Diplomsko Delo

UNIVERZA V MARIBORU FILOZOFSKA FAKULTETA Oddelek za anglistiko in amerikanistiko

DIPLOMSKO DELO

Natalija Marzel

Maribor, 2008

UNIVERZA V MARIBORU FILOZOFSKA FAKULTETA Oddelek za anglistiko in amerikanistiko

Diplomsko delo

LINGUISTIC CHANGE IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE Vowels and consonants

Mentorica: Kandidatka: Redni profesor, dr., Dunja Jutronić Natalija Marzel

Maribor, 2008

ZAHVALA

Zahvaljujem se svoji mentorici dr. Dunji Jutronić za njeno strokovno pomoč, veliko mero osebne angažiranosti ter prijaznosti v procesu nastajanja diplomskega dela.

U N I V E R Z A V M A R I B O R U

F I L O Z O F S K A F A K U L T E T A Koroška cesta 160 2000 Maribor

I Z J A V A

Podpisania Marzel Natalija, rojena 4. 3. 1982 v Celju, študentka Filozofske fakultete Univerze v Mariboru, smer Angleški jezik s književnostjo in pedagogika, izjavljam, da je diplomsko delo z naslovom LINGUISTIC CHANGE IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE (Vowels and consonants), pri mentorici Dunji Jutronić, avtorsko delo.

V diplomskem delu so uporabljeni viri in literatura korektno navedeni; teksti niso prepisani brez navedbe avtorjev.

______

(podpis študentake)

Maribor, september 2008

Abstract

A language is a set of rules and principles, it is a means of communication with others. With it people share information, express their attitudes, opinions and emotions. It has two forms, the written and spoken form or speech. Not only people but also other living beings (like animals and also plants) have their own languages to communicate with others. One of the characteristics of a language is that it constantly changes. There is not a single (living) language in the world that has not been changed. These changes are called linguistic changes. They occur not only in one component of a languge but in others, too. They cannot be predicted, controlled or stopped. The English language has undergone many changes throughout the history of its development, these changes were present in all its spheres (phonology, morphology, semantics and syntax). If one compared written records from Old English and Modern English, one would not believe it is the same language because it has been changed so much. One of the characteristics of Old English was the adoption of the Latin alphabet (introduced by Irish monks) and preservation of some Germanic vowels and consonants. The period of Middle English introduced French borrowings and sounds. The period of Early Modern English was remembered by the Great Vowel Shift and establishment of a standard dialect. There were no drastic or mayor phonological changes in Modern English. However, in this period English plain style was introduced. English developed new dialects, regional as well as national – North American, Canadian, Australian English, ect. and has become a global language that many people are able to speak and understand.

Keywords: English language, linguistic change, English vowels, English consonats, periods of English language.

Povzetek

Jezik je niz pravil in načel, je sredstvo za komuniciranje z drugimi (izmenjavanje informacij, izražanje mnenj ter čustev). Jezik ima dve obliki, namreč pisno in ustno obliko oziroma govor. Ne samo ljudje, temveč tudi druga živa bitja (kot na primer živali in rastline) imajo svojevrsten jezik, s katerim komunicirajo med seboj. Ena od značilnosti jezika je, da se nenehno spreminja. Na svetu ni (živega) jezika, ki se ne bi spreminjal. Te spremembe se imenujejo lingvistične (jezikovne) spremembe. Lete se ne pojavijo le v enem, temveč v več jezikovnih področjih. Ni jih mogoče predvideti, nadzorovati ali ustaviti. Angleški jezik je bil izpostavljen mnogim spremembam skozi zgodovino lastnega razvoja. Te spremembe so bile prisotne v vseh njegovih komponentah (v glasoslovju, besedotvorju, pomenoslovju ter skladnji). Če bi primerjali zapise iz obdobja stare angleščine z zapisi moderne angleščine, ne bi verjeli, da gre za isti jezik, ker se je tako spremenil. Ena od značilnost stare angleščine je »posvojitev« latinske abecede, ki so jo uvedli irski menihi ter ohranitev nekaterih germanskih samoglasnikov in soglasnikov. Obdobje srednje angleščine je prineslo mnogo izposojenk in glasov iz francoskega jezika v angleški jezik. V obdobju zgodnje moderne angleščine se je zgodil tako imenovani »the Great Vowel Shift«, ki je spremenil angleške samoglasnike ter uvedba standardnega narečja. Obdobje moderne angleščine pa ni prineslo večjih ter pomembnejših glasoslovnih sprememb Uveden je bil preprosti stil angleškega jezika. Razvile so se mnoge različice angleščine, tako regionalne kot nacionalne (severnoameriška, kanadska, avstralska angleščina, itd.). Angleški jezik je postal globalni jezik, ki ga razumejo ter govorijo mnogi ljudje širom sveta.

Ključne besede: angleški jezik, jezikovne spremembe, angleški samoglaniki, angleški soglasniki, obdobja angleškega jezika.

INDEX 1. INTRODUCTION...... 2 2. PURPOSE ...... 4 3. HYPOTHESES ...... 4 4. METHODOLOGY...... 5 4.1 Research methods...... 5 4.2 Sources used ...... 5 5. A DEFINITION OF LANGUAGE ...... 6 5.1 The components of language...... 7 5.2 The origin of language...... 8 6. LINGUISTIC CHANGE IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE...... 10 6.1 The characteristics of linguistic change ...... 10 6.2 The characteristics of Phonological change ...... 12 6.2.1 Assimilation ...... 13 6.2.2 Dissimilation ...... 14 6.2.3 Addition of a sound ...... 14 6.2.4 Loss of a sound ...... 14 6.2.5 Metathesis ...... 15 6.2.6 Other phonological changes ...... 16 6.3 Reasons for linguistic change...... 17 6.3.1 Internal factors of lingustic change ...... 17 6.3.2 External factors of linguistic change ...... 19 6.4 Attitudes towards linguistic change ...... 21 7. VOWELS AND CONSONANTS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE...... 24 7.1 Consonants ...... 24 7.2 Types of English consonants...... 27 7.2.1 Stops ...... 27 7.2.2 Nasals ...... 28 7.2.3 Fricatives ...... 29 7.2.4 Affricates ...... 31 7.2.5 Approximants ...... 31 7.3 Vowels...... 32 7.3.1 The front vowels ...... 34 7.3.2 The central vowels ...... 34 7.3.3 The back vowels ...... 35 8. LINGUISTIC CHANGES IN ENGLISH CONSONANTS AND VOWELS FROM THE PERIODS OF OLD TO MODERN ENGLISH ...... 39 8.1 The period of Old English (a short review)...... 39

8.2 Consonants and vowels in the of Old English...... 40 8.2.1 Old English consonants ...... 41 8.2.2 Old English vowels ...... 47 8.3 The period of Middle English (a short review) ...... 51 8.3.1 Changes in consonants ...... 53 8.3.2 Changes in vowels ...... 56 8.3.2.1 Qualitative changes in Middle English vowel system ...... 57 8.3.2.2 Quantitative changes in Middle English vowel system ...... 59 8.4 Reduction of vowels in Middle English...... 61 8.5 The period of Early Modern English (a short review) ...... 62 8.5.1 The Great Vowel Shift ...... 62 8.5.1.1 Characteristics of the Great Vowel Shift ...... 63 8.5.1.2 Short vowels and diphthongs ...... 66 8.5.2 Consonant changes ...... 67 8.6 The period of Modern English ...... 69 8.6.1 The phonological differences between British and North American English ...... 70 9. CONCLUSION ...... 73 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 77 APPENDIX ...... 78 Appendix A: Speech organs...... 78

1. INTRODUCTION

“A language is considered to be a system of communicating with other people using sounds, symbols and words in expressing a meaning, idea or thought. This language can be used in many forms, primarily through oral and written communications as well as using expressions through body language (“Language definition”, gained on 8. 7. 2008, from http://www.unixl.com/ dir/education/languages/language_definition/).”

There are three notions that are connected to each other. The first is sound, then speech and the last one is language. We can say that voice is a sound produced by people, animals or other things. Nevertheles, we can not say that voice is a speech. For example, animals produce various voices which are typical for their species and also human babies make differend sounds when they babble. But this is not a speech, yet.

Only human beings are able to express their feelings, thoughts, intentions, ect. This is only possible through body language and by connecting different voices into meaningful units, namely speech. It develops very gradually and requires a lot of exercise. People often equate language with speech but these two terms do not stand for the same thing. A language is a group of rules for forming speech, while speech is a broader notion and comprises verbal behaviour. There is another difference between them; namely, speech is always produced verbally, while, language can be produced either verbally or in a written form.

Language consists of sounds (in spoken form) and signs (in written form). Both, sounds and signs do not mean anything by themselves but when they are connected with other sounds or signs, they form words which do have their own meaning.

Words are combined in more complex structures phrases and phrases are then combined in clauses and sentences.

Not only people possess the ability of communicating. A lot of animals and also plants are calpable to communicate with one another. Nevertheless, it is the human language that has got a possibility of being symbolic in its meaning, unlike non human languages. Another advantage of a human language is that it is very flexible. New words, sounds are being formed every day and the meanings of existing words change. The term “linguistic change” means the modification of all of the parts of language (phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax) over a certain period of time. Linguistic changes can appear in a generation or even less. There are many reasons of why languages change. These are economic, political, social and many other. Another very important factor of linguistic change arises from human needs which lead to inventions and these inventions need new names (for example, personal computer, internet, mobile phone, printer, scanner, cet.). It is also the fact that no two humans speak the same. Through communication with others, people pick up new language (words, phrases), internalize it and pass it on to others. In such manner humans cause a linguistic change.

Throughout the history, the English language has undergone many different changes and the fact is that it is constantly changing. These changes will be the theme of my diploma paper. More speciffically, the focus will be on changes of the English vowels and consonants throughout the periods of the English language. My diploma begins with a definition of language, its components and origin. Then, I will focus on linguistic change and its inevitability, characteristics, causes (why does such a change ocurr), various types of the linguistic change and at the end I will compare the changes in English vowels and consonants.

2. PURPOSE

My intention is to look into: the origin of English, linguistic change in English, the characteristics of linguistic change, the causes of linguistic change, attitudes towards linguistic change, changes in English vowels and consonants throughout the history of the English language.

3. HYPOTHESES

Linguistic change cannot be controlled. All components of language undergo linguistic change. Linguistic change is not good for the language itself. The written form of a language does not change so quickly as the spoken form.

4. METHODOLOGY

I wrote this diploma paper with the help of the research methods and literary sources.

4.1 Research methods

In my work I used a descriptive and comparative method, a method of classifications.

4.2 Sources used

I used primary (books and internet articles) as well as some secondary literary sources from the internet.

5. A DEFINITION OF LANGUAGE

“Human language is a system. In other words, it is highly structured and operates according to a set of principles. Every language is governed by rules for the formation of words and sentences; these rules constitute its grammar (Arnovick, Brinton, 2006).”

Every human being is able to learn and understand these rules, which are finite in number, and use them to form an infinite number of phrases and sentences. All languages are formed with the help of linguistic singns. Linguistic signs present different things. Between the former and the latter there is a symbolic connectinon. According to the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, each linguistic sign consists of two parts; the first part represents the signifier (the form of a word, the vocal component, e. g. DOG) and the second part is the signified (the mental concept in people's mind when they perceive a word, e. g. a domestic animal).

Human language is divided into two parts. One part is oral or vocal and we call it speech. Speech is produced with the help of voice and it had more important role than a written word throughout the history. This is so, because humans learn to speak at a very young age and before they know how to write. The other part of language is its written form. Written form or writing was of a less importance in the past. The reason was that many people did not have any education and, therefore, did not learn to write or read. But the situation has changed. The written form has gained its importance through time and nowadays people cannot imagine to communicate only with the means of speech.

Many teorists have been arguing whether language is “innate” or acquired from the environment. Today, they believe that langage is in fact innate, which means that humans have genetic predispositions to learn language. All children possess the ability to learn any langage they are exposed to.

Nevertheless, people cannot learn a language unlless they are exposed to it. So we can also claim that language is in some manner learned.

Language has many various purposes or functions. It is being used for the means of communication, e. g. for exchanging information, expressing feelings, thoughts, ideas, needs, ect. However, it is not the only means of communication. People also use body language and facial expressions to communicate.

5.1 The components of language

As mentioned above, language is a very complex system, it consists of many apects and levels that are interlaced, forming the language system. These levels are: phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics.

