - clīmban

ME:

Vowel Changes in MdE and Early MnE.

Unstressed vowels

Levelling of unstressed vowels: all unstressed vowels were as a rule weakened and reduced to a neutral vowel, which was denoted by the letter –e. Thus, the infinitive suffix – an was reduced to – en: tellan – tellen, in a similar way: sunu – sune, sone. This weakening of unstressed vowels is closely connected with developments in declension and conjugation. From the 13^th c. onwards, some dialects showed certain vacillation in spelling unstressed vowels, which probably reflected peculiarities of pronunciation: askid, stonus.

Stressed Vowels

One of the most important sound changes of the Early MDE period of the loss of OE diphthongs and the growth of new diphthongs, with new qualitative and quantitative distinctions.

Monophthongization of OE Diphthongs: all OE diphthongs were monophthongized in ME.: eald – ald, healf-half, earm –arm (poor). But before ‘ld’ ‘ea’ yielded different results in different dialects. OE short ‘eo’ changed first into the vowel ‘ö’ spelt ‘eo’. In other dialects it changed into ‘e’ heorte – hörte-herte. (heart). OE long eo: changed into long closed e:, often spelt ‘ee’: deo:p – de:p, deep.

New diphthongs: with i-glides and u-glides {ei, ai, au, ou).: OE dæ9 developed into day[dai]

Quantitative vole changes

Shortening and Lengthening of Vowels: a long vowel before two consonants is shortened: OE – ce:pan (infinitive), ME ke:pen, but Past tense – kepte; but it remains long in other environments. But long vowels remain long before ‘ the lengthening’ consonant groups: ld, nd, mb: we:nen (think), but we:nde (past simple). Long consonants also remain long before – st: lae:sta (least) – le:st. In the 13^th c. short vowels were lengthened in open syllables. Lengthening affected the short vowels a, e, o.: talu (tale)- ta:le, macian – ma:ken, etc. The narrow vowels i and u remained as a rule unaffected by this change, and thus the difference between short i and long and also between short u and long retained its quality as a phonemically relevant feature.

Changes of individual vowels:

Short and long ‘a’: OE short ‘a’ usually remained unchanged in ME. OE a/o before a nasal developed differently in different dialects. In West Midland ‘o’ was preserved: mon, con; in other dialects (Northern, East Midland and Southern) there is ‘a’ man, can. OE long ‘a’ also developed in different ways in different dialects. In N. it remained unchanged, while in Midland and Southern it changed into long ‘o’: fa:- fo: (foe); ha:m - - ho:m, etc.

Short ‘ae’ and long ‘ae’. OE short ‘ae’ in most dialects developed into short ‘a’: glaed – glad, aeppel – appel. But in the West Midland and Kentish it developed into ‘e’: gled, eppal. OE West Saxon long ‘ae’ changed into long open ‘e:’: slae:pan – sle:pen (sleep); in other dialects this ‘ae:’ had changed into closed ‘e:’. This closed ‘e:’ is preserved in ME.

Short Y and long Y: OE short ‘y’ developed differently in different dialects. In N. And E..Midland it changed into short ‘i’. In Kentish it became ‘e’ in the remaining dialects it was unchanged. Hence three dialectal variants: ‘first’, ferst’, ‘fyrst’. For example, the word ‘ bury ‘- here the pronunciation is Kentish, but the spelling is South-Western. OE long’y’ developed in the same way as the short ‘y’.

Conclusion: The ME sound system differs from the OE system: 1) OE diphthongs or ‘ea’ and ‘eo’ type disappeared 2) diphthongs of the ‘ei’ ‘ ai’ type arose 3) vowel quantity became dependent on phonetic environment 4) the affricates [ch], [dg] arose. From the phonemic point of view the following points should me stated: 1) vowel quantity lost its phonemic significance, that is two vowel phonemes can no longer be distinguished by quantity”:length versus shortness. Thus the number of vowel phonemes was reduced. 2) on the other hand, the appearance of new diphthongs [ai], [ei] [ au], [ou] marks the rise of four new vowel phonemes. In this way the reduction in the number of vowel phonemes due to changes in quantity is partly counteracted. 3) the number of consonant phonemes increased; the sounds [f, v] which had been allophones of one phoneme, became separate phonemes, no longer dependent on their environment, the same is true with [s,z].

