A History of English Phonology

Charles Jones

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LONGMAN LONDON AND NEW YORK Contents

Preface ix Acknowledgements xi

1 Aims, methods and model i 1.1 Aims i 1.2 Method 4 1.3 Model 5

2 The Early English period: the beginnings to the thirteenth century 9 2.1 The nature of the data 9 2.2 Vowel lengthening processes in Old English 15 2.2.1 Compensatory lengthening 18 2.2.2 Lengthenings in more general fricative contexts • 19 2.2.3 Stressed vowel lengthening in nasal sonorant contexts 21 2.2.4 Lengthening in nasal and non-nasal sonorant contexts: Late Old English hontorganic lengthening 24 2.2.5 The reconstruction of vowel length 26 2.2.6 The date of the homorganic lengthening process 29 2.3 Diphthongization processes in Old English 33 2.3.1 Old English Breaking 38 2.3.2 Breaking of long stressed vowels 45 2.3.3 Causes of this diphthongization in pre-[x], [r], [1] contexts 47 2.3.4 Did this diphthongization ever really happen? 49 VI CONTENTS

2.3.5 Exceptions to the Breaking process 51 2.3.6 Breaking in other fricative contexts 54 2.4 Monophthongization processes: Late Old English developments to Breaking-produced diphthongs 58 2.4.1 The instability of contextually derived alternations 61 2.4.2 Monophthongization and raising as a unified process 62 2.4.3 Middle English monophthongization processes 64 2.4.4 The Middle English development of the Old English [eo] diphthong 66 2.4.5 Special Kentish developments: syllabicity shifting - 68 2.5 Vowel harmony processes in Old English 73 2.5.1 Backness/labial harmony two: Old English Back Mutation or Back Umlaut 78 2.5.2 Palatal/frontness vowel harmony: Old English i-umlaut 81 2.5.3 The nature of palatal vowel harmony in Old English 87

3 The Middle English period: the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries 94 3.1 The nature of the data 94 3.2 Vowel lengthening processes in Middle English 98 3.2.1 Open syllable lengthening in other languages 113 3.2.2 Lengthening and lowering as a unified process 113 3.2.3 Some further thoughts on open syllable lengthening 115 3.2.4 'Exceptions' to open syllable lengthening 117 3.2.5 Middle English open syllable lengthening as a vowel harmony process 119 3.2.6 Middle English open syllable lengthening and homorganic clusters 120 3.3 Vowel length and vowel raising: the Middle English vowel shift 127 3.3.1 The first English vowel shift 137 3.3.2 The Middle English vowel shift 139 3.3.3 The irregular application of palatalization/labialization 140 3.4 Diphthongization processes in Middle English: Middle English Breaking 141 CONTENTS Vll

3.4.1 Middle English Breaking in voiceless velar fricative environments: diphthongization of back mid vowels 144 3.4.2 Middle English Breaking in voiced fricative contexts: Middle English [j] Breaking 149 3.4.3 Diphthongization by [w] vocalization 157 3.4.4 Middle English Breaking in the sonorant consonant [r] and [1] environment 159 3.4.5 Middle English Breaking in other sonorant and fricative environments 160 3.4.6 Other Breaking stratagems: bi-continuant cluster busting 166 3.5 Syllable shapes and their phonetic consequences 171 3.5.1 Syllable contact points 182 3.5.2 Stratagems for achieving ambisyllabicity 187 3.5.3 'Shuffling' the linear sequence of segments in syllables: metathesis 190

4 The sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries 196 4.1 The nature of the data 196 4.2 Vowel length and vowel shifting: the English vowel shift 202 4.2.1 Possible motivations for such 'large scale' processes 221 4.2.2 Vowel shifts as independent phonetic events 23b 4.3 Vowel diphthongizations and lengthenings: Breaking contexts and vocalizations 236 4.3.1 More Breaking stratagems: bi-continuant cluster busting again 248 4.4 Monophthongization processes 253 4.4.1 [au] and [ai] diphthongs in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries 255 4.4.2 Middle English [au] diphthong developments 257 4.4.3 Other [au] developments 260 4.4.4 Middle English [aei] diphthong developments 262 4.5 Syllable shapes and their phonetic consequences 264 4.5.1 [h] 'dropping' and insertion 265 4.5.2 Nasals at syllable interface 274

5 The eighteenth century to the present day 279 5.1 The nature of the data 279 5.2 Vowel length and vowel shifting: the English vowel shift 281 VI11 CONTENTS

5.2.1 Vowel shifts and mergers 287 5.2.2 Merger avoiding stratagems 288 5.3 Diphthongization processes: vowel shifts and diphthongization 292 5.3.1 Long [ee] mid vowel alternants: a case study of a modern dialect 293 5.3.2 Vocalization and Breaking 296 5-3-3 M effacement and vocalization 298 5.4 Syllable shapes and their phonetic consequences: [r] at syllable interface 301 5.5 Monophthongization processes: monophthongization and merger 302 Bibliography 305

Index 316