The first language component is phonology. This is a discipline that studies the sound system of a language. It deals with sounds’ functions in a particular language, different sound combinations, sound changes, their organization and use, ect. The smallest units in phonology are called phonemes (cognitive abstractions).

Morphology is a discipline that studies the word structure. It is concerned with the formation of words, organization of sounds into units that have their own meaning, cassification of words, ect. The smallest units in morphology that have linguistic meaning are called morphemes . However, morphemes are not words, that is why many of them cannot stand on their own.

Next is syntax. It studies the rules of arrangement of words into superior units like phrases, clauses and sentences. It also deals with the functional elements (verb, object, subject), word order, sentence structure (how words are set together), ect.

The last one is semantics. It is a discipline that studies the meaning of words, phrases, clauses and sentences. It is concerned with the appropriate use of words when people speak and dennotative and connotative meaning of a language.

5.2 The origin of language

In general, there is not much known about the origin of languages. Of course, there are many speculations about it. “In Europe until the eighteenth century, the dominant belief was in the divine origin of language... (Arnovick, Brinton, 2006).” Later (in the nineteenth century and onward), many new theories were introduced, for instnace: the theory called bowwow (words are imitations of natural sounds), the tata theory (words are vocal representations of different gestures) the tararaboomdeay theory (language originates from different rituals and dance) and the yoheho theory (words originate from moans and groans made during a physical effort).

These theories were not taken so seriously. One of the reasons was their strange and funny names. Also, they are founded on innacurate presumptions. Then theorists began to search the origin of language in nature (natural sounds and their resemblances, sounds represent a concrete thing) and did not see it as a complex system, full of symbollic meaning. The development of language starts on a primitive level and proceeds to more and more complex levels.

But there is no evidence to support these presumptions. The fact is, that the earliest languages (also named primitive languages) that were registered were complex and on a very high level.

6. LINGUISTIC CHANGE IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Linguistic change is a modification of the language components (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and other) in a certain time period. The change in one component of the language also affects changes in other components. All languages undergo numerous changes. These changes are constant. There is not a language in the world that did not change even a little bit throughout the history. These changes are very unpredictable. One can not tell when a certain change will occur. There are linguists who claim that linguistic change is an innovation and it always happens in the present time. Still, there are some who say that it is based on propaganda (in the sense of speaker’s spreading information to another speaker, ect.). But there is a difference between the the innovation and propaganda. The former happens in a moment and the latter takes a very long time, sometimes decades or even centuries. However, a change becomes a change only when more than one user or speaker admits it.

6.1 The characteristics of linguistic change

The well known saying is “time changes all things”. This is why linguistic changes are unavoidable, too. Moreover, all components of a language are liable to change, some more rapidly and vigorously, other less. But linguistic change is not necessarily a negative thing. Languages are not simplified, less effective and expressive, their grammar is not worse or more chaotic, it is just different.

However, one of the negative things of linguistic change is that it can not be predicted or controlled. Many attempts have been made to slow down these changes but in vain (they have not been effective). In Europe, language academies were founded to control them but they were not very successful.

Still, there are some factors that can have an influence on the speed and intensivity of linguistic changes, namely: isolation of a language (from a geographic point of view), a language is not affected by other languages, long tradition (literature), attachment to the mother tongue, when people go to work or live in foreign countries (they try to keep their language alive), stability in economy, politics and social conditions, ect.

As we mentioned before, it is the spoken form of the language, that changes very quickly. This happened in the past, in the periods, when languages were not recorded. On the other hand, the written form helps to slow down or even prevent changes. Today, it is the mass media (newspapers, magazines, internet, ect.) that has a very important role in the process of slowing down linguistic changes.

Another very important factor of linguistic change, that has not been mentioned yet, is the arbitrary nature of the linguistic sign. Linguistic singns refer to things they stand for in various ways. Charles Sanders Peirce, an American philosopher, divided linguistic signs into three categories: to the first category belong indexical signs , these signs are connected with the things they stand for (e. g. snow to winter, dark to night, ect.), next are iconic signs , they are similar to the things they stand for (e.g. onomatopoeic words like miow for the sound of the cat or woof for the sound of a dog, ect.), the last category represent symbolic signs , they do not resemble the things they stand for but are only conventionally connected to them (black colour to death, white flag to surrender, ect.).

In language, there are not many aspects, that are iconic (onomatopoeic words, natural sounds and word order aspects), others are indexical as they are connected with the things they represent (adverbs, demonstratives, pronouns, ect.). But majority of language consists of symbolic signs. This means that most of the words carry no direct (logical) connection or resemblance to the thing they stand for. For example, the word potatoe means a particular vegetable in our world but there is no similarity between the vegetable and the sound of the word. This particular vegetable could be named differently, if this was socially agreed and accepted. When new words are socially accepted, a language undergoes changes. People may even not notice these changes because they are usually slow and gradual, and are not aware of the power they possess to change language every day.

6.2 The characteristics of Phonological change

“One school of linguists in the nineteenth century claimed that sound change is absolutely regular, that it operates without exception (Brinton and Arnovick, 2006).” According to Brinton and Arnovick, this statement is exaggerated. They believe sound change is not absolutely but highly regular, and also that it can be reduced to a series of principles or rules. There are two types of sound changes. The first one is conditioned, where a certain sound changes merely in defined circumstances. This change is dependent on the neighbouring sounds (this is called the conditioning environment ).

The other type of change is known as unconditioned, where sounds undergo changes irrespective of their phonetic environment. This means that they change in isolation and are not influenced by neighbouring sounds. It is typical that the whole group of sounds (e.g. fricatives, affricates, stops, ect.) undergoes changes (this is called a sound shift the First Sound Shift, the Great Vowel Shift). The symbol, with which we will mark changes is (>).

In these two groups of sound changes, there is a variety of subtypes, e.g. assimilation, dissimilation, addition of a sound, loss of a sound, metathesis and others.

6.2.1 Assimilation

Assimilation is a process in which a sound becomes resemblant to a neighbouring sound in place and manner of articulation, voicing, ect. This happens because of certain characteristics of articulation, for example – ease of articulation. Sounds become similar or even the same. For instance, if the ending –ling is added to the word goose , we get the word “gosling”. The sound [s] is a final sound of the root; in this case it is voiced to [z] in order to adjust to the voicing quality of the sound [l]. This is called partial assimilation . Moreover, if we add –man to the root wif , we get the Middle English word “wimman”. The sound [f] changes into [m] to adjust to the succeeding sound [m]. This is known as a complete assimilation .

Another type of assimilation is called the regressive assimilation . In this process it is usual that a sound becomes similar to the sound that follows it. One sound “goes” back to influence on the preceeding one. However, in the progressive assimilation , a sound actually becomes identical to the sound that stands before it. For example, in the ending –ed (the marker for past tense) the sound [d] changes into [t] before a viceless consonant (e. g. walked, attached, missed, ect.). Usually the sound changes into its neighbouring sound, however, it can also change into the one in a neigbouring syllable. This is known as a distant assimiliation (it happens in the process of umlaut ).

6.2.2 Dissimilation

In this process a sound becomes different than its neighbouring sound (becuse of better clarity). However, it is not as common as assimilation. For example, the Modern English word purple had two [r]'s in the original (Latin) word purpur . One of the [r]'s changed to [l] for a better acoustic distinction.

6.2.3 Addition of a sound

This process is also called intrusion . It is encouraged by the difficult coordination of articulatory movements. Usually, a stop is added in successions of fricatives, liquids and nasals. It (the stop) is then articulated in the same position as the liquid, or nasal: [d] is placed between [n] and [l]: OE spinel > ME spindle , [d] is placed between [n] and [r]: OE þunor > ME thunder , [d] is placed between [l] and [r]: OE ealre > ME alder , [b] is placed between [m] and [l]: OE pӮmel > ME thimble , [b] is placed between [m] and [r]: OE slūmere > ME slumber .

6.2.4 Loss of a sound

This process is very frequent. The reason for it is ease of articulation. Both, vowels and consonants can be lost. An example of the loss of an initial vowel is about > 'bout . The loss of a medial vowel occurs in business > bus(i)ness and it is called syncope .

Apocope is the name for the loss of a final vowel, for example in OE sunu > ModE son . The loss of consonants also occurs in all three positions. All consonants in final positions are inclined to the loss.

Examples of the consonant loss in a final position are OE hnutu > ModE nut , the loss of [g] and [k] in Modern English (knee, gnarl, ect.). Examples of lost consonants in the medial position are OE godspel > ModE gospel , the loss of [d], [l] and [t] in Modern English (handsome, talk, hustle, ect.). Examples of the loss of consonants in the final position are the loss of [b], [d], [g] and [n] (numb, hymn, husband, thing, ect.).

6.2.5 Metathesis

Metathesis is the proces, where two sounds are reversed (reordered). It is very frequent in the succession of liquids and vowels or fricatives and stops: vowel + liquid > liquid + vowel: OE beorht > ModE bright , liquid + vowel > vowel + liquid: Spanish tornada > ModE tornado , fricative + stop: OE variants ascian (to ask) and axian .

6.2.6 Other phonological changes

Consonants are subject to changes in the place and manner of articulation, and voicing. Some of these changes are: fricativization: a consonant (generaly a stop) is modified into a fricative, e. g. [t] > [s] (hipocrat – hypocracy), labialization: the lips round in the articulation of the sound [l] (loop, long) because of the succeeding round vowels (but not in label, length), lenition: a consonant in the position between vowels is weakened: a stop > fricative (OE mōdor > ModE mother ), voiceless > voiced (the voicing of [t] in butter ), palatalization: articulation of a consonant is in the palatal region of the oral cavity, e. g. [s] > [š] (from alveolar to alveolopalatal, e. g. in the fast articulation of miss you ). There can also be some modifications in a manner of articulation and a modification of a stop to an affricate ([t] > [č] and [k] > [č]), rhotacism: a consonant (frequently [s]) changes into [r] (genus/generic), velarisation: articulation of a consonant is positioned in the region of the velar ( the [l] in kneel ), vocalization: a consonant is changed in a vowel (sometimes in a semivowel, e.g. OE hafoc > ModE hawk ), voicing/devoicing: a voicelsess consonant changes into a voiced one (house/to house) and a voiced consonant becomes voiceless (the [r] in pray ) because it succeeds a voiceless consonant.

6.3 Reasons for linguistic change

So far it has been established that lingusitic change is unavoidable, yet, the reasons for it are unknown. Theorists are not of the same opinion on the subject. Some say that reasons are unknown, like the American linguist Leonard Bloomfield.

However, there are two viewpoints of the reasons of lingistic change which are opposing each other. The first one is that linguistic change depends on the speaker’s needs and therefore is functionally stimulated. Still, there are evidences that many changes have no functional value, which disproves the first viewpoint. The second is that linguistic change is purely accidental or random and not functionally stimulated (like the styles in music, fashion, ect.). But in plenty of languages the same changes can be found so they could not be random, thus this statement disproves the second viewpoint as well. Nevertheless, there are many factors that have an influence on linguistic change. They are divided into internal and external.

6.3.1 Internal factors of lingustic change

Internal factors are a part of or inseparable of the language system. This means that there are many factors which influence linguistic change that people are not aware of, for example: ease of articulation; this means that a person does not show any exertion in articulation of sounds (assimilation of neighbouring sounds, clipping 1, omission 2), perceptual clarity; although this factor is the opposite to the previous one, there are demands for the greatest precision and accuracy in the pronunciation of the sounds,

1 Clipping, also called shortening, is a process where a word is reduced to one of its parts. 2 Omission menas that something (e. g. a consonant or a vowel) has been left out.

efficiency or transparency; it is the fact that every language is filled with abundance and when it becomes too complex, it is possible it will “have to” change to became more approachable and simpler to use and understand, this also applies to a clearer connection between the grammatical form and meaning, phonological symmetry: “phonological systems tend toward structural balance, as evidenced by the pairing voiced and voiceless consonants or font and back vowels ;[...] (Brinton and Arnovick, 2006).” In other words, the system of language is arranged in the way that it takes the sounds it needs to fill the gaps or rejects the sounds that create nonsymmetric forms, universal tendencies; there are many developments that appear within the language development and these happen in only one direction; for example, words form sentences and not vice versa.