MnE:

Vowels: 1) loss of the neutral sound of unstressed endings (in the 15^th c.2) 2) loss of vowels in intermediate syllables: chapiter = chapter, medicine 3) change of [er] into [ar] with some exceptions: ferre = far, sterre – star, but occasionally this change did not take place: certain, prefect, etc. when it didn’t change into [ar], it eventually developed into [e:], but ‘clerk, ‘Derby’.

The Great Vowel Shift: began in the 15^th century: all long vowels were narrowed and the narrowest were diphthongized:

Take [ta:ka] – [teik]; beat [be:t] [ bi:t]; meet [me:t] [mi;t]; like [li:ka] [laik]; boat [bo:t] [ bout]; tool [to:l] [ tu:l]; house [hu:s] [haus]. All those changes show one general tendency: narrowing of long vowels and diphthongization of the narrowest of them. All these changes occurred gradually, without being noticed by the speakers. Reasons (?)

Vocalisation of [r]]: when a long vowel was followed by ‘r’, new phonemes came into being: (ia], [ea], [ua]: fare [fa;r] – [fea]; tire [ti:r] [taia], [power [pu;ar] [ paua].

Some words have sounds which do not correspond to the general law of the shift.

Long [u:] remained unchanged when followed by a labial consonant: droop, room; [i:] remained unchanged in words borrowed from French: machine, police, etc.; long open [e:] did not always change into [i:], it was shortened in some words head, death, etc.

Other changes:

- short ‘a’ into ‘ae’: hat, cat; but when it was preceded by [w] it it developed into [o]: what, was, ec.

- In the 16^th c. 2 new long vowels arose [a:], [o:]

- [a:] – before: bath, father, brass, cast, ask, clasp, calm

- [o:] – before: cork, port, autumn, dawn

- long [u:] was shortened before [k]: book, cook; also in good, foot, etc.

- rise of long [e:] – fir, sir, fur, curtain, worm, word, heard, learn

- short [u] changed into [^]: cut, but, love, son, rough, enough; blood, flood; remained unchanged before labial consonants: pull, full, bull, etc.

- unstressed vowels were reduced either to [i] or [a]: begin, wishes, mountain, etc.

- development of [x]: 1) before [t] it is lost: bright [brixt] – [bri:t} – [brait], brought [brouxt] [ bro:t]2) final [x] changes into [f]: enough, cough, laugh, etc. In a few words it was lost:though, through.

- Loss of consonants: in clusters: lamb, climb, damn, hymn, castle, whistle, muscle, grandmother, landscape

- Loss of consonants in initial clusters: kn, gn, pn, wh: knight, gnat, pneumonia, psyche, etc. [h] in unstressed syllables: shepherd, forehead, Nottingham, etc.

Lecture 5

Evolution of Consonants in Middle English and Early New English

English Consonants were on the whole far more stable than vowels. A large number of consonants have probably remained unchanged through all historical periods. Thus we can assume that the sonorants [m, n, l], the plosives [p, b, t, d] and also [k, g] in most positions have not been subjected to any noticeable changes. They are found in many words descending from OE though their correlations in the system of phonemes have altered to a varying degree.

The most important developments in the history of English consonants were the growth of new sets of sounds, - affricates and sibilants, and the new phonological treatment of fricatives.

Both changes added a number of consonant phonemes to the system. On the other hand, some consonants were lost of vocalized, which affected both the consonant and vowel system. Like vowel changes, consonant changes can shown as occurring in the transition period from Written OE to the language of the 18^th century, that is in the Early MnE period.

