Principal Quantitative Vowel Changes

	Early ME	Early NE
Lengthening	before Id, nd, mh in open syllables	before ss, st, nt, ft
Shortening	before other consonant clusters	before [θ, d, t, k]

Evolution of consonants in Middle English and Early New. English consonants were on the whole far more stable than vowels. A large number of consonants have probably remained unchanged through all historical periods. Thus we can assume that the sonorants [m, n, 1], the plosives [p, b, t, d] and also 1k, g] in most positions have not been subjected to any noticeable changes. They are found in many words descending from OE though their correlations in the system of phonemes have altered to a varying degree.
The most important developments in the history of English conso4 nants were the growth of new sets of sounds, — affricates and sibilants,
— and the new phonological treatment of fricatives. Both changes added a number of consonant phonemes to the system. On the other hand, some consonants were lost or vocalised, which affected both the consonant and the vowel system. Like vowel changes, consonant changes can be shown as occurring in the transition period from Written OE to Late ME that is in Early ME, and in the transition from ME to the language of the 18th c., that is in the Early NE period.

Growth of Sibilants and Affricates. In OE there were no affricatesand no sibilants, except [s, z ]. The earliest distinct sets of these sounds appeared towards the end of OE or during the Early ME period. The new type of consonants developed from OE palatal plosives 1k’, g’ I (which had split from the corresponding velar plosives 1k] and [gi in Early OE (see § 141), and also from the consonant cluster [sk’]. The three new phonemes which arose from these sources were [tI, [d31 and [$1. In Early ME they began to be indicated by special letters and digraphs, which came into use mainly under the influence of the French scnibal tradition ch, tch, g, dg, sh, ssh, sch.
The sound changes and examples are shown in Table 9.

 

Change illustrated	Examples
OE ME	OE	ME	NE
k’ t ∫ g’ dz   sk’ ∫	cild tæcan ecze brycze fisc scēap	child [tзi:ld] techen [‘tεt∫ən] edge [’edzə] bridge [‘bridzə] fish [fi∫] sheep [∫ε:pI	child teach edge bridge fish sheep

It must be added that the affricates [t∫] and [dz] could also come from a different source: they entered the English language in loan- words from French, e.g. ME charme [‘t∫arm], gentil [dzen’til] from
O Fr charme, gentil ([t∫] and [dz] in the Anglo-Norman pronunciation). As a result of these changes -— and also as a result of the vocalisation of [γ] the consonant system in Late ME was in some respects different from the OE system. The opposition of velar consonants to palatal [k, k’; γ, j] — had disappeared: instead, plosive consonants were contrasted to the new affricates and in the set of affricates [t∫] was opposed to [dz] through sonority.
Another development accounting for the appearance of sibilants and affricates in the English language is dated in EarL NE and is connected with the phonetic assimilation of lexical borrowins.
In the numerous loan-words of Romance origin adopted in ME and Early NE the stress fell on the ultimate or penultimate syllable. e.g. ME na’cioun, piea’saunce (NE naiion, pleasance). In accordance with the phonetic tendencies the stress was moved closer to the beginning of the word (see § 363). The final syllables which thus became unstressed, or weakl\ stressed, underwent phonetic alterations: the vowels were reduced and sonietiines dropped; the sounds making up the s lIable became less distinct. As a result some cequences of consonantc fucd into single consonants.
In Early NE the clusters Fsj, zj, tj, dj] - through reciprocal assirnilation in unstressed position —— regularly changed into [∫, t∫, dz]. Three of these sounds, [∫, t∫, dz] merged with the phonemes already existing in the language, while the fourth, [z] made a new phoneme. Now the four sounds formed a weIl-balanced system of two correlated pairs: [∫,z] [t∫, dz]. see Table 10 for examples.
TabIe 10
Development of Sibilants and Affricates in Early

Change illustrated	Examples
Late ME	NE	Late ME	NE
sj zj tj dj	∫ z t∫ dz	condicioun [kondi’sju:n] commisioun [komi’sju:n] plesure [ple`zju:r(ə)] visioun [vi’zju:nI nature [na`tju:r(ə)] cu1ture [kul’tju:r(ə) souldier [soul’djer] procedure [prose`dju:rə]	condition commision pleasure vision nature culture soldier procedure