Hovever, there are many other factors influencing linguistic change of which the speakers are aware of. These are: spelling pronunciation; a word is pronounced it is written and not as it is usually pronounced; for example, the letter l is pronounced in albatross but not in talk, ect. The written form has its own “life”. overgeneralization; it means that a speaker uses a certain linguistic rule in inappropriate contexts; for example, the words procedure , progress and problem all begin with the prefix pro . But in the first two words the prefix is pronounced [prou] and in the third one [pro]. Some speakers would pronounce it the same in all three cases, hyperconnection: “ the speaker may correct a mistake (which is not, in fact, a mistake); for example, the speaker who wishes to avoid the North American feature of flapping (voicing of intervocalic [t]) in words such as voter may incorrectly say [čεtər] for cheddar [... ] (Brinton and Arnovick, 2006).” Though overgeneralization and hyperconnection may seem the same, the causes for these two are different,

analogy; this means that a speaker changes a form with the help of the similarity of another form with wich it is connected. In this way the incorrect forms are eliminated from the language. For example, a speaker could form the past tense of irregular verbs on analogy with the irregular verbs (play played, lay laid, ect.), reanalysis; some structures or phrases get a new meaning developed by speakers, renewal; understatements (in other words euphemisms like preowned or used stand for second hand, ect.) and overstatements (or emphatic forms like repulsive, disgusting stands for distasteful) are always in need for change or renewal. When their emphasis loses its strength or euphemisms are not euphemisms anymore.

Many theorists, called “generative linguists”, believe that reanalysis is the basic cause or factor for linguistic change. They believe that people learn language with the input they receive. According to them, linguistic change occurs because every individual builds his or her own grammar which is different from grammars of other people. Not all acquire language in the same way, some understand various forms differently.

6.3.2 External factors of linguistic change

On the other hand, there are factors, which are called external and occur when one language comes in contact with other languages or dialects. These contacts happen every day in different circumstances (in every day interactions, migrations, wars, ect.). Theorists claim that the external factors are not as significant as internal. The former do not cause the changes in a specific language but they just accelerate those that are to happen. The external factors “take advantage” of the exisiting imperfections and weaknesses in the language and offer numerous options of variations to take over.

The American linguist Sarah Thomason classified the influences of other languages into three groups: “contactinduced language change , extreme language mixture (leading to pidgins, creoles and bilingual mixed languages) , and language death (Brinton and Arnovick, 2006)”

Another linguist, Jean Aitchison, defined language death more speciffically. She believes that language death is divided into language murder and language suicide . In the language death one language is being replaced by the other. This language prevails because of different reasons and speakers’ needs (social, economic, religious, ect.). The examples of such languages are South and North American Indian languages, predominated by Spanish, Portugese and English language.

In the language suicide new grammar is taken from a more dominant language and eventually original language, or better yet, its’ identity is not recognizable any longer. One of the examples is Creole language and its variations. The language suicide happens with the help of decreolization (this is a process where the influence of the parent language is stronger than its variations). There have been attempts to prevent the language murders or revive languages which were endangered by introducing them into school curricula. Many of the attempts have been effective; for example, in the case of Hebrew.

It was mentioned above that all components of a language are subjected to changes but the most susceptible is the vocabulary. New vocabulary arises from human needs to name new things (e.g. inventions) or is replaced with loan words and borrowings 3. However, borrowings do not change the language significantly (grammar and phonology stay more or less the same).

3 »A borrowing is something such as a word or an idea that someone has taken from another language […] and used it in their own language or work (Collins Cobuild English Dictionary, 1997)”.

6.4 Attitudes towards linguistic change

There are many different and opposing opinions on linguistic change. Some accept and welcome it but many do not favour it because of the fear that it will impoverish language. Professor of language and communication, Jean Aitchison, represented three viewpoints of linguistic change; these are linguistic corruption, prescriptivism and descriptivism.

In the case of linguistic corruption changes are not appreciated, what is more, they are thougt to be the cause of language’s decline: [...]”Language change is always bad. It is a matter of linguistic corruption: a language, as it changes, looses its beauty, its expressiveness, its fineness of distinction, even its grammar (Brinton and Arnovick, 2006).” Judging from this, also the English language has lost its purity, beauty and expressiveness, if we look at it in the time of William Shakespeare.

Some claim that change is a consequence of speakers’ indifference, superficiality and even laziness. Criticisms on their account are often very emotional and moralistic. Back in the history, one of these critics was also Irish writer Johnatan Swift, who said that his language is imperfect, full of abuses and absurdities. He even declared that, in many cases, his language is offensive. Due to these remarks, critics have tried to protect languages from changes and their decline by “warning” speakers to be less careless in the use of language. Many have asked questions, why people are so afraid of the changes. There are numerous reasons for this and one of them is a nostalgic feeling. People are reluctant to any changes because of the fast and stressfull style of living, changes happen too fast and some are not able to keep up with them because they are preoccupied with so many other things. They loose the feeling of control over the language.

The second reason descends from a concern for purity of the language. This is so because the language presents peoples’ identity, national and ethnical. But when these two are threathened or endangered in any way, people tend to protect them. In the past (namely, in the history of English), the principles of language purity did not have much power or influence, since English has adopted various elements from other languages. Today, linguists are concerned over the Americanization of British and Canadian English.

The next reason is connected to the prejudices of social classes. Social dialects are often indicators that show which class a person belongs to. For example, it is known that educated social classes, like middle and uppermiddle class, speak Standard English. These criteria often, or better yet always, support people’s social exlusion from a particular social class and also set social obstacles. This happens because any declination from standards represents a threat to the social structure.

The last reason arises from the conviction in the superiority of some languages like Latin and Greek. These two were highly inflected and changes in the history of English caused the loss of inflections which was not believed to be a good thing. It is the fact that spoken form is more liable to change and the written form more stable and less unchanging, therefore, the former has an inferior role in the language use.

In the nineteenth century philologists made a theory about language being an evolving organism, which develops all the time and strives to perfection. One of them was The Danish linguist Otto Jespersen, who presented his views in the book “Growth and structure of the English Language”. In the eighteen century a notion of a prescriptive grammar appeared. This particular veiw relates to its orders and prohibitions of some manners of writing and speaking. In a prescriptive grammar correctness is of a great importance.

On the other hand, a descriptive grammar does not judge language or its usage, instead, it analyses and demonstrates it. Prescriptive grammar divides grammar into a good and bad one but descriptive grammar sees it only as a series of rules and standards imprtant for language’s operating. Let us mention, that every grammar is efficient and no language can not exist without it. So, the main difference between a prescriptive and descriptive grammar is in fundamental rules and principles, which determine, how things function. This is the same as in rules of behaviour (how a person should behave in a speciffic situation) or rules in sports, ect. If these are in some way disrespected or broken in behaviour, a person is put in a shameful or awkward situation. In addition, a prescriptive grammar “orders” language users which forms they should use. However, a descriptive grammar analyses and represents the forms that are used.

7. VOWELS AND CONSONANTS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

When we speak, our respiratory system is adapted for the means of communication. People make sounds, when they exhale. Air enters through the mouth and nose to the lungs and from there to the trachea 4, After that it moves to the larynx 5 and then goes to the vocal tract . There, the articulators (the lips, the tongue, the teeth, ect.) produce or form speech sounds. This is clearly evident from the schematic view of human speech production mechanism in appendix A. A speech sound passes over to another and forms a chain of sound, named a phonetic continuum . However, speech is frequently divided into syllables for the purposes of the analysis. If we look at the syllable, it is formed of a nucleus, which is a vowel (or a vowellike sound) and associated consonant. In the next section the focus will be on the English consonants.

7.1 Consonants

“Consonants are speech sounds articulated with a certain ammount of constriction of the airflow that has come from the lungs through trachea. They are classified by four qualities: voicing, orality/nasality, place of articulation, and manner of articulation (Brinton and Arnovick, 2006).”

When we talk about voicing, we think of the position and condition of our vocal cords (two muscles in the larynx). They are able to open and close very quickly, they can be tensed or they can vibrate. In the case of vibration, the produced sound is voiced. But when the vocal cords are opened or at rest, the produced sound is voiceless.

4 Trachea is a windpipe. 5 »Larynx is the top part of the passage tat leads from the throat to the lungs and contains the vocal cords (Collins Cobuilt English Dictionary, 1997).”

In the case of orality and nasality we refer to the part of speech organs, where the air enters in order to produce a sound. If a sound enters through the oral tract, it is called an oral sound. If the sound passes through the nasal cavity, then it is called a nasal sound. It is also possible for the air to ennter or pass through both cavities (oral and nasal), in such case, the sound is called a nasalised sound. However, the major part of sounds in English are supposedly oral.

The place of articulation means the area where the air is compressed when the articulation of the consonat happens. This refers to the posture of the tongue or the lips in relation to the roof of the mouth or the theeth. If we begin at the front and continue to the back of the mouth, we can see the places of articulation in the English language: alveolar; the tip of the toungue comes in contact with the roof of the mouth, this happens behind the upper teeth, alveolopalatal; the front of the tongue contacts the roof of the mouth, behind the alveolar ridge 6, palatal, the front of the tongue comes in contact with the area of the roof of the mouth, named the hard pallate, glottal; the vocal cords take over the role of articulators as they are put together, bilabial; the lips are put together when producing sounds, labiodental; the lower lip touches the upper teeth when producing sounds, interdental; the tongue is softly placed between the lower and upper teeth, or it may touch just the upper teeth.

6 »An alveolar ridge (also known as the alveolar margin) is one of the two jaw ridges either on the roof of the mouth between the upper teeth and the hard palate or on the bottom of the mouth behind the lower teeth. The alveolar ridges contain the sockets (alveoli) of the teeth (“Wikipedia”, gained on 10.7. 2008).”

The manner of articulation means : […] “ the ammount and type of restriction in the airflow which occurs when a consonant is articulated (Brinton and Arnovick, 2006)”.

In English there are following manners of articulation: approximant: the articulators do not come close together enough to cause turbulence, they just come close to one another, the air is not compressed in the middle of the mouth, they are divided into glides (sometimes called semivowels) and liquids (include the lateral), stop or oral stop: the articulators are closed, the air can not pass through the oral or the nasal cavity because of the raised position of the velum, nasal or nasal stop: the articulators are entirely closed, the air can not pass through the oral cavity, however, the flow of air is allowed through the nasal cavity because of the lowered position of the velum, fricative: articulators come close together and cause a hissing sound or friction, but not the complete blockage of the air, affricat: a total blockage of air (like in the case of an oral stop) is proceeded by a contraction of air (like in the instance of a fricative), a stop gradually passes into a fricative.

The most important quality of the consonants is voicing. It is interesting that only a restricted group of consonats are being used in all languages. They are used to begin and end the syllable. In between there is a vowel as a nucleus 7 of the syllable. There are some consonants that can stand on their own in a syllable, of course, without a vowel between them. However, they have the function of a vowel, namely the syllabic function, for example the nasals [n] and [m].

7 A nucleus (of a syllable or sentence) is the central piece of a syllable or sentence.

7.2 Types of English consonants

In the previous section the consonats of the English language were introduced. The focus was on description of their most important qualities, shuch as, voicing, orality/nasality, the place and manner of articulation. In this section the focus will be on the various ways of articulation. First in the series are stops.

7.2.1 Stops

English stops consist of three pairs of stops. Each pair is divided into voiced and voiceless sound. The first are named bilabial. They are formed by putting the lips together. The representatives of this group are the symbols b and p . If we pronounce [p], we are not able to hear it because the flow of air is stopped. When we are able to hear the stops, the articulators are open. These are called plosives. As we mentioned above, each pair consist of voiced and voiceless sounds. The voiced bilabial plosive is [b], for example, in words beach , crab , labourer . The voiceless bilabial plosive is [p], we can find it in words opera , opinion , pet , ect.

The next set of stops is named alveolar. It is produced by the tip of the tongue touching the alveolar ridge. The representatives of this set are the symbols d and t. They are divided into voiced , which is the sound [d] (we can find it in the words dot, sad, adder, ect.) and into voicless, which is represented by the sound [t] (in the words top, pot, after, later, ect.). It is interesting, that the majority of North Americans pronounce the voiceless sound [t], when placed between two vowels, as voiced, which is a flap [ Ȏ]. They pronounce words like medal and metal in the same way. These two words are also called homophones because they are pronounced very similarly or the same.

The last set of stops is named velar. They are formed by the back part of the tongue touching the velum. The symbols g and k are the representatives. The voiced velar stop is [g] in words great , fog , baggage , ect., and the voiceless velar stop is [k]. We can find it in the words kangaroo , keep , cab , ect.

