King that he (of) all Northmen to the North

būde... þā fōr he зiet norþyhte

[′bu:de θa: fo:r he: jiet ′norθ,ryx’te]

lived (had lived). Then sailed he yet (farther) northwards

swā feor swā hē meahte on þǽm

[swa: feor swa: he: ′meaxte on θæ:m]

as far as he migtit (could) in the

ōþrum þtīm daзum зesiзlan.

[′о:ðrum dayum θri:m ′daγum je′siγlan]

other three days sail".

 

Lecture 4

Old English Phonetics

Hours

Plan

1. Word stress.

2. Origin of OE vowels.

3. Origin of OE consonants.

Literature

Rastorgueva T.A. A History of English. M.,1983; M.,2005. - p.74-92.

Ilyish B. History of the English language. Л. 1972. – p 44-56.

Reznik R.V., Sorokina T.S., Reznik I.V. A History of the English Language. M., 2001. – p. 77-89.

Аракин В.Д. История английского языка. М., 1985. – c. 31-45.

Бруннер К. История английского языка. М., 2003. – Т.1, с. 176-200, 259-261,277-285.

Иванова И.П., Чахоян Л.П., Беляева Т.М. История английского языка. СПб., 1998. с. 46-68.

Смирницкий А.И. Древнеанглийский язык. М., 1998. – с. 60-154.

Word stress.

 

A dynamic or forced stress was imployed. Word stress was fixed: it remained on the same syllable in form – and wordbuilding. Polysyllabic words, especially compounds ay have two stresses, the chief being fixed on the first root morpheme. The position of stress in the words with prefixes varied: verb prefixes were unaccented, while in nouns and adjectives the stress was commonly thrown to the prefix..

Old English vowels. Changes of stressed vowels. Independent changes.

Fronting or palatalisation of [a] and [a:]. Positional deviations or restrictions to this rule: short [a] could change to [o] or [ã] and long [a:] became [o:] before a nasal. The preservation of the short [a] was caosed by a back vowel in the next syllable.

Splitting of [a] and [a:] in Early Old English

Change illustrated	E x a m p l e s
PG OE	Other OG languages	OE	NE
		æ	Gt þata	þæt	that
			O Icel dagr	dæз	day
a	o, ã	Gt mann(a)	mon	man
		O Icel land	land	land
	a	Gt magan	mазаn	may
			Gt dagos,	daзas	days
a:		æ:   о:	OHG dâr OHG slâfen OHG mâno	þǽr slǽpan mōna	there sleep moon
			O Icel mánaðr	mōnаþ	month

Old English reflections of PG diphthongs. The diphthongs with the i-glide were monophthongised into [i:] and [a:], respectively; with u-glides were reflected as long diphthongs [io:], [eo:], and [ea:].

Old English Reflexes of Proto-Germanic Diphthongs

(or Bi-Phonemic Sequences)

Change illustrated	E x a m p l e s
PG OE	Other OG languages	OE	NE
a + i a:	Gt stains	stān	stone
	Gt ains	ān	one
e + i i:	Gt meins^1	mīn	mine, my
	Gt reisan	rīsan	rise
a + u ea:	0 Icel austr	ēast	east
	Gt auso	ēаге	ear
	Gt augo (cf.. G Auge)	ēазе	eye
e + u eo:	Gt þiudans	þēoden	‘king’
	Gt kiusan	cēosan	choose
i + u io: _________	Gt diups	dēop, dīop^2	deep
^1 The vowel in Gt is [i:], though the spelling resembles the PG [ei].
^2In OE the diphthongs [eo:] and [io:] occur as dialectal variants.

Assimilative vowel changes.

The front vowels [i], [e], and [æ] changed into dophthongs with a back glide when they stood before [h], [ll], or [l]. The change is known as breaking.

Diphthongisation of vowels could also be caused by preceding consonants. After the palatal consonants [k’] and [sk’] and [j] short and long [e] and [æ] turned into diphthongs with a more front vowel as their first element.

Breaking and Diphthongisation

Conditions	Change illu­strated	Examples
Early OE	OE	Other 0G languages and OE dialects	WS	NE
Breaking	before l+l or l + other consonants	æ	ea	Gt Merc North	alls all ald	eall   eald	all   old
h h + other consonants	æ: æ e	ea: ea eo	OHG Gt OHG	nâh ahtau fehtan	nēah eahta feohtan	near eight fight
r + other consonants	e æ	eo ea	OHG OHG Gt	herza arm hardus	heorte earm heard	heart arm hard

 

 

Diphthongisation			e	ie	OHG	skild	scield,	shield
after	sk’					scyld
			OHG	scal	aceal	shall
	æ	ea	Gt	skadus	sceadu	shade
k’	e   æ	ie   ea	loan- words	cerasus (L)   castra (L)	deres, cyrs ceaster	cherries chester (‘camp’)
j	æ: e	ea: ie	OHG Gt	jâr giban	зēаr зiefan	year give

Palatal Mutation

Mutation is the change of one vowel to another through the influence of a vowel in a succeding syllable. Mutation under the influence of [i] or [j] is known as “i-Umlaut” or “palatal mutation”. Palatal mutation is the fronting and raising of vowels under the influence of [i] or [j] ao as to approach the articulatuin of [i].

 

Change illustrated	Examples
Vowels prior to Mutated palatal vowels mutation	Gt or OE (without palatal mutation)	OE (palatal mutation)	NE
æ а ﺭ	}е	Gt mats OE sala, Gt saljan Gt sandjan	mete sellan sendan	meat sale, sell send
a: æ:	OE lār, Gt laisjan	lǽran	‘teaching’, ‘teach’
	OE ān	ǽni3	one, any
o e	OE dohtor	dehter	daughter (Nom. and Dat. sg)
o: e:	OE bōc	bēc	book, books
	OE dōm		doom
	Gt gadōmjan	dēman	deem
u y	OE full		full
	Gt fulljan	fyllan	fill
u: y:	OE mūs	mўs	mouse, mice
ea eo	} ie	OE eald OE feor	ieldra fierra	old, elder far, farther
ea: eo:	} ie:	OE 3elēafa Gt galaubjan	3elīefan	belief, believe
	OE þēod	elþīedi3 adj	‘tribe’, ‘of a tribe’

Due to thereduction of final syllables the conditions which caused palatal mutation had disappeared in most words by the age of writing.

Old English Vowels

Monophthongs

Diphthongs

Short Long

i i:

e e:

(œ) (œ:)

æ æ:

(ã) a:

a

о о:

u u:

y y:

(ie) (ie:)

ea ea:

eo eo:

 

Old English consonants.

Treatment of Fricatives.