Middle English Consonant System

In the history of the English language the consonants were far more stable than the vowels.

Table 4. Middle English Consonants

Manner of Articulation	Point of Articulation
Bilabial	Labiodental	Interdental	Alveolar	Alveopalatal	Velar
Stops	Voiceless Voiced	/p/ /b/	.	.	/t/ /d/	.	/k/ /g/
Affricates	Voiceless Voiced	.	.	.	.	/c</ /j</	.
Fricatives	Voiceless Voiced	.	/f/ /v/	/q/ /ð/	/s/ /z/	/s</	/h/
Nasals	/m/	.	.	/n/	.	.
Lateral	.	.	.	/l/	.	.

 

A large number of consonants have remained unchanged since the OE period.

Such consonants as [t], [d], [n], [l],[m],[k] have not been subjected to any alteration.

1. Consonants of Middle English were very similar to those of Present Day English but lacking [ ŋ ] as in hung (velar nasal) and [ 3 ] as in measure (alveo-palatal voiced fricative).

2. Addition of phonemic voiced fricatives: [ v ], [ z ], [ð ]; effect of French loanwords: vetch/fetch, view/few, vile/file ([ v ], [ z ])

3. loss of long consonants (OE mann > ME man).

4. h lost in clusters, OE hlæfdige > ME ladi ("lady"), OE hnecca > ME necke ("neck"), OE hræfn > ME raven.

5. fricative f/v tended to drop out before consonant+consonant or vowel+consonant: OE hlaford, hlæfdige, heafod, hæfde >ME lord, ladi, hed, hadde ("lord," "lady," "head," "had") (sometimes retained: OE heofon, hræfn, dreflian > "heaven," "raven," "drivel")

6. g became w after l and r: OE swelgan > ME swolwen ("swallow"), OE feolaga > ME felawe ("fellow"), OE morgen > ME morwen ("morning"), OE sorg > ME sorow ("sorrow").

7. OE prefix ge - lost initial consonant and was reduced to y or i: OE genog > ME inough ("enough").

8. unstressed final consonants tended to be lost after a vowel: OE ic > ME i, OE - lic > ME - ly (e.g. OE rihtlice > ME rihtly ("rightly").

9. final -n in many verbal forms (infinitive, plural subjunctive, plural preterite) was lost, e.g. OE cuman > Modern English come (the n remains in some past participles of strong verbs: seen, gone, taken);

10. final -n also lost in possessive adjectives "my" (OE min > ME mi) and "thy" (OE þin > ME þi) and indefinite article "an" before words beginning with consonant (-n remained in the possessive pronouns, e.g. mine).

11. w generally dropped after s or t: OE sweostor > sister, (sometimes retained in spelling: sword, two; sometimes still pronounced: swallow, twin, swim).

12. l was lost in the vicinity of palatal c in adjectival pronouns OE ælc, swilc, hwilc, micel > each, such, which, much (sometimes remained: filch).

13. final b lost after m but retained in spelling: lamb, comb, climb (remained in medial position: timber, amble); intrusive b after m: OE bremel, næmel, æmerge >ME bremble, nimble, ember (also OE þuma >ME thombe, "thumb").

14. initial stops in clusters gn - and kn - still pronounced: ME gnat, gnawen, knowen, knave, cniht ("gnat," "gnaw," "know," "knave," "knight")
h often lost in unstressed positions: OE hit > ME it

MODERN (NEW) ENGLISH PHONOLOGICAL SYSTEM

Modern (New) English Vowel System

A major factor separating Middle English from Modern English is known as the Great Vowel Shift, a radical change in pronunciation during the 15th, 16th and 17th Century, as a result of which long vowel sounds began to be made higher and further forward in the mouth (short vowel sounds were largely unchanged). In fact, the shift probably started very gradually some centuries before 1400, and continued long after 1700 (some subtle changes arguably continue even to this day).

