Phonetic changes of the Old English period

The phonetic system never remained unchanged during the Old English period. There were several main phonetic changes in the Old English language:

– Old English fracture,

– diphthongization of the monophthongs under the influence of the preceding palatal consonants,

– umlaut,

– lengthening of vowels under certain conditions,

– voicing and unvoicing of fricatives,

– palatalization of consonants and development of sibilants,

– assimilation of consonants,

– doubling and falling out of consonants.

 

Vowel Changes

Old English Breaking (Fracture of Vowels)

The Old English fracture is a change of the short vowels [æ] and [e] into diphthongs before some groups of consonants, when [æ] turned into the diphthong [ea] and [e] into the diphthong [eo]. Such diphthongization took place when [æ] or [e] was followed by the combination of [h], [l], [r] with any other consonant or when the word ended in [h]. E.g.: ærm > earm ‘arm’, æld > eald ‘old’, æhta > eahta ‘eight’, sæh > seah ‘saw’, herte > heorte ‘heart’, melcan > meolcan ‘to milk’, selh > seolh ‘seal’, feh > feoh ‘property.

 

Palatalization of Vowels

Diphthongization of the monophthongs under the influence of the preceding palatal consonants took place when the vowel was preceded by the initial /j/ or /k’/ and /sk’/: g-, c-, sc-. It had two stages. Originally as a result of the palatalization of the consonants there appeared an ascending diphthong (i.e. a diphthong with the second element stressed), and then, according to the English phonetic norm, the ascending diphthong turns into a usual descending one; e.g.: /e/ > /ie/ > /ie/; /o/ > /eo/ > /eo/. If we drop the transitional stage (the ascending variant of the diphthong), the general process of diphthongization may be presented as follows:

[a] > [ea] [e:] > [ie:]

[a:] > [ea:] or [eo:] [o] > [eo]

[æ] > [ea] [o:] > [eo:]

[æ:] > [ea:] [u] > [io] (in the 9th century [io] > [eo])

[e] > [ie] [u:] >[io:] (in the 9th century [io:] > [eo:])

As a result of this change new words with diphthongs appeared in the Old English language; e.g.: scacan > sceacan ‘to shake’, scawian > sceawian ‘to see’, scamu > sceamu or sceomu ‘shame’, gæf > geaf ‘gave’, gær > gear ‘year’, sceld > scield ‘shield’, ge > gie ‘you’, scort > sceort ‘short’, scop > sceop ‘created’, ӡ unӡ > ӡiong > ӡeonӡ ‘young’, ӡ utan > ӡiotan > ӡeotan ‘ to pour’.

I-mutation or i-umlaut

Umlaut is a change of the vowel caused by partial assimilation with the following vowel in the word. Umlaut is a Germanic, but not proto-Germanic phenomenon: we do not see it in the oldest documents of Germanic languages. In Old English it is necessary to distinguish the front-lingual umlaut (the change of the vowel under the influence of the following [j]) and the velar umlaut (the change of the vowel under the influence of the following [u], [o] or [a]). A phenomenon similar to umlaut takes place as well before the consonant /h/ /.

In the i-umlaut (i-mutation, front-lingual umlaut, палатальная или переднеязычная перегласовка) both monophthongs and diphthongs are involved. This phenomenon implies the fronting and narrowing of back vowels under the influence of the following [j]. The change of the vowels in that case is as follows:

[a] > [e] sandian > sendan ‘to send’

[a] > [æ] larian > læran ‘to teach’

[æ] > [e] tælian > tellan ‘to tell’

[o] > [e] ofstian > efstan ‘to hurry’

[o] > [e] wopian > wepan ‘to weep’

[u] > [y] fullian > fyllan ‘to fill’

[u] > [y] ontunian > ontynan ‘to open’

[ea] > [ie] hleahian > hliehhan ‘to laugh’

[ea] > [ie] hearian > hieran ‘to hear’

[eo] > [ie] afeorian > afierran ‘to move’

[eo] > [ie] ӡ etreowi > ӡetriewe ‘true’

The mechanism of the front-lingual umlaut can be seen very well in the examples above: the vowel [i] in the ending of the word influences the root vowel in such a way that the latter becomes narrower, while the sound [i] itself as a rule disappears.

The velar umlaut means the diphthongization of front vowels under the influence of back vowels in the following syllable. In case of the velar umlaut the following changes take place:

[a] > [ea] saru > searu ‘armour’

[e] > [eo] hefon > heofon ‘heaven’

[i] > [io] sifon > siofon ‘seven’

The phonetic changes before the consonant /h/ are characterized, as some scholars notice, by certain ambiguity. As a result of this change the Old English word næht, for instance, develops the following variants: neaht, nieht, niht, nyht; the past form of maʒ (may) – meahte – miehte, mihte, myhte.

