Vowel Changes in MdE and Early MnE

Unstressed vowels

Levelling of unstressed vowels: all unstressed vowels were as a rule weakened and reduced to a neutral vowel, which was denoted by the letter –e. Thus, the infinitive suffix – an was reduced to – en: tellan – tellen, in a similar way: sunu – sune, sone. This weakening of unstressed vowels is closely connected with developments in declension and conjugation. From the 13^th c. onwards, some dialects showed certain vacillation in spelling unstressed vowels, which probably reflected peculiarities of pronunciation: askid, stonus.

 

Stressed Vowels

One of the most important sound changes of the Early MDE period of the loss of OE diphthongs and the growth of new diphthongs, with new qualitative and quantitative distinctions.

 

Monophthongization of OE Diphthongs

All OE diphthongs were monophthongized in ME.: eald – ald, healf –half, earm –arm (poor). But before ‘ld’ ‘ea’ yielded different results in different dialects. OE short ‘eo’ changed first into the vowel ‘ö’ spelt ‘eo’. In other dialects it changed into ‘e’ heorte – hörte-herte. (heart). OE long eo: changed into long closed e:, often spelt ‘ee’: deo:p – de:p, deep.

At the same time a new set of diphthongs developed from some sequences of vowels and consonants due to the vocalization of OE [j] and [γ], that is to their change into vowels: these sounds between after vowels changed into [i] and [u] and formed diphthongs together with the preceding vowel: OE dæg developed into day[dai]. These changes gave rise to two sets of diphthongs: with i-glides and u-glides {ei, ai, au, ou). In addition to the diphthongs developed from native sources, similar diphthongs – with i-and u-glides are found in some MdE loan words: boy, joy, pause, cause. The formation of new diphthongs was an important event in the history of the language. By that time the OE diphthongs had been contracted into monophthongs; the newly formed MdE diphthongs differed from the OE in structure: they had an open nucleus and a closer glide; they were arranged into a system consisting of two sets o (with i-glides and u-glides) but were not contrasted through quantity as long to short.

 

Quantitative vowel changes

Shortening and Lengthening of Vowels: a long vowel before two consonants is shortened: OE – ce:pan (infinitive), ME ke:pen, but Past tense – kepte; but it remains long in other environments. But long vowels remain long before ‘the lengthening’ consonant groups: ld, nd, mb: we:nen, but we:nde (past simple). Long consonants also remain long before – st: lae:sta (least) – le:st. In the 13^th c. short vowels were lengthened in open syllables. Lengthening affected the short vowels a, e, o.: talu (tale) - ta:le, macian – ma:ken, etc. The narrow vowels i and u remained as a rule unaffected by this change, and thus the difference between short i and long and also between short u and long retained its quality as a phonemically relevant feature.

Changes of individual vowels:

Short and long ‘a’: OE short ‘a’ usually remained unchanged in ME. OE a/o before a nasal developed differently in different dialects. In West Midland ‘o’ was preserved: mon, con; in other dialects (Northern, East Midland and Southern) there is ‘a’ man, can. OE long ‘a’ also developed in different ways in different dialects. In Northern it remained unchanged, while in Midland and Southern it changed into long ‘o’: fa:- fo: (foe); ha:m – ho:m, etc.

Short ‘ae’ and long ‘ae’. OE short ‘ae’ in most dialects developed into short ‘a’: glaed – glad, aeppel – appel. But in the West Midland and Kentish it developed into ‘e’: gled, eppal. OE West Saxon long ‘ae’ changed into long open ‘e:’ slae:pan – sle:pen; in other dialects this ‘ae:’ had changed into closed ‘e:’. This closed ‘e:’ is preserved in ME.

Short Y and long Y: OE short ‘y’ developed differently in different dialects. In Northern and East Midland it changed into short ‘i’. In Kentish it became ‘e’ in the remaining dialects it was unchanged. Hence three dialectal variants: ‘first’, ferst’, ‘fyrst’. For example, the word ‘bury ‘ – here the pronunciation is Kentish, but the spelling is South-Western. OE long’y’ developed in the same way as the short ‘y’.

Conclusion: The ME sound system differs from the OE system: 1) OE dipthongs or ‘ea’ and ‘eo’ type disappeared 2) diphthongs of the ‘ei’ ‘ai’ type arose 3) vowel quantity became dependent on phonetic environment.

From the phonemic point of view the following points should me stated: 1) vowel quantity lost its phonemic significance, that is two vowel phonemes can no longer be distinguished by quantity: length versus shortness. Thus the number of vowel phonemes was reduced. 2) on the other hand, the appearance of new diphthongs [ai], [ei] [ au], [ou] marks the rise of four new vowel phonemes. In this way the reduction in the number of vowel phonemes due to changes in quantity is partly counteracted. 3) the number of consonant phonemes increased; the sounds [f, v] which had been allophones of one phoneme, became separate phonemes, no longer dependent on their environment, the same is true with [s,z].

 

MODERN ENGLISH PERIOD

 

Vowels: 1) loss of the neutral sound of unstressed endings (in the 15^th c.) 2) loss of vowels in intermediate syllables: chapiter – chapter, medicine 3) change of [er] into [ar] with some exceptions: ferre – far, sterre – star, but occasionally this change did not take place: certain, prefect, etc. when it didn’t change into [ar], it eventually developed into [e:], but ‘clerk, ‘Derby’.

The Great Vowel Shift began in the 15^th century: all long vowels were narrowed and the narrowest were diphthongized:

Take [ta:ka] – [teik]; beat [be:t]/[ bi:t]; meet [me:t]/[mi;t]; like [li:ka]/[laik]; boat [bo:t]/[bout]; tool [to:l]/[tu:l]; house [hu:s]/[haus]. All those changes show one general tendency: narrowing of long vowels and diphthongization of the narrowest of them. All these changes occurred gradually, without being noticed by the speakers.

Influence of [r]: when a long vowel was followed by ‘r’, new phonemes came into being: (ia], [ea], [ua]: fare [fa;r] – [fea]; tire [ti:r] /[taia], power [pu:ar] /[ paua].

Some words have sounds which do not correspond to the general law of the shift.

Long [u:] remained unchanged when followed by a labial consonant: droop, room; [i:] remained unchanged in words borrowed from French: machine, police, etc.; long open [e:] did not always change into [i:], it was shortened in some words head, death, etc.

Other changes:

- short ‘a’ into ‘ae’: hat, cat; but when it was preceded by [w] it developed into [o]: what, was, ec.

- In the 16^th c. 2 new long vowels arose [a:], [o:]

- [a:] – before: bath, father, brass, cast, ask, clasp, calm

- [o:] – before: cork, port, autumn, dawn

- long [u:] was shortened before [k]: book, cook; also in good, foot, etc.

- rise of long [e:] – fir, sir, fur, curtain, worm, word, heard, learn

- short [u] changed into [^]: cut, but, love, son, rough, enough; blood, flood; remained unchanged before labial consonants: pull, full, bull, etc.

- unstressed vowels were reduced either to [i] or [a]: begin, wishes, mountain, etc.