The Great Vowel Shift was first studied by Otto Jespersen (1860–1943), a Danish linguist and Anglicist, who coined the term.

History

The exact causes of the shift are continuing mysteries in linguistics and cultural history. But some theories attach the cause to the mass migration to the south-east part of England after the Black Death, where the difference in accents led to certain groups modifying their speech to allow for a standard pronunciation of vowel sounds.

Another explanation highlights the language of the ruling class: the medieval aristocracy had spoken French, but, by the early fifteenth century, they were using English. This may have caused a change to the "prestige accent" of English, either by making pronunciation more French in style or by changing it in some other way.

English spelling was becoming standardised in the 15th and 16th centuries, the Great Vowel Shift is responsible for many of the peculiarities of English spelling. Spellings that made sense according to Middle English pronunciation were retained in Modern English because of the adoption and use of the printing press, which was introduced to England in the 1470s by William Caxton and later Richard Pynson.

Beginning in the15th century (and largely finished by the late 16^th or early 17^th century) the pronunciations of long vowels started changing in a “complicated but systematic” way. The long vowels began to shorten.

Each long vowel moved “UP” one slot, while the two highest vowels [i] and [u] were “lowered” through the central segment of the vowel trapezoid and were changed into diphthongs. The short vowels DID NOT shift.

The principal changes (with the vowels shown in IPA) are roughly as follows. However, exceptions occur, the transitions were not always complete, and there were sometimes accompanying changes in orthography:

Middle English [aː] (ā) fronted to [æː] and then raised to [ɛː], [eː] and in many dialects diphthongised in Modern English to [eɪ] (as in make). (The [a:] in the Middle English words in question had arisen earlier from lengthening of short a in open syllables and from French loan words, rather than from original Old English ā, because the latter had in the meantime been raised to Middle English [ɔː].)

Middle English [ɛː] raised to [eː] (EModE)and then to modern English [iː] (as in beak).

Middle English [eː] raised to Modern English [iː] (as in feet).

Middle English [iː] diphthongised to [ɪi], which was most likely followed by [əɪ] (EModE) and finally Modern English [aɪ] (as in mice).

Middle English [ɔː] raised to [oː ] (EModE), and in the eighteenth century this

became Modern English [oʊ] or [əʊ] (as in boat).

Middle English [o ː ] raised to Modern English [uː] (as in boot).

Middle English [uː] was diphthongised in most environments to [ʊu], and this was followed by [əʊ] (EModE), and then Modern English [aʊ] (as in mouse) in the eighteenth century. Before labial consonants, this shift did not occur, and [uː] remains as in soup and room (its Middle English spelling was roum). This means that the vowel in the English word same was in Middle English pronounced [aː] (similar to modern psalm); the vowel in feet was [eː] (similar to modern fate); the vowel in wipe was [iː] (similar to modern weep); the vowel in boot was [oː] (similar to modern boat); and the vowel in mouse was [uː] (similar to modern moose).

 

 

Briefly we can summarise the Great Vowel Shift resulted in the following changes:

Table 5. Great Vowel Shift

Middle English	Early Modern English	Modern English
high fronti:	diphthong əi	diphthong aɪ
high back u:	diphthong əu	diphthong aʊ
high-mid front e:	high front i:	high fronti:
high-mid back o:	high back u:	high backu:
low-mid front ɛː	high-mid front e:	high fronti:
low-mid back ɔ:	high-mid back o:	diphthongəʊ
low front ɑ:/æ	low-mid front ɜ:	high-mid fronte:/diphthongeɪ

As a result of the Great Vowel Shift English lost the purer vowel sounds of most European languages, as well as the phonetic pairing between long and short vowel sounds.

