Theme 4. Old English Spelling. Old English Phonology Aims
Theme 4. Old English Spelling. Old English Phonology Aims:
perceive phonetic irregularities between spelling and pronunciation; be able to account for major vowels and consonants changes that occurred in Old English Points for Discussion: Introduction 4. Consonants Changes in Old English 1. Spelling Irregularities 4.1. Voicing of fricatives in 2. The Phonetic Alphabet intervocal position 3. Vowel changes in Old 4.2. Palatalization of the English Sounds (c´, sc, cӡ) 3.1. Breaking (Fracture) 4.3. Assimilation before t 3.2. Palatal Mutation (i- 4.4. Loss of consonants in umlaut) certain positions 3.3. Diphthongization after 4.5. Metathesis of r Palatal Consonants 4.6. West Germanic 3.4. Back, or Velar Mutation gemination of consonants 3.5. Mutation before h. Conclusion 3.6. Contraction Key Terms to Know
monophthongs Back/Velar Mutation diphthongs Mutation before h Assimilation Contraction Breaking (fracture) Voicing of Fricatives Palatalization Palatalization of j Palatal mutation (i- Assimilation before t umlaut) Gemination of Diphthongization Consonants Recommended Literature
Obligatory
David Crystal. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language.– Cambridge, 1994.— PP. 16-19
Elly van Gelderen.A History of the English Language.- Amsterdam/ Philadelphia, 2006. -PP. 13-23
Valery V. Mykhailenko. Paradigmatics in the evolution of English. - Chernivtsi, - 1999. PP. 22-25; 30-35
T.A. Rastorguyeva. A History of English. - Moscow, 1983. - PP. 71- 92
L.Verba. History of the English language. - Vinnitsa, 2004. - PP. 30- 38 Additional:
Аракин В. Д. История английского языка. - М., 1985. - C. 31-45 Introduction “The English have no respect for their language, and will not teach their children to speak it. They cannot spell it because they had nothing to spell it with but an old foreign alphabet of which only the consonants – and not all of them – have any agreed speech value. Consequently no man can teach himself what it should sound like from reading it”. /G.B. Shaw, Pygmalion, Preface/ The Poem on Spelling Irregularities (source- unknown) I take it you already know Of tough and bough and cough and dough? Some many stumble but not you. On hiccough, thorough, slough and through? So now you are ready perhaps to learn of less familiar traps? Beware of heard, a dreadful word that looks like beard and sounds like bird, and dead is said like bed, not bead or deed. Watch out for meat, great, and threat that rhyme with suite, straight, and debt. (Elly van Gelderen. A History of the English Language, p.14) 1. Spelling Irregularities. The Phonetic Alphabet The Old English Alphabet was created with the help of Latin and Runic writing: a L ¾ m b n c [k], [k'] o d ọ/å e p f [f], [v] r ʒ [ɡ], [ɡ'], [j], [ƴ] s [s], [z] h [x], [x'], [h] þ [Ɵ] ,[ð] j u y [y] w Old English writing – phonetic principle: every letter indicated a separate sound. But, some letters indicated two or more sounds:
2. Word Stress
Word stress was fixed. In disyllabic and polysyllabic words the accent fell on the root-morpheme or on the first syllable. Word stress was fixed; it remained on the same syllable in different grammatical forms of the word. e.g. Dat. case hlāforde ['xla:vɔrdǝ] cyninʓe ['kyniηgǝ] Nom. case hlāford ['xla:vord] cyninʓ ['kyniηg]. Polysyllabic words, especially compounds, may have had two stresses, chief and secondary. The was fixed on the first root- morpheme. In words with prefixes the position of the stress varied: verb prefixes were unaccented, while in nouns and adjectives the stress was commonly thrown on to the prefix. Cf.: ā-'risan, mis-'faran — v (NE arise, 'go astray'); 'mis-dǣd, 'uð-ʓenʓ — n (NE misdeed, 'escape'). If the words were derived from the same root, word stress, together with other means, served to distinguish the noun from the verb, cf.:
'and-swaru n — and-'swarian v (NE answer, to answer) 'on-ʓin n — on-'ʓinnaη v (NE beginning, to begin)
3. 1. Breaking (fracture)
Formation of a short diphthong from a simple short vowel when it is followed by a specific consonant cluster. e.g. a + r + cons, l + cons (before h) ea æ + h + cons ea e + h final eo (Germanic monophthongizations were substituted into Old English diphthongs) a > ea Gothic arms > OE earm > NE arm OHG fallan > OE eahta (Kent, Wes.) > NE eight æ > ea OHG Saltz > *sælt > OE sealt > NE salt OHE haltan > *hældan > OE healdan > NE hold OHG sah > sæh > OE seah > NE saw OHG nah > *nǣh > OE nēah > NE near e > eo OHG fehtan > OE feohtan > NE fight OHG fehu (fihu) > OE feoh > NE fee Gothic sterra > OE steorra > NE star OG herza > OE heorte > NE heart 3.2. Palatal Mutation (i-umlaut)
narrowing of the vowel in the stressed position syllable under the influence of i or j of the following syllable
a > æ; a>e Goth. sandjan > OE sendan > NE send OE framian > OE fremman > NE frame
ā > ǣ OE hālian > OE hǣlan > NE heal OE ānīʒ > OE ǣniʒ > NE any, one o > oe, e (Dat., singular) OE dohtor > OE dehter < L. *dohtri > NE daughter OE ofstian > OE efstian > NE to hurry
ō > ē OE ʒōs > OE ʒēs < L. ʒosiz > NE goose OE tōÞ > OE tēÞ < G. *toÞiz > NE tooth-teeth
u > y OE full > OE fyllan < *fullian> NE full OE hnutu > OE hnyte >< *hnutiz > NE nut ū > ȳ OE mūs > OE mȳs <* mūsiz > NE mouse – mice OE cūðian > OE cȳðan > NE to announce Palatal mutation diphthongs ea > ie OE eald > OE ieldra > NE elder OE hleahian > OE hliehhan > NE laugh eo > ie OE feor > OE fierra > NE further OE ʓeonʓ > OE ʓienʓra > NE younger ēā > īe OE hēarian > OE hīeran > NE hear OE ʓelēafa > OE ʓelīefan > NE believe Ancient Mutations
Some English word pairs showing the effects of a phonological change which took place over 1,200 years ago.
goose – geese doom – deem tooth – teeth full – file man – men whole – heal mouse – mice fall – fell (vb.) hale – health blood – bleed foul – filth 3.3. Back, or Velar Mutation
Back vowels o/u (sometimes a) influencing the preceding syllable caused the formation of diphthongs.
The process was not universal (in west saxon literary language it occurred only before the sounds r, l, p, b, f, m) e.g.
i > io e > eo OE hira > OE hiora > OE hefon > OE heofon NE their > NE heaven OE silufr > OE siolufr > OE efor > OE eofor > NE silver NE boar OE sifon > OE siofon > NE seven a > ea OE limu > OE liomu > NE limbs OE saru > OE searu > NE armour 3.4. Diphthongization after Palatal Consonants
Diphthongs resulted diphthongization after palatal consonants sk', k' and j (in spelling c, sc, ʓ)
a > ea Lat. castra > OE ceaster > NE town OE scacan > OE sceacan > NE shake OE scamu > OE sceamu > NE shame e > ie OE ʓefan > OE ʓiefan > NE give OE ʓetan > OE ʓietan > NE get
æ > ea (the æ sound was actually derived from a). OE ʓæf > OE ʓeaf > NE gave OE ʓæt > OE ʓeat > NE year
o > eo OE scort > OE sceort > NE short OE yong > OE ʓeon ʓ > NE young 3.5. Mutation before h
Sounds a and e that preceded h underwent several changes: - mutating to diphthongs ea, ie and finally were reduced to i/y: e.g. OE naht > neaht > niht > nieht > nyht > NE night The words with such mutation are not very numerous. It is observed in the past tense of the verb maʓan (may) meahte > miehte > mihte > myhte and several other words. 3.6. Contraction
The consonant h proved to have interfered with the development of many sounds. When h was placed between two vowels the following changes occurred:
etht vowel > OE ēō – sehen > seon > NE see itht vowel > OE ēō – tihan > tēōn > NE accuse otht vowel > OE ō – fohan > fōn > NE catch 3.7. Lengthening of vowels before the clusters nd, ld, mb Explains the exception in the rules of reading the sounds in the closed syllables in the presentday English: e.g. climb, find, bold, told, comb. 4. Consonants Changes in Old English
The OE system of consonants phonemes have changed but little in comparison with other Germanic languages. The system of consonants of the Old English period is presented in the following table (every short consonant in OE had a corresponding long one):
4.1. Voicing of fricatives in intervocal position
f > v Ɵ > ð
OE ofer [over] – NE over OE ōðer [ōðer] – NE
OE hlāf – hlāfas ['hlāvas] – other NE leaf – leaves OE raðe [raðǝ] – NE
OE wif – wīfe, wīfa [wīvǝ, quickly wīva] – NE wife – wives Voiced sibilant z was very unstable in OE (and other west- Germanic languages) and very soon changed into r (rhotacism) wesun – weren (now were, but was) maiza – māra (now more, but most)
It is due to rhotacism that common Indo-European suffix -iza (Ukr. -iш) used to form the degrees of comparison is so different now in Ukrainian. and English, but comparing such words as: Goth. softiza – Ukr. тихіше OE softra – NE softer. We may easily find that the suffix is essentially the same. 4.2. Palatalization of the sounds k', sk' and kg' (marked as c, sc and cʓ) developed in assibilation, that is formation of a sibilant in places before front vowels.
sc [sk] > [ʃ] > sh c > [k] > [ʧ] > ch sceap > sheep cild > child scip > ship ceosan > choose sceotan > shoot hwilc > which sceort > short cʓ [ɡɡ'] > [dʓ] > dɡ brycʓ > bridge hrycʓ > ridge wecʓ > wedge 4.3. Assimilation before t The sound t when it was preceded by a number of consonants changed the quality of a preceding sound.
velar + t > ht dental + t > ss sēcan – (sōcte) > sōhte – witan > wisse (instead of NE seek – sought witte-knew) brinʓan > brōhte – NE fm > mm bring – brought wifman > wimman labial + t > ft (woman) ʓesceapan > ʓeaseaft – dð > t NE creature bindð > bint (binds) fn > mn stefn > stemn (voice) 4.4. Loss of consonants in certain positions
Besides h that was lost in intervocal position, the sounds n and m were lost before h, entailing the lengthening of the preceding vowel:
bronhte – brōhte – NE brought fimf – fif – NE fire onðer - ōðer – NE other munð – mūð – NE mouth
Other examples of similar loss was the loss of ʓ before d and n; the vowel was lengthened, too: mæʓden – mǣden – NE maiden sæʓde – sæde – NE said 4.5. Metathesis of r
In several OE words the following change of the position of consonants takes place: cons + r + vowel > cons + vowel + r OE ðridda – ðirda – NE third OE brunnan – burnan – NE burn OE hros – hors – NE horse
Metathesis of sounds is observed also with other sounds: ascian – axian – NE ask wascan – waxan – NE wash 4.6. West Germanic gemination of consonants
In the process of palatal mutation, when j was lost and the preceding vowel was short, the consonant after it was doubled (geminated):
OE fullian – fyllan > NE fill OE sætjan – settan > NE set OE salian – sellan > NE sell, origionall give OE talian – tellan > NE tell Questions for Self- Control
What was the main tendency of the changes of stressed long vowels? What was the main tendency of the changes of stressed short vowels? What vowel change is called “breaking”? What vowel change is called “diphthongization”? What vowel change is called “palatal mutation”? What vowel change is called “velar mutation”? What are the principal features of the OE vowels? Questions for Self-Control (continued)
What peculiar features did the consonants have in OE? What change is called “hardening”? What change is called “rhotacism”? What change is called “gemination”? What caused splitting of velar consonants in OE? What vowels could be used in the unstressed position in OE?