Monophthongs in the history of English

OE vowel system was symmetrical, it means that each short vowel had its long variant.

In ME the symmetry between long and short vowels ceased to exist. There were very numerous changes.

Reduction– weakening or complete less of the vowel in the unstressed position. Unstressed vowels in the ending started to lose their full quality, mostly they were represented by the neutral sound [ə]. E.g. nama (OE) – name (ME) [namə]; sunu (OE) – sune [ə] (ME);

The second stage of reduction leads to loss of he unstressed sound (table [x]), which in many words isn’t preserved in writing. Reduction had great impact on the grammatical structure of the lan-ge since endings & suffixes which carried certain gram. meaning, were reduced. They no longer showed the difference between gram. forms, that’s why there is no gender in English and the case system is very simple.

Quantitative changes in ME & NE:

2. lengthening

a) before 2 homorganic consonant clusters [mb, nd, ld]. E.g.: kild (OE) – chīld (ME)

b) in the open syllable

3. SHORTENING – before other consonant cluster. E.g.: cēpan (OE) – kepte (ME)

4. VOCALIZATION OF R in NE

In OE [r] was rolled. In ME practically in all positions it acquires the quality of the sonorant. Consequences:

1) new diphthongs appeared: [εə], [iə], [uə];

2) the vowels before [r] were lengthened (e.g. arm [a:m], for [fo:], etc.);

3) triphthongs appeared: [aiə], [auə] (e.g. shower [‘∫auə], shire [‘∫aiə]);

4) a new vowel appears in the phonetic system [з:]

Qualitative changes in ME & NE:

NARROWING – long vowels ā → ō

Stān (OE) – sto:ne (ME)

ǽ → e:

slǽpan (OE) – sle:pen (ME)

Short æ is pronounced in ME a Þæt → that

Delabialization of y changes into i

The Great Vowel Shift

The change that happened in the 14^th and ended 16^th c. and affected all long monophthongs.

The first stage – narrowing of vowels

The second stage – diphthongization

ai ei i: u: ou au

e: ō: ou

ei ε: o:

a:

All OE diphthongs were monophthongized in ME. The rise of the new diphthongs was connected with the process of vocalization of 2 OE consonant sounds:

j – i glide wey [wei]; may [mai]

γ – u glide lawe [lauə]; bowe [bouə]