1. Growth of Sibilants and Affricates.

In OE there were no affricates and no sibilants, except [s, z]. The earliest distinct sets of these sounds appeared towards the end of OE or during the Early MdE period. The new type of consonants developed from OE palatal plosives [k’, g’] (which had split from the corresponding velar plosives [k] and [g] in Early OE, and also from the consonant cluster [sk’]. The three new phonemes which arose from these sources were [tʒ], [dʒ] and [ʒ]. In Early MdE they became to be indicated by special letters and digraphs, which came into use mainly under the influence of the French scribal tradition – ch, tch, g, dg, sh, ssh, sch. See the table below.

Change illustrated	Examples
OE MdE	OE	MDE	MNE
[k’] [tS]   [g’] [dʒ ]     [sk’] [S]	cild tæ:can ec9e bryc9e   fisc scēap	child techen edge bridge   fish sheep	child teach edge bridge   fish sheep

It must be added that the affricates [tS] and [dZ] could also come from a different source: they entered the English language in loan-words from French, eg. MdE charme, gentil. As a result of these changes and as a result of the vocalization of [γ] the consonant system in Late MdE was in some respects different from the OE system. The opposition of velar consonants to palatal [k k’, γ j] – had disappeared; instead, plosive consonants were contrasted to the new affricates and in the set of affricates [tS] was opposed to [dZ] through sonority.

Another development accounting for the appearance of sibilants and affricates in the English language is dated in Early MnE and is connected with the phonetic assimilation of lexical borrowings.

In the numerous loan-words of Romace origin adopted in MdE and Early MnE the stress fell on the ultimate or penultimate syllable: na’cion, plea’saunce. In accordance with the phonetic tendencies the stress was moved closer to the beginning of the word. The final syllables which thus became unstressed, or weakly stressed, underwent phonetic alterations: the vowels were reduced and sometimes dropped; the sounds making up the syllable became less distinct. As a result, some sequences of consonants fused into single consonants.

In Early MnE the clusters [sj, zj, tj, dj] – through reciprocal assimilation in unstressed position – regularly changed into [S], [Z] [tS] and [dZ]. Three of these sounds merged with the phonemes already existing in the language, while the fourth[Z] made a new phoneme. Now the four sounds formed a wells-balanced system of two correlated pairs. Examples are given in the table below.

Change illustrated	Examples
Late MdE	MnE	Late MdE	MNE
sj   zj   tj   dj	[S]   [Z]   [tS]   [dZ]	condicioun commissioun pleasure visioun nature culture souldier procedure	condition commission pleasure vision nature culture soldier procedure

Compare these words to MnE suit, mature, duty, where the same consonant clusters were preserved in stressed syllables. In some modern English words we still find variants of pronunciation: issue [iSju:} where [j] is preserved and US variant [`issju:]; schedule (2 variants), etc. These variants may be due to Early MnE dialectal differences or else to the fact that the assimilation has not been sompleted and is till going on in MnE.

2. Treatment of Fricative Consonants in Middle English and Early New English

As we all remember, in OE the pairs of fricative sounds (voiced and unvoiced) were treated as positional variants or allophones; sonority depended upon phonetic conditions. In MdE and Early MnE they became independent phonemes.

Phonologisation of voiced and unvoiced fricatives was a slow process which lasted several hundred years. The first pair of consonants to become phonemes were [f] and [v]. In Late MdE texts they occurred in identical phonetic environment and could be used for differentiation between words, which means that they had turned into phonemes. Compare (MnE vein, feign). The two other pairs [θ -ð] and [s-z] so far functioned as allophones.

A new alternation took place in the 16^th century. The fricatives were once again subjected to voicing under certain phonetic conditions. They were pronounced as voiced if they were preceded by an unstressed vowel and followed by a stressed vowel: po`ssess (the first voiceless [s] which stood before an unstressed and stressed vowel became voiced, while the second [s], which was preceded by an accented vowel, remained voiceless. In the same was MdE fishes, doores, takes acquired a voiced [z] in the ending. This phenomenon can also account for the voicing of many form-words: articles, pronouns, auxiliaries, prepositions; they receive no stress in speech but may be surrounded by notional words which are logically stressed. On the other hand, the intitial fricative in notional words remains voiceless: thin, thorn, etc.).