However, tere is also one stop in the English language that has not got its counterpart and is called the glottal stop. It is formed “... by bringing the vocal cords together to close off the flow of air (Brinton and Arnovick, 2006).” We can find it in the interjection “uhuh”, where it appears twice. The symbol for the glottal stop is similar to a question mark [?]. Another example of the glottal stop is evident from the next comparison between the written and the spoken language:

Betty bought a bit of butter. But the bit of butter Betty bought was bitter, So Betty bought another bit of butter.

And

Be'y bough' a bi' of bu'er. Bu' the bi' of bu'er Be'y bough' was bi'er, So Be'y bough' anuvver bi' of bu'er.

7.2.2 Nasals

Nasals are the next group of the consonants. The place of articulation is the same as that of the stops; the difference is in velum which is lowered to enable the flow of air to pass through the nasal cavity. There are no voiceless sounds in this group, they are all voiced. The representatives are sybols m, n and eng .

The bilabial nasal is [m] and it corresponds with the voiced bilabial plosive [b]. We can find it in the words map , lime , lamb , ect. The alveolar nasal is [n], in words nose , ten , tenant , ect. It corresponds to the voiced alveolar [d]. The velar nasal is [ŋ] and it is the last in the group of nasals. It is formed by putting the tongue in the position like when we pronounce a [g] but then the velum has to be lowered. This sound never occurs at the beginning of words in English but in the middle (as a medial sound) and at the end (as s final sound) of words. For example, In the word linguist it appears as a medial sound, and in the word sing as a final sound.

7.2.3 Fricatives

Fricatives in English are divided in pairs of voiced and voiceless sounds (except for symbol h), like the stops. The first are the labiodental. They are produced by the lower lip touching the upper teeth and with the restriction of the air. The representatives are the symbols f and v. The voiced labiodental fricative is [v], we can find it in the words vegetarian , dove , average , ect. The voiceless labiodental fricative is [f] in the words fear , deaf , offence , ect.

Next are the interdental fricatives. They are formed by putting the tip of the tongue between the teeth. Another possibility of forming these fricatives is by putting the tip of the tongue to the back of the upper teeth. The voiced interdental fricative is [ð], this symbol was taken from the Old English (letter eth ). It is found in the words this , leather , father , ect. Its opposite, the voiceless interdental fricative is [ θ], this symbol originates from the Greek alphabet and is named theta . It can be seen in the words think , nothing , cloth , ect. Often it is very difficult to differentiate between the two, especially for foreigners who speak English as a second language.

Then, there are the alveolar fricatives. They are made by putting the tip of the tongue to the alveolar ridge. The representatives are the symbols z and s. The voiced alveolar fricative is pronounced [z] and it can be found in the words zebra , ozone , buzz , ect. The voiceless alveolar fricative is pronounced [s], found in the words bliss , son , missis , ect.

In the group of the fricatives also belong the alveolopalatal. They are formed by putting the tongue up, between the alveolar ridge and the palate. The symbols ž and š (they are z and s with the small “roof” above them) are the representatives. The voiced alveolopalatal fricative is [ž], like in garage , Asia , beige , ect. Its voiceless counterpart is [š]. We can fint it in the words amish , shot , aggression , ect. It is interesting that the former never starts a word in the English language, with the exception of the borrowed words from French.

The last in the group of fricatives is the voiceless glottal fricative [h]. It is represented by the symbol h and has no voiced counterpart. It is produced by putting the vocal cords together. We can find it in the words horse , habit , horrible , ect. Some linguists are of the opinion that [h] is a sound before a vowel, a breathing sound called a voiceless approximant.

Finally, we will mention symbols for fricatives that existed in previous periods of the English language and were lost. The first one is the voiced bilabial fricative, represented by the symbol [β], the letter from Greek, named beta . It is formed by bringing the lips together, like when pronouncing [b], the lips are lightly opened. The second one is the voiceless velar fricative or [x]. This si the sound that can be found in the word loch or in the German word noch , which means more . It is produced similarly as [k], only, the air is allowed to pass through. The third is the voiceless palatal fricative [ç]. It is represented by the symbol c, called cedilla (used in French).

The last one is the voiced velar fricative or [ ǳ]; the letter comes from the Greek alphabet and is named gamma . It is formed like a g with some air passing through.

7.2.4 Affricates

They are divided into a pair of voiced and voiceless alveolopalatal sounds. The voiced alveolopalatal affricate is represented by a symbol ǯ. If we look at it in a simpler way, [ǯ] is [d] succeeded by [ž]. We can find it in the words enjoy , jacket , bridge , ect. The voiceless alveolopalatal affricate or [č] is represented by a symbol č. It is found in the words chew , butcher , witch , ect. It is [t] succeeded by [š].

7.2.5 Approximants

This group of consonants does not appear in pairs because all of them are voiced. However, there are two subgroups, the first one is called liquids and the second one glides. The former consists of the alveolar lateral [l] and the so called “dark l” or the velarized alveolar lateral approximant. The symbol for the alveolar lateral approximant is l. It occurs in the words long , fata l, seller , ect. If it is placed at the beginning of the words it is called a “clear l”. Its other variety is the “dark l”. It is placed after vowels and also [r], as in fal l, goal , swimming pool , earl , ect. It is formed deep in the velar area. However, ther is no distinction in the meaning between the two but only allophonic. The other one is the alveolar retroflex or [r], formed by curled position of the tongue in the rear of the mouth.We can find it in round , roof , orange , ect.

The glides are divided into the velar [w] and palatal [j]. The velar glide is represented by the symbol w. It is produced by the tongue raised to the velar and the lips rounded. Due to the place of articulation, it has been studied more exactly and, therefore, named the labiovelar liquid.

Some people produce it in a voiceless manner, this variety is called the voiceless labiovelar fricative, as in which , what , where . The beginning of these words is pronounced [hw]. The palatal glide is represented by the symbol j. It occurs in the words young , yard , yeast , ect.

7.3 Vowels

Each person has their his/her own vowel system that differs from other person's vowel system. It comprises a variety of dialectal and individual sounds. “ Vowels are all continuants: that is, airflow through the oral tract is not significantly obstructed during their production, so there are no stop, fricative or affricate vowels (Mcmahon, 2002).”

In opposition to the consonants, vowels are produced with the unrestrained flow of air through the vocal tract. The articulators are not brought together and the mouth is in its open position. The tongue is bulged. Vowels are formed with different forms and positions of the tongue.

“A single vowel sound, with the pitch consonant in a syllable, is called a monophthong... A complex vowel sound produced by moving from one vowel element to another, with a vowel and a glide (semivowel) in a single syllable is called a diphthong . [...] (Brinton and Arnovick, 2006).”

Almost all English vowels are voiced, except, if they succeed a voiceless consonant they can be deviced but only partially. The place of articulation of the vowels is more difficult to describe, since the tongue, which has the function of the articulator, does not always reveal precise positions to analyse. Therefore, the focus is put on the movement of the tongue and its highest point (the front, in the palatal area, or the roof of the mouth).

If the tongue is really high, the jaw is almost completely brought together, but it is open, if the tongue is in the low position.

However, vowels also have some other characteristics that have to be taken into consideration: whether the lips are in a rounded position or not, whether the articulation takes a shorter or longer period of time, whether the articulation has tension on the tongue, whether the air passes through the oral (nonnasalised) or only nasal cavity (nasalised).

The “central and front vowels” are usually unrounded and the back vowels rounded. Another interesting characteristic of the vowels is nasalization . This happens, if the vowels occur before the nasal consonants [n] and [m] in man , fan , longing , ect. The length of the vowels depends on the consonants that suceed the vowels, e. g. in the words see or feel the vowel is long but in the word seat it is short. Still, in the period of Old and Middle English, vowels were distinguished by their length. The length can be indicated by a macron above the vowel, e. g. [ā].

Like consonants, English vowels can be classified by their length and place of articulation, although, there are not as many options as with consonants. Every vowel is formed in the area between the velar and palatal, that is, in the center of the mouth. There are not as many vowels in English as consonants. They are divided into front, central and back vowels.

7.3.1 The front vowels

The English language has the following front vowels: [i], [ I], and [ε]. They are formed by raising the tongue to the hard palate. They are not rounded. In Modern

English there are only two front vowels that are high, namely the sounds [i] and [ I] . The former is high and long. It can be found in the words eat , seat , seed , ect.. The latter (lower) is shor and lax. It occurs in words bit , knit , fit , ect.

There is also one pair of the front vowels called the midfront vowels, although, just one of them (the lower) is said to be a “pure” vowel. This is [ε], its symbol, called epsilon , is taken from the Greek alphabet. It ocurrs in the word let , get , set , ect. In specific circumstances it is also called na open e. The other variation was more used in the history of English. It was called the close e, represented by the lowercase symbol e. Nowadays, this sound can be found only in diphthongs and is not placed in the vowel table on its own. It is produced by moving the tongue from midfront to high front. We can see the example of this sound in the word date . It is pronounced as

[eI].

The front vowels also have their lowest variation . This is [æ], a very common vowel in English. It is short and lax. The symbol is taken from the Old English and is called ash. It consists of letters a and e. Still, this is not a diphthong but a single sound.

7.3.2 The central vowels

In English language, there are three central vowels, namely: [ə], [a] and [ Ǭ]. These vowels are produced by raising the tongue between the soft and the hard palate, in the center. They are also unrounded. The most frequent is [ə], called the midcentral lax vowel, sometimes classified as a reduced vowel. The symbol that represents it is called schwa . It is very common in unstressed syllables. We can find it in words alike , among , around , ect.

There are some other central vowels that have to be menitoned: midcentral unrounded vowel [Ǭ] and open central unrounded vowel [a], which are very commonly used.

7.3.3 The back vowels

The back vowels are more difficult to describe. Hovewer, there is one exception: the rounded vowels that are produced at the back of the oral cavity. One of them is the high back tense vowel u. The symbol for it is a letter from the Greek alphabet, named upsilon or [ Ț]. This vowel occurs in words foot , put , ect. Although, in Modern English the midback tense vowel does not exist, at least not pure one, it existed in the past. Its symbol was o, in some cases called a “close o”. Now, it exsists in diphthongs (like the sound [e]). The next back vowel is a falling diphthong [o Ț]. It is formed by raising the tongue and lips roundly. It occurs in words toad , ghost , toast , ect.

Other back vowels depend on dialects. We will mention only two varieties. The first one is the open o or the open midback rounded vowel, which occurs in Canadian

English. It is represented by a symbol [Ǥ], a reversed c. When in pure form, it is placed exclusively before [r], as in the word sort , sword , lord , ect. The second one is the low back vowel [ ǡ]. Its symbol is a. We can find it in words large , part , marble , ect. It is formed in the back of the oral cavity. This vowel allows variations, such as its rounded form [ Ǣ] or [a], which is more centralized.

There are also two vowels that need to be mentioned. They are from the earlier periods of English. These are high front rounded vowels, namely [y] and [Y]. The first one is represented by the symbol y. It is formed first as [i] (raising the tongue to the hard palate) and concluding it by rounding the lips. This sound can be found in the word of German origin über .

The second is the high front lax unrounded sound [Y]. The symbol for this sound is Y.

It is produced first as [ I] and at the end by rounding the lips.

7.3.4 Diphthongs

A diphthong is a gliding vowel, because it is formed with a vowel and a glide, [w] or [j] as [ Ț] or [I]. It modifies its quality when it is pronounced. Tere are two types of diphthongs. The first one is a falling diphthong, it starts with a vowel and is followed by a glide (we can hear the fall in pitch), like in the word eye ([aǺ]). The rising diphthong starts with with a glide and finishes with a vowel.

There are six diphthongs in the English language: [eǺ], [ ǡǺ], [ ǤǺ ], [ Ǻə], [eə], [ Țə],

[əȚ], [a Ț]. When producing the first three [eǺ] (found in words play, lay, ray, ect.),

[ǡǺ] (found in words why, die, shy, ect.), [ ǤǺ ] (found in words joy, boy, soy) the tongue is in the movement towards [ Ǻ]. Here is the visual representation of the movement.

When forming the other three sounds [ Ǻə] (occurs in words near, deer, gear, ect.),

[eə] (occurs in words nightmare, hair, bear, ect.), [ Țə] (occurs in words door, poor, tourist, ect.), the tongue moves towards [ə]. This movement is also called centring.

And when articulating the last two sounds [əȚ] (occurs in words alone, phone, boat, ect.), [a Ț] (occurs in words owl, cow, down, ect) the tongue moves towards

[Ț]. When producing all diphthongs, the tongue, the lips and sometimes the jaw are in the movement.

