Loss of Some Consonants

In NE some consonants were vocalised or gave birth to diphthongs and triphthongs.

· [r] was vocalised at the end of the word in the 16^th -17^th c. (see Lecture 11);

· [j] disappeared as a result of palatalisation (see palatalisation in Lecture 12); [j] remained only initially (e.g. year, yard, etc.);

· [х, х’] were lost (e.g. ME taughte [‘tau х tə] – NE taught [to:t], ME night [ni х’ t] – NE night [neit]

· [kn] à [n] (e.g. ME know [knou] – NE know [nou]);

· [gn] à [n] (e.g. ME gnat [gnat] – NE gnat [næt]);

H/w: 1. Ex. 10-14, 17 on p. 219 in “История английского языка” by Т.А. Расторгуева (copies).

Lecture 13

Historical Background of Modern English Spelling

OE Spelling

· based on phonetic principle;

· employed Latin characters;

· one letter = one sound;

Exceptions: ζ, f, s, ð (1 letter = 2 or more sounds).

ME Spelling

· based on conventional principle;

· more ambiguous and less stable (printing was not introduced yet and the manuscripts contained numerous variants of spelling – practically each scribe had its own way to spell the words);

· digraphs (2 letters = 1 sound) appear + 1 letter = several sounds, several letters/combinations of letters = 1 sound (these were the deviations from phonetic principle):

1 letter = several sounds	several letters/combinations of letters = 1 sound
letter	sounds	letters	sound
o	[o], [u], [o:], [ǿ]	g, dg, j	[dζ]
c	[s], [k]	k, c, q	[k]
g	[g], [dζ]
u	[u], [v]