Traces of i-Umlaut in New English:

1. irregular Plural of nouns

man – men; tooth – teeth

2. irregular verbs and adjectives

told – tell; sold – sell; old – elder

3. word-formation with sound interchange

long – length; blood – bleed

 

4. Lengthening of Vowels:

a) before the homorganic clusters (гоморганные согласные, образующиеся одним и тем же произносительным органом) nd, ld, mb took place in the 9th century. The cause of this phenomenon is not clear enough. The scholars write about its unusual, even enigmatic character. Such words as bindan ‘bind’, bunden ‘bound’, cild ‘child’ began to be pronounced as [bi:ndan], [bu:nden], [ci:ld]. But in case there was a third consonant after nd, ld or mb no lengthening took place, e.g., in the plural form cildru ‘children’ the short [i] remains.

Vowels were also lengthened when certain consonants following them dropped out:

b) when m,n dropped out before f, s, þ and n dropped out before h (fimf > fi:f, uns > u:s, onþer > o:ðer)

c) g before d, n (sægde > sæ:de; frignan > fri:nan)

d) the lengthening of vowels and syllabic contraction due to the falling out of intervocalic [х] and [х’] is a phonetic phenomenon which consists in the elimination of the consonant [h] in the position between two vowels, while those vowels form one phoneme, mainly a long diphthong:

[a] + [h] + vowel > [ea] slahan > slea:n ‘to kill’

[e] + [h] + vowel > [eo] sehan > seo:n ‘to see’

[i] + [h] + vowel > [eo]  tihan > teo:n ‘to accuse’

[o] + [h] + vowel > [o]   fohan > fo:n ‘to catch’

As a result of the contraction, as it can be seen in the examples, the syllable structure of the word changes: disyllabic words become monosyllabic.

The dropping out of h between l and a vowel also caused the diphthongization and lengthening:    seolhas > seo:las ‘seals’.

 

Consonant Changes

Voicing of fricatives

The voicing of fricatives /f - v, þ - ð, s - z/ in the intervocalic position consists in following: in the final position voiceless consonants are fixed, and in the position between two vowels (the intervocalic position) – voiced ones. For example, in the word wif ‘woman’ the final consonants is voiceless, but in the same word in the form of the genitive case the letter f expresses the voiced sound [v] (wifes). Similarly in the infinitive form of the verb weorðan ‘to become’ the letter ð denotes the voiced sound [ð], while in the past tense form wearð the same letter denotes the voiceless sound [þ]. Likewise the letter s in the infinitive form of the verb ceosan ‘to choose’ is read as the voiced [z], and in the form of the past tense ceas – as the voiceless [ s].

6. Palatalization of consonants and development of sibilants (assibilation) could be observed already in the earliest stage of the Old English language.

The consonant [k’] – in spelling cg – in the position before or after the front-lingual vowel changes into the affricate [tʃ].

The combination [sk’] in spelling sc changes into the sibilant [ʃ] in any position. In the intervocalic position after a short vowel [sk’] changes into the long sibilant [ʃʃ], in other situations – into the usual [ʃ].

The consonant [g’] – in spelling ʒ – in the position before or after a front-lingual vowel changes into the affricate [dʒ].

In spelling these phonetic changes found expression only in the Middle English language: cild > child ‘child’, scip > ship ‘ship’, brycg > bridge ‘bridge’.

7. Assimilation of consonants, i.e. full or partial likening of the consonant to the next consonant in the word is observed in the Old English language rather frequently. Full assimilation can be observed, for instance, in the words wiste > wisse ‘knew’, wifman> wimman ‘woman’. Partial assimilation takes place in the following words: stefn > stemn ‘voice’, efn > emn ‘level’.

8. The lengthening and doubling of consonants; the falling out of consonants:

a) the lengthening and doubling of consonants is connected with i-mutation: the stem-building i or j fell out and the consonant doubled (tælian > tællan)

b) the falling out of consonants is connected with the lengthening of vowels (sæʒde [j] > sæ:de).

9. Rhotacism (a process when [z] turns into [r]) e.g. mai z a (Gothic) – mā r a (OE) (more).

10. Gemination – a process of doubling a consonant – after a short vowel, usually happened as a result of palatal mutation e.g. fu ll an (OE) (fill), se tt an (OE) (set), etc.

11. Loss of Consonants:

· sonorants before fricatives e.g. fi m f (Gothic) – fīf (OE) (five);

· fricatives between vowels and some plosives e.g. s æʒde (early OE) – s æde (late OE) (said);

· loss of [j] – as a result of palatal mutation (see examples above);

· loss of [w] e.g. case-forms of nouns: s æ (Nominative) – s æ w e (Dative) (OE sea).