Sometimes a similar voicing occurred in consonant clusters containg sibilants, fricatives and affricates: his [his=hiz;] pen`sif – pensive, anxiety`tie –anxiety; Greenwich, etc.

On the whole the Early MnE voicing of fricatives was rather inconsistent and irregular. Though it was a positional change occurring in certain phonetic conditions, these conditions were often contradictory. The voicing had many exceptions: assemble and resemble, though s fins itself in identical positions. Therefore after these changes voiced and voiceless fricatives could appear in similar phonetic conditions and could be used for phonological purposes to distinguish between morphemes: ice [s] and eyes [z].

3. Loss of Consonants

As stated above, the system of consonants underwent important changes in MdE and Early MnE. It acquired new phonemes and new phonemic distinctions, namely a distinction between plosives, sibilants and affricates, a phonemic distinction through sonority in the sets of fricatives, sibilants and affricates. On the other hand, some changes led to the reduction of the consonant system and also to certain restrictions in the use of consonants.

As was mentioned in three description of vowel changes, particularly the growth of new diphthongs and long monophthongs, a number of consonants disappeared; they were vocalized and gave rise to diphthongal glides or made the preceding short vowel long. The vocalization of [γ] and [x] in Late MnE eliminated the back lingual fricative consonants.

With the disappearance of [x’] the system lost one more opposition- through palatalisation, as ‘hard’ and ‘soft’. (The soft k’ and g’ turned into affricates some time earlier).

Another important event was the loss of quantative distinctions in the consonant system.

It should be recalled that in OE long consonants were opposed to short at the phonological level. This is confirmed by their occurrence in identical positions, their phonological application and the consistent writing of double letters (geminated consonants) especially in intervocal positions (sticca (stick) versus stica (stitch). In Late MnE long consonants were shortened and the phonemic opposition through quantity was lost.

The loss of long consonants was attributed to a variety of reasons. Long consonants disappeared firstly because their functional load was very low (the opposition was neutralized everywhere except intervocally), and secondly, because length was becoming a prosodic feature, that is a property of the syllable rather than of the sound. In MnE the length of the syllable was regulated by the lengthening and shortening of vowels; therefore the quantative differences of the consonants became irrelevant.

In addition to these changes, which directly affected the system of phonemes, some consonants underwent positional changes which restricted their use in the language. The consonants [j] and [r] were vocalized under certain phonetic conditions – finally and before consonants – during the MdE and Early MnE periods, thought they continued to be used in other environments, e.g. initially: rechen –reach, yeer- year; some consonants were lost in consonant clusters, which became simpler and easier to pronounce: [h] survived before vowels but was lost before sonorants: he:, but hlystan – listen, (further simplification: t dropped before s and n.

In Early MnE the aspirate [h] wa lost initially before vowels, thought not in all the words: honour, hit=it, but hope.

In Early MnE the initial consonant sequences kn and gn were simplified to n as in knowen, gnat. Simplification of final clusters produced words like dumb, clim, in which mb lost the final b.

Evolution of Consonants in Middle English and Early New English

Consonants: more stable than vowels

- labial: p, b, m, f, v

-dental: t,d,þ, x, n, s, r,l

-velar: c,ʒ, h

- x=cs

ʒ= velar stop before cons. and back vowels [g]: ʒleo, ʒÇd, sinʒan

= after back vowels and ‘l’, ‘r’ [ ]: daʒas, folʒian

= initially before front vowels and after back vowels [j]: palatal voiced fricative: ʒēar

- instead of double ʒ - cʒ: secʒan, bryc

1. Growth of Sibilants and Affricates.

A

Change illustrated	Examples
OE MdE	OE	MDE	MNE
[k’] [tS]   [g’] [dʒ]     [sk’] [S]	cild tæ:can ecʒe brycʒe   fisc scēap	child techen edge bridge   fish sheep	child teach edge bridge   fish sheep