Compare these words to NE suit, mature, duty, where the same consonant clusters were preserved in stressed syllables. (In some Mod F words, however, we still find the sequences with [j] I in unstressed position as well, usually they are secondary variants in Br E, or American variants of pronunciation, e.g. Br E issue [‘i∫ju:] despite the change of [s] to [∫] has preserved [j]; in the American variant [’isju:] no assimilative changes have taken place. Among variants of British pronunciation there are such pairs as NE associate [ə’∫ou∫ieit] and [ə’sousieit], NE verdure [‘vε:dzə] and [‘və:djə]; they may be due to Early NE dialectal differences or else to the fact that the assimilation has not been completed and is still going on inModE.)
Treatment oi Fricative Consonants in Middle English
and Early New English. In order to understand the nature of the changes which affected the fricative consonants in ME and in Early NE we must recall some facts from their earlier history. In OE the pairs of fricative consonants — [f] and [v], [θ] and [ð], [s] and [z I —— were treated as positional variants or allophones; sonority depended on phonetic conditions: in intervocal position they appeared as voiced, otherwise — as voiceless. In ME and in Early NE these allophones became independent phonemes.
Phonologisation of voiced and voiceless fricatives was a slow process which lasted several hundred years. The first pair of consonants to become phonemes were [fi and [vi. In Late ME texts they occurred in identical phonetic environment and cculd be used for differentiation between words, which means that they had turned into phonemes. Cf., e.g. ME veyne and feine [‘veina, ‘fein] (NE vein, feign). The two other pairs, [θ, ð] and [s, z], so far functioned as allophones.
A new, decisive alteration tcok place in the 16th c. The fricatives were once again subjected to voicing under certain phonetic conditions. Hence forth they were pronounced as voiced if they were preceded by an unstressed vowel and followed by a stressed one, e.g. Early NE possess [po’zes I — the first voiceless [s], which stood between an unstressed and a stressed vowel, had become voiced, while the second [s], which was preceded by an accented vowel, remained voiceless (ME possessen [ po’sesən] >NE possess). In the same way ME fishes, doores, takes [‘fi∫əs, ‘do:rəs, ‘ta:kəs] acquired a voiced [z I in the ending. The last three examples show that one phonetic condition — an unaccented pr ding vowel — was sufficient to transform a voiceless sibilant into a voiced one; the second condition — a succeeding stressed voxel was less important: [s] is the last sound of the word. Probably the effect of stress extended beond the boundaries of the word: the endings took no accent but could be followed by other words beginning with an accented syllable. This supposition is confirmed by the voicing of consonants in many form-words: articles, pronouns, auxiliaries,
prepositions; they receive no stress in speech but may be surrounded by notional words which are logically accented. For instance, in the following quotation from a Late ME text (Capgrave’s CHRONICLE OF ENGLAND, c. 1463), there are several unstressed form-words with voiceless fricatives and sibilants “In this yere, in the XXI day of Aprile, uias that frere bore u,hech mad these Annotaciones” (‘in this year, on the twenty-first day of April, was born the friar who made these notes’) — [Ois, Ge:, of, was, Oat, Oe:z] and the ending [sl in annotaciones. In Early NE the consonants in all these unstressed words became voiced, even initially [Ois]> [dis], [Oe: ]> [di: 1, etc. (the initial fricative in notional, stressed, words remained voiceless, cf. ME thin, thorn [Oin, Oorni, NE thin, thorn).’
Sometimes a similar voicing occurred in consonant clusters containing sibilants, fricatives and affricates (see Table II).

Voicing of Consonants in Early New English

ME NE	ME	NE
	resemblen [rə’semblən] foxes [‘foksəs] w as [was] is [is] his [his] pensif [pen’sif] of [of] there [‘θε:rə] they [θei] with [wiθ] anxietie aŋksie’tiə] luxurious [luksju:r’iu:sJ knowleche [‘knoulət∫] Greemoich [‘gre:nwit$]	resemble foxes was is his pensive of there theyw uith anxiety luxurious knowledge Greenwich [‘gri:nidz]

On the whole the Early NE voicing of fricatives was rather inconsistent and irregular. Though it was a positional change occurring in certain phonetic conditions, these conditions were often contradictory. The voicing had many exceptions; for instance, in assemble, assess we find a medial voiceless [s I in precisely the same environment as the voiced [z] of resemble and possess. Therefore after these changes voiced and voiceless fricatives could appear in similar phonetic conditions and could be used for phonological purposes to distinguish between morphemes; in other words, they had turned into phonemes, ci., e.g. NE thy [dai] and thigh [θai], ice [ais] and eyes [aiz].

 

Lecture № 12

Changes in the Grammatical Categories of the Noun. Decay of the Grammatical Categories and Declensions of the Adjective. The History of Personal and Demonstrative Pronouns. The Demonstrative Pronouns and the Development of the Article.

 

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