Source: (http://www3.hi.is/~peturk/KENNSLA/02/TOP/VowelsDiphth.html, gained on 25. 7. 2008)

These diphthongs are divided in two types. The first type represents the falling diphthongs. These are [eǺ], [əȚ], [ ǡǺ], [a Ț] and [ ǤǺ ]. The movement of articulation is centred from a close towards an open position. The second type are the centring diphthongs; namely [ Ǻə], [eə] and [ Țə]. Their articulation is oriented towards the centring position.

The difference between the monophthongs and the diphthongs is in the place and manner of articulation. In the articulation of the monophthongs the tongue is fixed at one place in the oral cavity. But in the articulation of the diphtnongs, the tongue, the lips and the jaw move from the first sound to the last. Diphthongs are very inclined to linguistic changes because of the accent varieties.

8. LINGUISTIC CHANGES IN ENGLISH CONSONANTS AND VOWELS FROM THE PERIODS OF OLD TO MODERN ENGLISH

In the chapter Linguistic change in the English language we mentioned that linguistic changes do no occur in only one segment of a language but in all. For example, if a change occurs in the field of phonology (consonants and vowels) it will have an influence on morphology (morphemes and lexemes), this will, consequently, (lead to the changes in syntax, ect.

My focus will be on the changes in the English consonants and vowels throughout the periods of the English language, from the very beginning till now. I will start with the period of Old English, follwed by the period of Middle English, then the period of Early Modern English and last, the Modern English. I will look into the differences among the sounds of each period, the reasons for linguistic change and its “consequences”.

8.1 The period of Old English (a short review)

“Although the development of the language has been gradual and continuous, we conventionally divide the history of English into either four or five periods. These periods coincide in a large part with important political and social events (Brinton and Arnovick, 2006).”

The period of Old English is the first “official” period of the development of English language. It use to be called “AngloSaxon” but this term is no longer in use because it refers more to the society or people of that particular time, than it does to the language itself. It began approximately in the year 449 and lasted until the year 1066.

But the earliest written records of this period were not found before the eighth century. It started, when the Germanic tribes from Europe arrived to England. The native people that populated England were the Celts, who probably moved there in the Bronze Age. They spoke an Indo European language. Then, in the year 43, the Romans conquered it. They brought a very significant (even linguistically) “thing” to England the Christianization 8, which started towards the end of the sixth century. In the year 449 England was inhabited by the Germanic settlers (the Jutes, the Saxons and the Angles). More Germanic tribes inhabited the southern part of the Island in the following century.

Today, Old English is very difficult to understand and people learn it as they would learn a foregin language. It contains vocabulary of Germanic origin. The order of the words in sentences is inconstant (variable) and it is highly inflected. It also contains a vareity of dialects. The literature that originates from this period is very extensive, as well in poetry (Beowulf) as in prose (AngloSaxon chronicles, various religious sermons and Bible translations, ect.). It is written in the West Saxon dialect. Still, most of its recordings probably stayed undiscovered or were destroyed by the fires, floods, the Reformation, ect.

8.2 Consonants and vowels in the of Old English

One of the most significant consequences of the Christianization was the acceptance of the Latin alphabet, which has remained untill today. It was ment for recording texsts. People (AngloSaxons) adopted it from Irish missionaries.

8 »The historical phenomenon of Christianization, (or Christianisation — see spelling differences) the conversion of individuals to Christianity or the conversion of entire peoples at once. [...] (“Wikipedia”, gained on 20. 7. 2008).”

These assumptions result from the fact that it is written in the Insular script 9 and it indicates Irish modifications (e. g. they added the letter eth : upper case Ð, lowercase ð, these two symbols stood for th ); the Insular script had a special form for the letter g, which was named yogh or 3. However, the AngloSaxons imported own symbols from their (runic) alphabet and added them to the new alphabet.

These are wynn or þ, which stands for w, and thorn or the upper case Þ and the lowercase þ, which also stands for th . Another particularity of this period is that the AngloSaxons abbreviated written words very frequently or wrote them together without leaving the space between them. The reason was a high price of the paper they were writting on, called vellum . For the word that in Modern English means

“and”, they used a symbol that looks like a number seven or ( 7). In the next chapter we will see how the Germanic consonants evolved in the period of Old English and also, compare how different they are from the modern consonants.

8.2.1 Old English consonants

“Old English has a phonemic writing system: it uses each alphabetic symbol to stand for a single distinct sound (or phoneme). Each letter is pronounced; there are no “silent” letters (Brinton and Arnovick, 2006).” In many cases there is more than one pronunciation possible for each letter. However, an interesting characteristic of Old English is that it had so called “double consonants”. These consonants were articulated for a longer time than the single ones. The double consonants are written with two phonetic symbols.

9 »Insular script was a medieval script system used in Ireland and Britain (Latin: insula , "island"). It later spread to Continental Europe in centres under the influence of Celtic Christianity. (“Wikipedia”, gained on 20. 7. 2008).”

In the following section, I will compare the Germanic and Old English consonants. The comparisson will be represented with the help of a table, for the sake of a better visualisation. We will begin with the voiceless stops:

Table 1: The Germanic Voiceless Stops in Old English Germanic Old English Old English Old English sound letter sound word [p] p [p] pæð “path”, pipe “pipe”, cēap “cattle” [t] t [t] tūr “tower”, turtla “turtle”, æt “at” [k] c [k] candel “candle”, clufu “clove”, bōc “book” [č] cinn “chin”, cernan “churn”, dīc “ditch” [kw] cw [kw] cwēn “woman”, cwellan “to kill”

Source: (Brinton and Arnovick, 2006).

Except for the sound c, there is a certain correspondence between the written form and the sound. The sound c stands for thr voiceless stop [k] only when it occurs before back vowels (a, o, u), after back vowels (at the end of words), when it is doubled ( loc “lock”) and when placed before consonants. But, before front vowels, between and after front vowels (at the end of the words) it becomes the voiceless affricate [č], e. g. līc “body”.

The [k] stays, if it occurs between the front and a back vowel ( brecan “to break”). Finally, the sounds [č] and [k] represent variants or allophones of the same sound. The second comaprisson is between the Germanic and Old English voiced stops:

Table 2: The Germanic Voiced Stops in Old English Germanic Old English Old English Old English sound letter sound word [b] b [b] bedd “bed”, ymbe “about”,

[d] d [d] dol “stupid”, hund “dog”, īdel “idle” [g] 3 [g] gold “gold”, guma “man”

[j] gīet “yet”, fæger “fair”, dæg “day”

[ǳ] lagu “law”, dragan “drag”, sl ōg “struck” Source: (Brinton and Arnovick, 2006).

If we look at the table 2 we can see, that there is also a correspondence between the written and the spoken form. Nevertheless, there is an exception; namely the sound 3 or [g]. It is the voiced stop, at the beginning ( gāl “lust”) and in the middle position ( wegas “ways”) of a word before back vowels, before consonants ( glæd “glad”), in the sound ng ( singan “to sing”) and when it is doubled ( frogga “frog”).

When the sound [g] is in the position before a front vowel ( gēar “year”) , between front vowels ( þegen “thane”) and after the front vowels at the end of the word (bodig “body”), it becomes a palatal glide [j]. In every other position it stands for the voiced velar fricative or [ ǳ] in words boga (bow), plōg (plow), halga (holy).

The following group represents the Germanic fricatives that were used in Old English:

Table 3: The Germanic Fricatives in Old English Germanic Old English Old English Old English word sound letter sound [s] s [s] sæt “sat”, hūs “house”, ēast “east” [z] wīse “wise”, frēosan “freeze”

[f] f [f] fisc “fish”, æfter “after”, hōf “hoof” [v] ofer “over”, lifde “lived”

[θ] ð or þ [θ] þæt “that”, tōð “tooth”, haraþ “wood” [ð] weorþlic “worthy”, hoðma “darkness”, [x] h [h] hord “hoard”, here “troop”

[ç] fliht “flight”, mihtig “might”

[x] mearh “horse”, fūht “damp”

Source: (Brinton and Arnovick, 2006).

Opposite to the voiceless and voiced stops, these sounds do not have the correspondence between the written and spoken form. The pronunciation of these sounds is not the same in every phonetic environment. The symbols ð or þ, s , f transform into voiced fricatives ð, z, v when placed between voiced sounds (maðum “treasure”, mase “small bird”, efne “even”).

Then, the voiceless fricatives θ, s , f are placed either in the starting or final position of a word, beside the voiceless consonant ( þicce “thick”, sōð “truth”, fūs “eager”). The occurance of the switch between voiceless and voiced is predictable (the variations are called allophones). In the case of doubled sounds, the fricatives (ff, θθ, ss) are no longer voiced ( offrian “offer”, oþþe “or”, cyssan “kiss”).

The use of the sound [x] is more complicated. In the starting position before a vowel it stands for the sound [h] ( hægel “hail”). In other positions it stands for the sound [x] ( dohtor “daughter”). However, ther is one exception, when it occurs after a front vowel, it becomes palatalized or the palatal fricative [ç] ( riht “right”). Then, there is a group of liquids, nasals and glides:

Table 4: The Germanic Nasals and Approximants in Old English Germanic Old English Old English Old English word sound letter sound [n] n [n] nytt “use”, ganot “sea bird”, ellen “zeal” [ŋ] hring “ring”, sinc “treasure”

[m] m [m] mund “palm”, plÿme “plum”, holm “sea” [l] l [l] lamb “lamb”, meloc “milk”, cōl “cool” [r] r [r] rāp “rope”, daroð “dart”, sār “sore” [j] 3 [j] gēar “year”, geoc “yoke”

[w] [w] winnan “win”, wund “wound” Source: (Brinton and Arnovick, 2006).

The sounds [ŋ] and [n] are allophones. [ŋ] is placed exclusively before [k] and [g], [n] appears in every other position. The last pair of Old English consonants represent the voiceless alveolopalatal fricative and voiced alveolopalatal affricate: [š], which is spelled sc ( fisc “fish”), [j ˇ], which is spelled cg ( ecg “edge”), later it is spelled dg .

The letter x stands for the sound [ks] ( max “net”). In Modern English this sound is still used in wrds like fox , ox , oxygen , ect. The symbol z stands for the sound [ts] (miltse “mercy”). It was not often used in Old English. It is not very frequent in Modern English either, it occurs in the word pizza .

8.2.2 Old English vowels

Old English vowel system remained more or less the same as the Germanic one. It includes short and long vowels. They were very important because they distinguish meanings of words ( gōd “good” and god “god”). The characteristic of long vowels was their length and tenseness. On the other hand, short vowels were lax. Still, Old English vowels are difficult to describe because the length of vowels was usually not marked in manuscripts. The reason was that people from this period were able to distingusih the form and meaning of a word from the context. Today, the symbol called macron ( ), the short line above the letter, is used to indicate the vowel's length.

The comparisson between the Germanic and Old English vowels will be presented in a table bellow for the sake of a better visualization. First, I will introduce the vowels that were adopted from the Germanic and remained more or less unchanged. There are fourteen of these vowels.

Table 5: The Germanic vowels in Old English Germanic Old English Old English Old English word sound letter sound [ī] ī [ī] bīdan “stay” [i] i [i] biddan “ask” [ē] ē [ē] fēddan “feed” [e] e [ε] tellan “count” [ū] ū [ū] lucan “lock” [u] u [u] wunian “inhabit” [ō] ō [ō] lōcian “look” [o] o [o] folgian “follow”

[ ǃ] ǃ [ǃ] ǃr “before”

[ǡ] ǃ, a [æ] or [ ǡ] sæt “sat”, habban “have” [ā] and [ai] ā [ā] hātan “command”

[au] ēa [ǃə] scēawian “look” [iu] ēo [ēə] scēotan “shoot” Source: (Brinton and Arnovick, 2006).

As we mentioned above, there were not many significant changes in Old English vowels. The sound [ ǡ] is divided into [æ] and [ ǡ]. The latter occurs in front of back vowels (in the succeeding syllables), in front of the sound [w] and nasals., the sound [æ] occurs in every other position. Although the Germanic vowel system was accepted in Old English, four new vowels occured, shown in table 6.

Table 6: New vowels in Old English Old English letter Old English sound Old English word

Ӯ [Ӯ] hӮrian “hire” y [y] yippan “manifest” ea [æə] ealdian “grow old” eo [εə] weorpan “cast out” Source: (Brinton and Arnovick, 2006).

