Peculiarities of Middle English Spelling

Letters indicating vowels	Letters indicating consonants
Single letters
a [a]	с[s] or [k]
y, as well as i [i]	f [f]
о [o] or [u]	g [d3] or [g] j [d3] k [к] s[s] or [z] v(often spelt as u) [v] y [j]
Digraphs
ее [e:J or [a:]	ch, tch [ts]
ie [e:]	dg [d3]
oo [o:] or [ر:]	gh [xl or [x']
ou [u:] or [ou]	qu [kw]
ow [u:] or [ou]	th [ð] or [θ] sh, sch, ssh [s] wh [hw]

Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote

[xwan 'θat ap'rille 'wiθ his ' su:rəs 'so:tə]

The droghte of March hath perced.to the roote,

[θə 'druxt of 'marts haθ 'persəd 'to: θə 'rоtə

And bathed every veyne in swich licour,

[and 'ba:ðəd 'evri 'vein in 'swits li'ku:rl

|Of which verhi engendred is the flour;

[of 'xwits ver'tju: en'd3endred 'is θə 'flu:r ]

(When April with his sweet showers

The draught of March has pierced to the root,

And bathed every vein in such liquor,

Of Which (whose) virtue (power) engendered is the flower...)

Lecture 8

PhoneticChanges in Middle and Early New English

Hours

Plan

1. Word accentuation in ME and ENE.

2. Changes in u stressed vowels.

3. Quantaive and qualitative changes in stressed vowels.

4. Evolution of consonants.

 

Literature

Rastorgueva T.A. A History of English. M.,1983; M.,2005. - p.188-218

Ilyish B. History of the English language. Л. 1972. – p 160-174, 254-273, 299-303.

Reznik R.V., Sorokina T.S., Reznik I.V. A History of the English Language. M., 2001. – p. 126-145.

Аракин В.Д. История английского языка. М., 1985. – c. 110-123, 187-207.

Бруннер К. История английского языка. М., 2003. – Т.1, с. 202-259, 262-276, 285-322.

Иванова И.П., Чахоян Л.П., Беляева Т.М. История английского языка. СПб., 1998. с. 69-97.

Смирницкий А.И. Лекции по истории английского языка (средний и новый период). М., 1998. – 52-94, 154-181.

Word stress. New accentual patterns. Stress in loan-words: recessive and rhythmic tendencies. Phonological function of stress: distinguishing a verb from a noun.

Changes in unstressed vowels. The tendency towards phonetic reduction. Loss of unstressed vowels. The appearance of new unstressed vowels.

Main trends in the changes of stressed vowels. Quantitative vowel changes in Early Middle English. Phonetic conditions of lengthening and shortening. Restrictions to the rules. Qualitative vowel changes.

Quantitative Vowel Changes in Late Old English and Early Middle English

Phonetic conditions	Change illustrated	Examples
		OE	ME	NE
Before homorganic consonant sequenc­es:	Vowels become long	cild	child [tsi:ld]	child
sonorant plus plosive		findan	finden [fi:ndən]	.find
(Id, nd, mb)		climban	climben ['кli:mbən]	climb
		cold	cold ['ko:ldJ	cold
		feld	field [fe:ld]	field
		fundon	founden ['fu:ndən]	found (Past of find)
		gold	gold [go:ld]	gold
Before other	Vowels be-	fiftfs	fifty ['fifti]	fifty
consonant	come short	fedde	fedde ['feddə]	fed
sequences		mette	mette ['mettə]	met
		wisdom	wisdom ['wizdəm]	wisdom
In open syllables	Vowels be-	mete	mete ['me:tə]	meat
	come long and more open	stelan	stelen ['ste:lən]	steal
		macian	maken ['ma:kən]	make
		talu	tale [tа:1ə]	tale
		nosu	nose ['no:zə]	nose
		stolen	stolen ['sto:lən]	stolen
		yfel	yvel, evel [i:vəl] [e:vəl]	evil
		duru	doore ['do:rə]	door

Development of OE [y] and [y:] in ME dialects

 

OE	ME		NE
fyllan	Kentish	fellen ['fellən]	fill
	West Midland and South Western	fullen ['fyllən, fullən]
	East Midland and Northern	Fillen [‘fillən]
mýs	Kentish	Mees [me:s]	mice
	West Midland and South Western	mus, muis [my:s, mu:s]
	East Midland and Northern	mis, mice [mi:s]

 

OE	ME		NE
stān	Northern	stan(e) [sta:nə]	stone
other fialects	stoon, stone [sto:n]
ald	Northern	ald [a:ld]	old
other dialects	old [o:ld]

Development of Old English [æ, ǽ] in Middle English

OE →ME	OE	ME	NE
æ→a	þǽt	that [θat]	that
	earm	arm [arm]	arm
	blacu	blak [blak]	black
æ:→ε:	strǽt	street [strε:t]	street

Splitting of OE [a:] in Middle English

OE	ME		NE
lond, land	West Midlands	lond	land
	other dialects	land
Lon3, lan3	West Midlands	long	long
	other dialects	lang