B

Change illustrated	Examples
Late MdE	MnE	Late MdE	MNE
sj   zj   tj   dj	[S]   [ʒ]   [tS]   [dʒ]	condicioun commissioun pleasure visioun nature culture souldier procedure	condition commission pleasure vision nature culture soldier procedure

2. Treatment of Fricative Consonants in Middle English and Early New English

1. Phonologisation of voiced and unvoiced fricatives:

[f] and [v].: vein, feign

[ θ -ð] and [s-z] functioned as allophones

16^th c. voicing: po`ssess (the first voiceless [s] which stood before an unstressed and stressed vowel became voiced, while the second [s], which was preceded by an accented vowel, remained voiceless. Fishes, doores, takes.

v oicing form-words: articles, pronouns, auxiliaries, prepositions

initial fricative in notional words remains voiceless: thin, thorn, etc.).

similar voicing occurred in consonant clusters containg sibilants, fricatives and affricates: his [his=hiz;]

pen`sif – pensive, anxiety`tie –anxiety; Greenwich, etc.

? assemble and resemble? - to distinguish between morphemes: ice [s] and eyes [z].

3. Loss of Consonants

vocalization of [γ] and [x] in Late MnE eliminated the back lingual fricative consonants.

loss of quantative distinctions in the consonant system: geminated consonants intervocal positions: sticca

(stick) versus stica (stitch)

consonants [j] and [r] were vocalized under certain phonetic conditions - finally and before consonants:

rechen –reach, yeer- year

[h] survived before vowels but was lost before sonorants: honour, hit=it, but hope.

kn and gn were simplified to n as in knowen, gnat.

Simplification of final clusters:dumb, climb, in which mb lost the final b.

Historical Grammar

Morphology

Lecture 6

I. General Characteristics of OE morphology.

As compared with modern English OE can be characterised as a synthetic or inflected type of language which means that the relationships between the parts of the sentence were expressed by means of different formal elements, that is affixes. In building grammatical forms OE employed grammatical endings, sound interchanges in the root, grammatical prefixes, and suppletive formations.

Grammatical endings, or inflections, were certainly the principal form-building means used: they were found in all parts of speech that could change their form; they were usually used alone but could be used in combination with other means.

Sound interchanges were employed on a more limited scale and were often combined with other form-building means, especially endings. Vowel interchanges were more common than interchanges of consonants.

The use of prefixes in grammatical forms was rare and was confined to verbs. Suppletive forms were restricted to several pronouns, a few adjectives, and a couple of verbs.

The parts of speech to be distinguished in OE are as follows: the noun, the adjective, the pronoun, the numeral (all referred to as nominal parts of speech or nomina); the verb, the adverb, the preposition, the conjunction and the interjection. Inflected parts of speech possessed several grammatical categories displayed in formal and semantic correlations and oppositions of grammatical forms. Grammatical categories are usually subdivided into nominal categories, found in nominal parts of speech and verbal categories found chiefly in the finite verb.

It can be assumed that there were five nominal grammatical categories in OE: number, case, gender, degrees of comparison, and the category of definiteness/indefiniteness. Each nominal parts of speech had its own number of categories, for example, the noun had 2, the adjective five, etc.

Verbal grammatical categories were not numerous: tense and mood – verbal categories proper – and number and person, showing agreement between the verb-predicate and the subject of the sentence.

2. The Noun and Its Grammatical Categories.

An OE word, whether noun, adjective or verb, consisted of 3 basic elements:

- the root of the word

- the stem comprising the root plus a stem-building suffix

- the inflexion or ending which is an indication of case, number, gender and tense.