The sound [ Ӯ] is a high front vowel which is articulated similarly as [i] but with rounding of the lips.

Two very important changes occured in Old English vowel system. The first one was the conditioned sound change called umlaut or mutation. “In umlaut, the vowel either moves directly forward in the mouth [u > y, o > e, a> æ] or forward and up [a > æ > e]... (Brinton and Arnovick, 2006).”

Ӯ < ū y< u j < ō e < o ǃ < ā æ < a

Source: (Brinton and Arnovick, 2006).

In this case, the articulation of these sounds is similar to the articulation of the vowel i or glide j in the succeeding syllable. This is phenomena is called a regressive assimilation . When the sound is in its raised position or it is fronted, the sound i either changes to e or is dropped. The sound j is dropped in every situation, except when it occurs after r. Let us take, for example, the Germanic root dōm (judgement), the suffix –jan was added to it. The sound j leads to the umlaut of the vowel o to the vowel e. When this happens, j is dropped ( dēman “to judge”). These changes had been completed by the period, when first written records were made.

Further, we will look at some changes from Germanic that occured in Old English vowels concerning umlaut: a > æ > e (when placed before nasals); Angel “Angle ” + isc: Englisc “English”, a > æ; talu “tale” + jan: tællen “to tell”,

ā > ǃ; hāl “hale” + jan: hǃlan “to heal”, æ > e; sæt “sat” + jan: settan “to set”, ō > e; gōs “goose” + iz: ges “geese”, o > e; ofst “haste” + jan: efstan “to make haste”,

ū > Ӯ; rūm “spacious” + jan: rӮman “to make spacious ”

u > y; full “full” + jan: fyllan “to fill”.

The occurance of umlaut was very important because many of inflectional endings incuded an i and j, e. g. the plural of nouns, adjectives, even comparatives and derivational endings. The “consequences” of these changes are still present in Modern English.

They occur in irregular plural of nouns (goose/geese), adjectives derived from nouns (Angel/English), verbs derived from adjectives (full/fill), verbs derived from nouns (food/feed), transitive verbs derived from intransitive verbs (fall/fell), ect.

Moreover, umlaut also had an influence on the occurance of the irregular consonants in Old English, but this happened later, e. g. in the word clēan ,which means “to cool”, the first sound [c] is articulated as [k] and not [č]. The reason for this irregularity is that the mentioned word has a back vowel, that is why the process of palatalization did not happen.

The second change, caused by umlaut, is a process called breaking . This means that some vowels were diphthongized when they were adopted from Germanic to Old English. These vowels are: short and long i, short e and short and long æ. But, these changes do not occur, unless the mentioned vowels stand before some sequences of consonants; for example, before h (either with a following consonant or without), l (with some other consonant) and r (also with some other consonant). However, this is not the case when we refer to æ. The sound [æ] undergoes changes in all cases. Here are some examples:

e > eo [ ǫə]; selh > seolh “seal” or herte > heorte “heart”,

ǃ > ēa; nǃh > nēah “near”, æ > ea [æə]; hærd > heard “hard” or fællan > feallan “to fall” i > io [iə]; tihhian > tiohhian “to consider”, ī > īo [īə]; betwīh > betwīoh “betwixt” and some others.

8.3 The period of Middle English (a short review)

The most significant event, from the linguistic point of view, that happened in the period of Middle English was a Norman invasion in 1066 . The invadors came from Normandy (today France), however, they were Scandinavians, who inhabited france. This happened in the ninth and tenth century, approximately at the same time they were conquering Northern England. The Scandinavians, who lived in France adjusted to the French culture. They learnt French, adopted new religion Christianity and also law, unlike the Scandinavians in England.

They moved the capital from Winchester to London. The king of England (who was of Norman descent) replaced English noblemen with Normans. They understood English, for some had wives of English descent. Nevertheless, for nearly two centuries, the nobility of England spoke only French language. Other population on the isle spoke the English language (approximately 90 per cent). There was also a small number of bilingual speakers because of mixed marriages, business, ect. (merchants, monks and knights).

In this period there were three languages that were used. First was Latin. This was formal language mainly used in law. The second was French which was spoken from the thirteenth century forward (written records of it originate from English monasteries). It was also used in court. The last one is English. There were also some written records found like Peterborough Chronicle and some others. With the exception of these works, English was for two centuries only spoken. Because of this lackage of written texts (between the eleventh and the twelfth century) it was strongly subjected to linguistic changes. On of the other reasons for linguistic change in this period were also different dialects of English, although, there was no genral dialect. English was not appreciated, it was marked as the lower dialect and was “used” mainly by workers, pheasants, ect., while French was considered as the prestige dialect. On the other hand, the French spoken by the Normans in England (Norman French) was considered the lower dialect in comparisson to the French spoken in Paris. Then, in the thirteenth and fourteent century, the influence of French started diminishing. Ther reason for this was that only nobility had spoken it, therefore, it was considered aloof.

In the middle of the fourteenth century, England and France started the Hundred Years War. English victories raised their sense of nationalism. English speaking working class was gaining political power. The population of the middle class of craftsmen and merchants was increasing. Because of all these changes, the English language was slowly regaining its value.

It was the prestige dialect and at the same time the dialect of the working class. Gradually it occured in schools and was also present at judicial hearings (not in the royal court). In the fourtheenth century English literature was “blooming”. One of the most known representatives of this period is Geoffrey Chaucer and his Cantenbury Tales .

8.3.1 Changes in consonants

The consonant system of Middle English was more or less the same as that from Old English. The only exception was a greater number of distinctive sounds. The cause for this exception was a so called phonemicization ; a process, where seperate phonemes are derived from allophones of one phoneme. For example, the pairs of sounds [θ] and [ð], [s] and [z], and [f] and [v] from Old English are the allophones (voiceless and voiced variants) of one phoneme. The voiceless sounds are placed in the beginning and the end of a word, and beside a voiceless sound. The voiced are positioned in the middle of a word. However, in the Middle English the palcement or the environment of the sounds was not so important for their determination.

For this, there are internal and external causes: The sounds [z] and [v], placed in the initial position of words (zone, virtue, ect.), were borrowed from French. In English, they had never occured in this position. Articulation of double consonants, shuch as ss , θθ , ff , was simplified ( s, θ, f). The consequence was that the voiceless sounds were also positioned in the middle of the word, e. g. offren , missen . Final –e was dropped. This lead the sounds [θ], [v] and [z] to be placed at the end of words, where there were [ð], [f] and [s] in Old English. When the sound [θ] occured at the beginning of unstressed words (pronouns, demonstratives, ect.), it changed into a voiced variety [ð] (the, their, then, ect.).

Earlier it was mentioned, that there were not many very obvious changes in a consonant system of Middle English. They did not affect the whole system. Nevertheless, there is one exception, which caused significant consequences in the Middle English grammar. This was omission of the unstressed final sound n. The changes that occured in the Middle English consonant will be presented bellow in the table 7.

Table 7: Consonant Changes from Old English to Middle English simplification of a consonant cluster [hr, hn, hl > r, n, l] OE hrōf, hnecca, hlid > ME roof, necke, lid

[hw] > [w] (in the South) OE hwæt > ME wat, what

[wl] > [l] OE wlispian > ME lispe(n) [d, t] > Ø in clusters with s OE andswaru, godspell, betst > ME answere, gospel, best

loss of a consonant [w, v] > Ø OE lāwerce, hlāford > ME larke, lord

[w] between a consonant and OE swā > ME so a back vowel > Ø [č] in unstressed syllables OE līce > ME –ly

[l] before [č] > Ø OE ǃlc, swulc > ME ech, such

merger in unstressed syllable [m] and [n] to [n], subsequent OE sittan, oxum > ME sitte, oxe loss of [n] addition of a consonant (or intrusion) [d] inserted between [n] and [r], [n] OE ganra, spinel, ealre > ME gander, and [l], [n] and [s], [l] and [r] spindel, alder [b] inserted between [m] and [l], [m] OE slūmere > ME slumbere(n) and [r]

[p] inserted between [m] and [t] OE ǃmtig > ME empty excrescent [t] OF (Old French) ancien > ME ancien(t) vocalization

[jŰ] > [i] OE scīrgerēfa > ME shir(e)reve “sheriff”

[ǳ] > [w] after [l] or [r] OE belgan, morgen > ME belwen “bellow”, morwe metathesis [r] + vowel > vowel + [r] OE bridd, þridda > ME bird, third vowel + [r] > [r] + vowel OE fersc, þurh > ME fresh, through

stop + [s] > [s] + stop OE wæps > ME waspe metathesis of juncture OF naperon, noumpere ( ME an apron, an oumpere “umpire”, OE (an) ēacanama “an also name” > ME a nickname assimilation and dissimilation assimilation OE wīfmann, hænep, lēofmann, OF confort > ME wimman, hemp, lemman, comfort dissimilation OE noþirl > ME nostril

lenition* [d] > [ð] OE fader, mōdor > ME father, mother

voicing initial [f, s, θ] in Southern dialects OE fana, fæt, fixen > ME vane, vat, vixen

Source (Brinton and Arnovick, 2006).

8.3.2 Changes in vowels

The vowel system of Middle English had undergone changes, both, qualitative (place of articulation) and quantitative (length of vowels). First I will introduce qualitative changes.

8.3.2.1 Qualitative changes in Middle English vowel system

Table 8: Qualitative vowel changes from Old English to Middle English OE OE ME ME Example spelling sound sound spelling long: i [ī] [ī] i, y bītan > bite(n)

y [Ӯ] [ī] i, y lÿtel > litel u [ū] [ū] ou, ow brū > brow o [ō] [ō] o, oo gōd > good

a [ā] [long open Ǥ] o, oo bāt > boot (boat) e [ē] [ē] e, ee, ie gēs > geese

eo [ēǩ] [ē] e, ee, ie seoþan > seethe

æ [ǃ] [ē] e, ee, ie str ǃt > strete

ea [ǃǩ ] [long open ε] e, ee strēam > stre(e)m 10 æ [ǃ] [long open ε] e, ee cl ǃne > clene

short: i, y [I] [I] i fisc > fissh

y [Y] [I] i cynn > kin

u [Ț] [Ț] u, v, o bucca > bukke (buck)

o [Ǥ] [Ǥ] o frogga > frogge

e [ǫ] [ǫ] e bedd > bede

eo [ǫǩ] [ǫ] e seofon > seven

ea [æǩ] [ǡ] a, e healf > half

a [ǡ] [ǡ] a, e catt > cat

æ [æ] [ǡ] a, e bæc > bak Source (Brinton and Arnovick, 2006).

10 From umlaut.

If we focus on these changes, we can see that the long [Ӯ] shifted to [ī], the short [y] became [I]. This happeened because of unrounding. The long [ā] from Old English became long [Ǥ] (except in the North, where it was kept). Another such novelty was two long o's , written in the same manner. They could not distinguish them, so they came up with a new symbol for the lower open [Ǥ], namely ǋ (the “open o”). Later (in

Modern English), the upper (“close”) o or ō is found as [u], [Ț] and [ ǩ], spelled oo in words moo, hook , wood , ect. The open o is found as [o Ț], spelled o followed by silent e or oa in words note , groan , loan , ect. Moreower, the Old English diphthongs (short and long) changed into monophthongs; ea into æ, and eo into e. The sound æ has undergone a few changes, first it changed to [ē] in the period of Old English, then, in the period of Middle English it shifted (with e and eo ) to the long [ē]. The long æ (which was a consequence of umlaut) joined with the diphthong ea into the long e.

The same as the long open Ǥ, it is named “open e”, at times written with a hook ę. In Modern English, these two sounds are not separated and are represented as [i].

There are just few changes in the short vowels of Middle English beside the ones already mentioned (the unrounding and monophthongization). The only noticeable change was the joining of a short a and æ into [ǡ]. The diphthongs from the period of Old English dissapeared in Middle English, but at the same time new ones evolved:

[æI] spelled ey, ay, ai, ei,

[aȚ] spelled aw, au

[IȚ] spelled oy, oi,

[IȚ] spelled ew, eu,

[ǫu] spelled ew, eu,

[ǤȚ ] spelled ow, ou and

[ǤI] spelled oy, oi.

These diphthongs were created by very complicated processes, namely: vocalization of [w] to [ Ț] when they are in the position after the vowels [ ǡ], [ē], [ī], [ō]. From this the diphthongs [aȚ], [ ǫu], [ Iu] and [ ǤȚ ] emerged, for example strawe , fewe , newe , glowen .