The effect of the Great Vowel Shift may be seen very clearly in the English names of many of the letters of the alphabet. A, B, C and D are pronounced /eɪ, biː, siː, diː/ in today's English, but in contemporary French they are /a, be, se, de/. The French names (from which the English names are derived) preserve the English vowels from before the Great Vowel Shift. By contrast, the names of F, L, M, N and S (/ɛf, ɛl, ɛm, ɛn, ɛs/) remain the same in both languages, because "short" vowels were largely unaffected by the Shift.

The following picture demonstrates The Great Vowel Shift step by step.

 

Picture 5.

Exceptions

Not all words underwent certain phases of the Great Vowel Shift. ea in particular did not take the step to [ iː ] in several words, such as gr ea t, br ea k, st ea k, sw ea r, and b ea r. The vowels mentioned in words like br ea k or st ea k underwent the process of shortening, due to the plosives following the vowels. Obviously that happened before the Great Vowel Shift took place. Swear and bear contain the sound [r] which was pronounced as it still is in North American, Scottish, and Irish English and other rhotic varieties. This also affected and changed the vowel quality. As a consequence, it prevented the effects of the Great Vowel Shift. Other examples are father, which failed to become [ɛː] / ea, and broad, which failed to become [oː]. The word room retains its older medieval pronunciation as m is a labial consonant, but its spelling makes it appear as though it was originally pronounced with [oː]. However, its Middle English spelling was roum, and was only altered after the vowel shift had taken place.

Shortening of long vowels at various stages produced further complications. ea is again a good example, shortening commonly before coronal consonants such as d and th, thus: dead, head, threat, wealth etc. (This is known as the bred–bread merger.) oo was shortened from [uː] to [ʊ] in many cases before k, d and less commonly t, thus book, foot, good etc. Some cases occurred before the change of [ʊ] to [ʌ]: blood, flood. Similar, yet older shortening occurred for some instances of ou: country, could.

Note that some loanwords, such as soufflé and Umlaut, have retained a spelling from their origin language that may seem similar to the previous examples; but, since they were not a part of English at the time of the Great Vowel Shift, they are not actually exceptions to the shift.

Diphthongs

Early Modern English diphthongs also underwent a series of changes which masked their earlier sound. Almost all of these changes that took place were the result of processes of monophthongisation: this means that a diphthong was reduced to a pure long vowel. There were seven diphthong phonemes in late Middle English, namely: iʊ, eʊ, aʊ, ai, ɔʊ, oi and ʊi. All changes can be summarised in thetable.

Table 6. Comparative phonological processes

	ME phoneme	· EmodE	PDE
1.	[ɪʊ:]	· [iu]→ [ju:]	[ju:] new, hue
2.	[eu]	· [ɜu]→ [iu]→ [ju:]	[ju:] dew, few
3.	[aʊ]	· [ɑu] → [ɒu]	[ɔ:] cause, law
4.	[ɔʊ:]	· [ɔ:] → [o:]	[əʊ:] soul, know
5.	[ai]	· [ɜi]→ [ɜ:]→ [e:]	[eɪ] day, night
6.	[oi]	· [ɔi]	[ɔi] noise, royal
7.	[ui]	· [ai]	[ɔi] boil, destroy

Short vowels

In late Middle English there were six phonemes for short vowels, namely: i, e, a, ɔ, ʊ and ə. In general, short vowels in accented syllables changed little in the transition from ME to EModE. All changes can be summarised in the table.

 

 

Table 7. Comparative phonological processes

	Middle English	EME	PDE	Examples
	[I]	[i]	[i]	ship
	[e]	[ɜ:]	[e]	bed, set
	[a]	[æ]half, fast, answer	[æ:] when preceding voiceless fricatives and [n] or [s] or [t] → in BE: [ɑ:]	hat, man
	[ɔ]	[ɒ]	[ɒ]	dog
	[ʊ]	[ʊ]	[ʊ] when followed by /l/ or when preceded by labials such as /w/, /p/, /b/, or /f/	put
[ʊ]	[ʌ]	[ʌ]	but
	[ə]	[ə]-id, -əd	[ə] -id	better, -ed