S tem of the word

Root	Stem-building suffix	Case or other ending
Врем-	-ен	-и

Доч-

-ер

-и

For example, the root expresses the lexical meaning, the case inflexion expresses the relation between the thing denoted by the noun and other things said the category of number. The meaning of the stem-building suffix is more difficult to define. Perhaps, originally, stem-building suffixes were a means of classifying objects, things and phenomena into groups according to some characteristics either internal or external. For example, the stem-forming suffix - (e)r in I-E languages denoted relationship: fadar, broþar, swistar, etc. Or in Russian nouns derived by means of the stem-building suffix- ят, have one common feature: they denote a little creature, a cub: телята, жеребята, утята, etc. But with time (during the OE period), this distinction was already lost and stem-building affixes gradually merged with case endings, thus eliminating the distinction between stem-building suffixes and case endings. But in some cases, 'the stem-building suffixes can be seen. For example, in the Dat. plural of some types of substantives:

Dat. plural root Stem- building affix Case ending

Dagam (to days) Dag- a- -m

Gibom (to gifts) Gib- o- -m

Gastim (to guests) Gast- i- -m

Sunum (to sons) Sun- u- -m

The Substantive

The OE substantive (noun) had 2 grammatical categories, the category of number and the category of case. Besides, nouns distinguished 3 genders: masculine, feminine and neuter which accounted for the division of nouns into morphological classes. The category of number consisted of two members, singular and plural. There were four cases: Nominative, Genitive, Dative and Accusative which performed different functions. Nominative was the case of the active agent, genitive – the case of nouns and pronouns used attributively with other nouns, Dative was the chief case used with prepositions, and Accusative indicated a relationship to a verb.

The most remarkable feature of OE nouns was their system of declension (up to 25 types). All in all there were only ten distinct endings and a few relevant root vowel interchanges used in noun paradigms.

In OE there were 4 types of substantive stems:

1) vocalic stems(a-, o-, i-, u—stems) which represented strong

declension

2) n-stems which belonged to the weak declension

3) s- and –r stems

4) root-stems

See the table below.

Declension of nouns

Strong declension (Vocalic stems)

a-stems
singular
M	Short-stemmed N	Long-stemmed N	Ja-stems M	Wa-stems N
Nom. fisc Gen. fisces Dat. Fisce Acc. fisc	scip scipes scipe scip	dëor dëores dëore dëor	ende endes ende ende	Cnëo(w) Cnëowes Cnëowe Cnëo(w)
Plural
No. fisces Gen. fisca Dat. fiscum Acc. fiscas	scupu scipa scipum scipu	dëor dëora dëorum dëor	Endas Enda Endum endas	Cnëo(w) Cnëowa Cnëowum Cnëo(w)

Singular
Ö-stems short-stemmed long-stemmed F	i-stems short-stemmed M	u-stems short-stemmed long stemmed M
Nom. talu wund Gen. tale wunde Gat. tale wunde Acc. tale wunde	mete metes mete mete	sunu feld suna felda suna felda sunu felda
Plural
Nom. tala wunda,-e Gen. tala(-ena) wunda(-ena) Dat. talum wundum Acc. tala,-e wunda,-e	mete,-as meta metum mete, -as	suna felda suna felda sunum feldum suna felda

Consonantal stems

Singular
n-stems (weak declension) M N F	Root-stems M F
Nom. nama ëare tunʒe Gen. naman ëaran tunʒan Dat. naman ëaran tunʒan Acc. naman ëaran tunʒan	föt müs fötes mÿs, müse fët mÿs föt müs
Plural
Nom. nama ëare tunʒe Gen. namena ëaran tunʒan Dat. namum ëaran tunʒan Acc. naman ëaran tunʒan	fët mÿs föta müs fötum müsum fët mÿs

The reduction of declension which began in OE continued in the ME period more intensively and affected the morphological system of the noun though not equally in different dialects. Most quickly it developed in the Northern dialect, followed by the Midland dialect, while in Southern dialects this process developed at a much lower rate. The effects of the reduction were as follows: the difference of grammatical gender was lost in Northern and Midland dialects, though gender distinctions remained to a certain extent in force in Southern dialects.

The distinction of strong and weak declension was also lost, only 2 endings proved stable – es of the genitive singular masculine and neuter a- stems, and the ending – as of the Nom., and Acc. Plural masculine a-stems. The Gen. plural also took the ending – es and it spread to all substantives.