The second one is vocalization of Ȣ. There are two varieties. The first variety is of [j] to [ I] when placed in the position after the front vowels. The sound made is [æI], e. g. gray . The second one is of [ ǳ] to [ Ț] when it occurs after back vowels. The sounds produced are [aȚ] and [ ǤȚ ], e. g. lawe , owen .

The third process is borrowing. Two diphthongs were imported from French, namely

[IȚ] and [ ǤI], for example joyen , noise .

The last one is occurance of a glide in front of h [x], namely [ I] after the front vowels or [ Ț] after the back vowels. The sound made in the first case is [æI], and in the second case [aȚ] and [ ǤȚ ], for example eighte , taught , dough .

8.3.2.2 Quantitative changes in Middle English vowel system

These changes refer to the length of vowels and at times also consonants. They usually lead to the changes in intonation (accent). The cause for this are the French borrowings, which were adopted in the period of Middle English. One of these changes was lenghthening. Lenghthening of the words was also recorded in the period of Old English. They used clusters like –ld , mb , rd , ect. But, some of those were then dropped.

At the beginning of the thirteenth century an open syllable lengthening occured. “ ... a short stressed vowel in an open syllable of a twosyllable word (normally the first syllable of the word) is lengthened. An open syllable is one which ends in a vowel (Brinton and Arnovick, 2006).” The process of an open syllable lengthening in the first palce influencs short stressed sounds [a] (OE talu > ME tāle), [æ] (OE æcer >

ME āker “acre”) , [ǫ] (OE peru > ME pēre “pear”), [Ǥ] (OE open > ME ōpen), and after that also [i] (OE wice > ME wēke) and [u] (OE duru > ME dōre). It also had an influence on occurance of irregularities in singular and plural forms, e. g. wish wīshes. The short vowel ī in the word wish is in a closed syllable. In plural, the ending –es occurs at the end of the word. The syllable is now open and, consequently, the vowel becomes extended.

The other important process in the period of Middle English is the shortening of vowels. It influences on all unstressed long vowels, e. g. OE āwacan > ME awaken “awake”), stressed long vowels before a consonant cluster, (e.g. OE l ēo fmann > ME lēmman “sweethart”, OE ǃfre > ME ever, ect. This type of linguistic change caused several anomalies in verbs that we can also find in Modern English (keepkept, feed fed, feelfelt, ect.) and vowels. The changes occured between compounded and uncompounded words (threethirteenthirty, wisewisdom, ect.). Lastly, it influences stressed long vowels that occur in front of two or more unstressed syllables (OE hāligdæg > ME h oliday, OE cr īstendom > ME Chr istendom, ect.).

Then, there is one more type of shortening vowels, that is responsible for some irregularities in the period of Modern English (for example holyholiday, Christ Christemdom) as well as in Middle English in singular and plural forms (s ādel sadeles “saddle”, cr ādelcr adeles “cradle”, ect.). In the singular form of a word the long vowel is caused by the open syllable lengthening, but in the plural form a short vowel occurs in front of two unstressed syllables. Nevertheless, the most significant change in Middle English, concerning its sounds, was the reduction of vowels.

8.4 Reduction of vowels in Middle English

“Reduction is the centralization and laxing of vowels to schwa [ǩ] in many syllables other than those with primary stress (Brinton and Arnovick, 2006). ” Along with one more agent (analogy), they cause inflections to “level”, this means that they combine into few distinct forms. These two agents also lead to the omission of inflections. There are two types of leveling. The first one (happend approximately in eleventh century) is combining of the unstressed sounds a, o and u with e and consequently their contraction to [ǩ]: OE bānas > ME bōnes, OE glad ost > ME glad est, OE tal u > ME tal e.

In all of the examples above, a vowel in the final syllable changes to e (articulated as

[ǩ]). In words that have more than two syllables (OE mac odon > ME mak ede(n)) the omission of any of unstressed vowel can occur.

The second one following is the final e's silencing and omission of medial e's (this happened the twelfth century). The reduced [ǩ] was silenced, but in some cases it was preserved in the spelling. First, the final e's were reduced (this is called apocope ) in unaccented words (OE whanne > ME whan). Then, in the thirteenth and fourteenth century the final e's were lost in all other words. The consequence was omission of inflectional endings formed only of a vowel..

Next, medial e was lost (this phenomena is called syncope ). This influenced on suffixes and root syllables in polysyllabic words. In the ending –es, the vowel e was ommited in all cases, except when placed after the sibilants [č, ǐ, s, š, z, ž], for example, in Modern English, crutches , badges , classes , bushes , houses , garages .

In the ending –ed, the sound e was not lost in past participles (when funcioned as adjectives, e.g. aged, learned, ect.), as well as in the endings –er , est and –en (in the past participle, e.g. bitten, broken, ect.). Lastly, it has to be mentioned that both, the vowel reduction and loss, were unconscious processes.

8.5 The period of Early Modern English (a short review)

This period began approximately in 1500 and lasted until 1700, soon after the printing press was imported to England. The man who introduced the printing press to the Island was William Caxton. This provided more opportunities for the people to access the written literature. More and more people became literate.The period of Early Modern English comprises English Renaissance and the Age of Reason. It is also known for the establishment of a standard dialect at the beginning of the period, which is considered to be a great improvement in the development of the English language. One other very significant change occured in this period, namely the Great Vowel Shift. However, there were also other phonological changes. The language itself is very similar to the one of Modern English. The most important representative of Middle English literature is William Shakespeare. We also have to mention King James with his translated version of the Bible. In the next chapter, I will introduce the most significant change in phonology, namely the Great Vowel Shift.

8.5.1 The Great Vowel Shift

The Great Vowel Shift was a phenomena that occured in the South England (from the twelfth to sixteenth century) and affected the Middle English vowels and also consonants. Experts in the field of Phonology can not come to an agreement whether there was in fact one shift or there were many single shifts and they all together influenced on the long vowels.

Still, these changes can be compared, in their dimension and significance, to the ones of the First Sound Shift that happened in the prehistory of language. The influence of the Vowel Shift was very extensive, it affected every phonological sphere. Long or stressed vowels were raised (some of them even more than one position). High vowels like [ī] and [ū] became diphthongs. Because of this change, there was an empty space left at the top of the vowel gird and lower vowels could fill IN this space by moving upwards.

Not long ago, the experts came up with another possibility. They claim that the sounds [ē] and maybe also [ō] could have been the first two to undergo the change. By their raising, they “forced” the high vowel out from their position and “draged” the lower upwards. The reasons for these changes are not known. Maybe they were connected with the accental changes or changes of English phonetic system.

8.5.1.1 Characteristics of the Great Vowel Shift

“Consequences” of the Shift will be represented in table 9. Individual changes will be discussed bellow the table.

Table 9: Details of the Great Vowel Shift OE OE ME ME 15 th – 17 th – ModE ModE vowel examples vowel letter 16 th c. 18 th c. examples letter

[ī] rīdan [ī] i, y [ǩí > ǩɓI] [aI] ride i, y

[Ӯ] bī by mӮs mice [ē] fēdan [ē] e, ee [ī] [i] feed ee, ie

[ēǩ] dēop deep

[ǃ] str ǃt street þēof thief

[ǃ] dǃl long e, ee [ē > ē ] [ēI/i ] deal ee, ea

[ǃǩ] bēatan open leaf nǃdl ǫ needle ēast east

[ǡ] nama [ā] a, aa [ǃ > long [eI] name a

talu open ǫ > ē] tale lanu lane

[ū] mūs [ū] ou, ow [ǩȚɓ> ǩɓȚ] [a Ț] mouse ou, ow hūs house nū now

[ō] fōda [ō] o, oo [ū] [u/ Ț/ǩ] food oo fōt foot gōd good

[ā] hām long o, oo [ō] [oȚ] home o, oa pāl open Ǥ pole bāt boat Source (Brinton and Arnovick).

The process of diphthongization of the high vowels went straight on. The sound [ǩ] occured in the fifteenth century before the vowel and caused formation of the rising diphthongs [ǩí] and [ǩȚɓ]. But in the sixteenth century, these two turned int falling diphthongs [ǩɓI] and [ǩɓȚ]. The articulation of the sound [ū] became similar to the articulation of ou or ow . In the sixteenth century the sound [ō] shifted to [long open

Ǥ] and the sound [ō] shifted to [ū]. [o] was diphthonized to [oȚ]. The sound [u] was exposed two modifications, namely it was loosened to [ Ț] (pool, mood, good, ect.) and became centralized to [ǩ] . The vowel [ā] became [ ǃ] in the fifteenth century. In the sixteenth century it shifted to long open ǫ and at the end (in the seventeenth century), to [ē]. However, in the period of Modern English, the sound [e] became [ēI]. Then, [ē] was shifted to [i]. It is thought to be the first long vowel to be shifted. The long open ǫ moved to [ē] (in the sixteenth century). It is interesting, that there were many different varieties of pronunciation of ǫ.

To sum up, there are two significant consequences of the Great Vowel Shift. The first one is that the difference between short and long vowels (existing in the both periods of Old and Middle English) dissapeared. The tense vowels and diphthongs substituted long vowels.There are also the qualitative and quantitative changes of Middle English vowel system, which were discussed above that have to be mentioned. The second consequence is confusion in English spelling. The Old and Middle English stressed vowels were spelled and pronounced nearly the same. The introduction of the printing press to England set a standard spelling. This spelling system did not record the changes in pronunciation, when the long vowels shifted. We can say that The Great Vowel Shift made a dividing line between the Middle and Modern English.

8.5.1.2 Short vowels and diphthongs

The long vowels were subject to major changes, while, the short vowels stayed more or less unchanged (of course there were also exceptions):

ME [ǡ] > EModE [a] > [æ] (lamb, band, cat, ect),

ME [ǫ] > EModE [ǫ] (wet, get, let, ect.),

ME [I] > EModE [I] (knit, pit, king, ect.),

ME [Ǥ] > EModE [Ǥ, ǡ] (frog, job, hobby, ect.),

ME [Ț] > EModE [Ț], [ǩ] (cool, fool, buddy, buck, ect.).

Short [ǡ] became low central [a] and later shifted to [æ] (when followed by the labiodental fricative, e. g. half). However, when [l] and a consonant succed this [ǡ], the latter changes to [Ǥ]. Then, in the eighteenth century the short [æ] shifted back to

[ǡ] in England. Most of the new varieties of the English language did not adopt this sound, instead, they preserved [æ]. If we look at the vowels [ǫ] and [I], we can see that they did not change at all. The sound [Ǥ] was not changed much, except in North

America. Middle English [Ț] was divided into two variants [Ț] and [ǩ]. The former is placed between labialas and [l] (bull, pull) and between labials and [č] or [š] (butcher, bush). The variant [ǩ] is usually found in other cases (glove, dove).

On the other hand, the diphthongs went through many changes:

ME [æI] > EModE [ ǃ] > [long open ǫ] > [ē] > [eI],

ME [aȚ] > EModE [ Ǥ, ǡ],

ME [ǤȚ ] > EModE [ long open Ǥ] > [ō] > [oȚ],

ME [ǫȚ] and [IȚ] > EModE [ Iu, u],

ME [ǤI] and [ȚI] > EModE [ǤI].

The diphthong [æI] changed into [ ǃ], The Great Vowel Shift changed it into [ē] and then into [eI] (way, tail, vain, ect.). The sound [aȚ] became monophthong [ Ǥ] or [ ǡ, Ǣ] in North America (fall, call, cause, ect.). The [ǤȚ ] shifted to [ long open Ǥ], the Great

Vowel Shift raised it to [ō] and after that to [oȚ] (glow, flow, know, ect.). In the sixteenth century, thevowels [ǫȚ] and [IȚ] were united into [ Iu]. This diphthong still exists in Modern English, although, some people pronounce it as [u] if it follows the alveolars (feud, interview, new, ect). The vowels [ǤI] and [ȚI] joined into [ǤI]. It is generally spelled oi or oy (joy, soy, void, coin, ect.).

8.5.2 Consonant changes

Aside to the changes in the Early Modern English vowel system, brought by the Great Vowel Shift, there were also many significant changes in the consonant system. Two important modifications ocured, namely the introduction of a pair of new phonemes [ŋ] and [ž] and at the same time the omission of another (this had two variants [x] and [ç]). The former is voiceless velar fricative and the latter is voiceles palatal fricative. By the beginning of the seventeenth century they were omitted in majority of cases. Today, the spelling gh is preserved, which is unpronounced (tight, fight, dough). One of the variants of the sound [x] was [f], which preserved till Modern English (cough, tough, plough, ect.).