Nom. nāme nāmas

Gen. nāmes nāmes

Dat. nāme nāmes

Acc. nāme nāmas

Only a few substantives which had mutation in the Nom and Acc. plural: men, fēt, gēs, and a few which had an unchanged form in the Nom. and Acc. plural, such as shēp, dēr, were not affected by the reduction.

While in OE the category of number is interwoven with the category of case, in MdE the expression of number is separated from that of case.

The process of eliminating survival plural forms went on in the 15^th and 16^th centuries. In some nouns the alteration of the voiceless and voiced fricative was eliminated, but in some was preserved: death- deaths, but wife – wives; with a few words two variants are possible: scarf-scarfs/scarves, etc.

A few substantives preserved their plural forms due to the weak declension or mutation: ox-oxen, child- children, brother-brothers/ brethren. Another type of plural was preserved in such words as sheep, trout, fish, etc.

The two-case system was preserved in MdE. The sphere of the Genitive Case was restricted to nouns denoting living beings and also some time notions: year, month, week, day. With words denoting inanimate objects or abstract ideas the Genitive was normally replaced by the phrase of plus substantive. In the Genitive singular the apostrophe was first used in 1680 and meant to denote the omission of the letter – e. In the Genitive plural it was used about 1780 already as a conventional sign.

I. The Adjective

OE adjective had 3 categories: the category of number, gender and case. Like nouns, they could be declined according to the weak(n- stem) and strong declension (vocalic stem). Weak declension forms were used when the adjective was preceded by a demonstrative pronoun or the definite article; they are associated with the meaning of definiteness. In all other contexts forms of the strong declension are used. But strong declension of adjectives does not completely coincide with strong declension of nouns: forms of several cases correspond to declension of pronouns, so that strong declension of adjectives as a whole is a combination of substantival and pronominal forms.

Like adjectives in other languages, most OE adjectives distinguished between three degrees of comparison: positive, comparative and superlative. For the comparative degree the suffix – ra (in Gothic –z), for the superlative –est/ost. Sometimes suffixation was accompanied by an interchange of the root vowel. E.g. soft – softra –softost; 9læd- 9lædra – 9lædost. Some adjectives had suppletive forms:9ōd, bettra-be(e)st. The comparatives are declined as strong adjectives, the superlatives mostly follow weak declension.

ME Adjective:

The disappearance of grammatical gender in nouns and the reduction of case endings led to a considerable change in adjective declension, too. The only case ending in adjectives came to be – e, and the OE adjectival paradigm was reduced to the following: strong declension – gōd, weak declension – gōde; plural – gōde, gōde. In Northern dialects declension was completely lost, and the adjectives became invariable. In other dialects – e became invariable: newe, trewe. Degrees of comparison were formed by means of the suffixes – (e)r, -est: grēt-grētter-grēttest, glad-gladder-gladdest. Several adjectives kept a mutated vowel in the comparative and superlative: o ld – e lder – e ldest; l o ng- l e nger – l e ngest; several adjectives preserved suppletive forms of comparison: gōd –bettre – best; litel- lasse –lest. In Chaucer’s works we can find such new formations of degrees of comparison as ‘ more profitable, and ‘ more faithful which are considered analytical degrees of comparison.

MnE: In Modern English the ending – e, which signaled the plural and the weak declension, was dropped. Thus MnE adjectives no longer agreed with their substantives in number. Other changes:

1) suffixes of degrees are used for monosyllabic and some disyllabic adjectives, while the phrases like ‘ more profitable’ were used for the other disyllabic and polysyllabic adjectives. 2) in the 15^th and 16^th centuries mutation in the comparative and superlative of some adjectives was eliminated: long – longer- longest. The only remnant of mutation is seen in elder-eldest, which have been specialized in meaning (but today is a strong tendency, perhaps influenced by US English, to use the common forms to denote family relations). A few adjectives came down to us with suppletive degrees of comparison. As for the analytical forms like ‘ more profitable’ Ilyish thinks that they are not, because in Shakespeare’s works we come across the use of more + comparative in – er: more better, more braver. So they are simply word combinations, perhaps used for emphasis.

OE