Moreover, a lot of consonant clusters were simplified. For example: liquids were omitted in some positions ([r] in front of [s]; burstbust), [l] after [Ǥ] and [ ǡ] and in front of laterals when combined with nasals or velars). The sound [w] disappeared in combination with [r] (wrong, wright, wrap, ect.).

Stops were omitted in several cases: [ftn] >[fn] (soften, often), [stl] > [sl] (whistle, hustle), [stn] > [sn] (fasten, listen), [nds] > [ns] (hands, landscape), [mb] > [m] (numb, bomb), [gn] > [n] (gnaw, gnarl), [kn] > [n] (knee, knight).

The sounds [gn] or [mb] were not practicable in all positions, nevertheless, the consonant, that was silenced, was preserved in the spelling. Ther was also a shortenig of the consonant cluster [ŋg] to [ŋ] (only in the final position of a word, in a stressed syllable). When placed in the medial position of a word, the [g] was preserved. However, when the cluster [ŋg] was in unstressed syllables, it changed into [n], e.g. nothing (this pronounciation occurs in the colloquial speech. The [ In] sound (the pronounciation of –ing) was standardized in the nineteenth century. This is evident from “inverse spellings”. The words muslin and ruin were spelled with g at the end (muzling , ruinge ). The g was added where it should not be. But later, the cluster [ŋg] became standard spelling pronunciation for –ing .

There is one important change, that affected consonants, namely palatalization. Palatalization began in Old English but it became more “expanded” in the period of Modern English. It can occur in the middle of the word, between an unstressed and stressed syllable, in the fast speech, it can even appear between words. This process influenced many consonants. For example, fricatives and alveolar stops changed into alveolopalatal affricates and fricatives with a palatal glide (t + j > č (question, puncture, fracture, etc.), z +j > š (session, omission, occasion, ect.), z + j > ž

(pleasure, occasion, measure, ect.), d + j > ǐ (residual, individual, grandeur, ect.)). The palatal glide still exists in Modern English, however, it does not always occur in the spelling.

8.6 The period of Modern English

The last period of the English language is that of Late Modern English, which lasted approximately from the year 1700 to 1900. In Late Modern English there were not any explicit or drastic phonological changes. One of the changes worth mentioning is the introduction of English plain style in contrast to the richness of the language in early ages. Another change was the extended use of English around the world. It has became a global language that almost all people understand and speak. In the period of Early Modern English the phonological changes were extensive and very well established, therefore, there were no important movements in this area. But there were many grammatical changes.

The English language developed its regional and national varieties. It spread from the British Isles and created numerous national varieties of English, that still exist, like North American, Canadian, Australian, South African, New Zealand, West Indian, ect. It also developed its regional varieties, like Welsh, Standard Scottish and Hiberno English (spoken in Ireland).

“ According to Ethnologue, there are over 508 million speakers of English as a first or second language as of 1999, a number dwarfed only by the Chinese language in terms of the number of speakers .[...] Its large number of speakers, plus its worldwide presence, have made English a common language for use in such diverse applications as controlling airplanes, developing software, conducting international diplomacy, and business relations (gained on 15. 8. 2008, from http://www. Nation master.com/encyclopedia/Modern_English). ”

In the following section I will introduce the phonological differences between two most “popular” dialects of English, that is British and North American English.

8.6.1 The phonological differences between British and North American English

A very important event for the development of English language happened with the British colonialization of North America around 1640. North American English is the basis of Canadian, Puerto Rico, Panama, Liberia, Hawaii (ect.) English. On the other hand, British English is the basis of all other varieties. North American English is believed to be conservative. The reason for this statement is its preservation of characteristics of English from the eighteenth century (a lot of immigrants moved from the North of England, Scotlandand Ireland to North America, these remote places were not much affected by linguistic changes and innovations, which originated from London or southern England).

The pronunciations of North American and British English are different from region to region. British English is thought to be a prestige dialect, also called Received Pronunciation. North American English regional dialect is also reffered to as General American. If we comapre these two varieties, we can see, that North American English is a rothic dialect, which means that the sound [r] was maintained before consonants and also in the final position of words, e. g. car , warm , ect. On the other hand, in the eighteenth century British English lost the sound [r] in these positions and is therefore not rothic. Although, there is one exception. It is possible for the sound [r] to be pronounced in final position of a word, when it preceedes a word bwginning with a vowel, e. g. far away .

Another characteristic of North American Englis is the preservation of the sound [æ] in the next cases: before f (staff), before f + a consonant (after), before m + a consonant (exam), before n + a consonant (chance), before s (grass), before s + a consonant (ask) and before θ (math).

In these cases the British English sound [æ] shifted to [ ǡ] towards the end of the eighteenth century. However, this change is not concluded. The mentioned sound can be found in similar phonetic situations (gas, mascot, romance, ect.).

The next difference is the pronunciation of the words like moan , groan , loan , goat , ect. with [oȚ], whereas in British English they are pronounced with the diphthong

[ǨȚ], which is more centralized.

There are two innovations in North American English that have not occured in British English. The first is that the sound [t], when placed between two vowels and follows a stressed syllable, is voiced, and changes to [d] or a flap consonant [ Ȏ]11 . Words like latter /ladder , matter /madder , metal /medal ,ect. sound similar to the most of North American English speakers. The second innovation is the omission of [t] when in position after the sound [n] (interesting, winter, plenty, ect.). Then, in North

American English the diphthong [ Iu] changes to te monophthong [u] when succeeding alveolars (student, nude, Tuseday, ect.). In other positions the diphthong is preserved.

11 “A flap [ Ȏ] is a speech sound made by rapidly striking the tongue against the roof of the mouth (Brinton and Arnovick, 2006). ”

In British English working – class dialects the sound [h] was dropped in the initial position in syllables and words (hot, happy, home, ect.). This phenomena is marked as uneducated. The working – class of North American English speakers has preserved this sound. There are also many other phonological differences between these two varieties of English but are not so extensive, and often limited to variant pronunciantions of single words.

9. CONCLUSION

Language is a system of set rules, used for the means of communitation (exchange of information, expressions of opinions, attitudes, emotions, ect.). The ability of communicating is not given only to people but also to other living beings, like animals and plants. However, only human languge is symbolic in its meaning. It is the fact that every language in the world changes all the time, and consequently, all of the componets of a languages change, too. Changes in one component cause changes in others. These changes are called linguistic changes, namely modifications of langage components.One of their characteristics is that they are very unpredictable and unavoidable. They occur because of various reasons, shuch as economic, social, religious, the influence of other (more dominant or popular) languages, the need for new vocabulary (in the case of inventions) ect. Opinions about these changes are very different. Some welcome and accept them and others try to »resist« them due to different motives, like nostalgia and anxiety for linguistic purity. This anxiety arises from the fear, that languages will be simplified, chaotic and less expressive. Another thing is, that the changes can not be controlled, individuals can not stop them, although there were many attempts, yet, they were not successful. However, it is possible to slow them down.

The period of Old English is the first period of the English language development. The first written records of English were found at that time. Old English language is very difficult to understand nowadays. It is very different from Modern English, as if it was a completely different language. Its vocabulary was mainly of the Germanic origin, it comprised many different dialects. This era brought new alphabet, adopted from Irish missionaries, called Latin Alphabet. But, there were also some sybols taken from the Runic alphabet. The consonants and vowels of that periods were changed. In consonants, there were some differences between their written form and pronuciation, especially in fricatives. The Old English vowels did not change much, the stayed relatively the same as the Germanic ones.

However, four new vowels were introduced in this period, namely [Ӯ], [y], [æə] and [εə]. There were also two very important changes, concerning Old English vowels. The first one was mutation called umlaut , where a vowel moves straight forward or forward and then up. The second one, which was caused by umlaut is called breaking or diphthongization of some vowels afopted from Germanic.

In the period of Middle English a very important event ocurred, namely the invasion of Normans. The significance of this event arises from the adoption of a new language – French, which was mainly spoken by nobility. Others spoke English, which was not appreciated and was marked as the lower dialect. In the thirteenth century the influence of French started weakening. And after the Hundred Years War English regained its value. There were not many changes in the Middle English consonants, except for a larger number of distinctive sounds and omission of the unstressed final consonant n. However, the Middle English vowels were subject to many changes, both qualitative (place of articulation) and quantitative (length of vowels). There were also seven new diphthongs that occured in this period. These were [æI], [ aȚ], [ IȚ], [ IȚ], [ ǫu], [ ǤȚ ] and [ ǤI]. One of the other changes was the reduction of vowels, which means that they were centralized and laxed to [ǩ] in many syllables, except in syllables with primary stress.

The period of Early Modern English brought the establishment of English standard dialect. The other very significant event was the Great Vowel Shift, which influenced as well as Middle English vowels as consonants. Long or stressed vowels were raised, high vowels were diphthongized and lower vowels moved upwards. In the consonant system two new phonemes were introduced ([ŋ] and [ž]). Then, a lot of consonant clusters were simplified. The sound [w] in position before [r] was lost. Hovewer, ther was one very important change concerning the consonants, namely palatalization , which affected many consonants.

The last period is the Modern English period. In this time, there was introduction of English plain style. The use of English around the world was very extensive. Different national varieties of English dialects occured, shuch as North American, Canadian, Australian, ect. The vowels and consonants from this period remained more or less the same as the ones from the Middle English period. In other words, there were not any major or significant changes in the field of phonology.

I will continue with my hypotheses:

Hypothesis 1 : Linguistic change cannot be controlled. This hypothesis can be confirmed. Studying the sources made me realize that linguistic change cannot be stopped or controlled because it is unpredictable and inevitable. However, there are some factors that slow it down, like language isolation, language tradition, mass media, ect.

Hypothesis 2 : All components of language undergo the linguistic change. The hypothesis number 2 can be confirmed. When a change happens in one segment of a language it casues changes in other segments. If changes occur in phonology, this affects morphology, ect.

Hypothesis 3 : The linguistic change is not good for the language itself. This hypothesis cannot be confirmed or confuted because there is no unified opinion on this subject. Some theorists appreciate it and think it is good (new vocabulary is needed every day), others are concened about it. The main concern is that of a language purity. Language is a part of an individual’s identity (national and ethnic) and when their identity is threathened, they protect it by protecting their language. Some also claim that linguistic change will cause its simplification, lackage of expressivenes of a language, chaos, ect.

Hypothesis 4 : The written form of a language does not change so quickly as the spoken form. The hypothesis number 4 can be confirmed. Written records of a language tend to slow down linguistic changes because they have stayed the same through the periods. For example, Old English has hundergone many changes also because there were not as many written records preserved as of the following periods. On the other hand, Early Modern English is very similar to the Modern English, because many written records have been preserved from that period. The spoken form is exceedingly subject to changes because there are no two speakers in the world that speak entirely the same.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Baugh, A. C. (1993). A History of the English Language (4th ed.). London: Routledge. Brinton, L. J. in Arnovick, L. K. (2006). The English Language: A Linguistic History . Ontario: Oxford University Press. Collins Cobuild English Dictionary (1995). London: HarperCollins Publishers. Croft, W. (2000). Explaining Language Change . New York: Longman. McMahon, A. (2002). An Introduction to English Phonology . Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Ltd.

Documented internet sources

English Diphthongs (b.d.). Pridobljeno 25. 7. 2008, iz http://www3.hi.is/~peturk/KENNSLA/02/TOP/VowelsDiphth.html Language change (b.d.). Pridobljeno 9. 7. 2008, iz http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_change Language definition (b.d.). Pridobljeno 8. 7. 2008, iz www.unixl.com/dir/education/languages/language_definition/ National Science Foundation/Mahoney, N. (2005). Language Change . V Language and linguistics . Pridobljeno 20. 7. 2008, iz http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/linguistics/intro.jsp Semantics (b.d.). Pridobljeno 10. 7. 2008, iz http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantics Sign (linguistics) (b.d.). Pridobljeno 20. 7. 2008, iz http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/sign_(linguistics) What is Language? (B.D.). Pridobljeno 8. 7. 2008, iz http://anthro.palomar.edu/language/language_2.htm

APPENDIX

Appendix A: Speech organs

Source (http://ispl.korea.ac.kr/~wikim/research/speech.html, gained on 15. 7. 2008).