The development of monophthongs in ME.

The development of monophthongs in ME.

The OE close labialized vowels [y, y:] disappeared in early ME, in some dialects they were replaced by:

[y, y:] → e. e: in Kentish

i, i: in Wessex;

The long OE [a:] was narrowed to [o:] – stan OE – stone NE

11^th cent – monophthongization of OE diphthongs: æ˘ˉa>ā˘, ē˘ Eg: stream > strēm

eō˘>ē˘

1. the GVS, 14^th cent.

i: → ai time ME – time

e: → i: field ME – field

ε: → i: east ME – east

a: → ei table ME – table

כּ: → ou soo – so

o: → u: goos – goose

u: → au mous – mouse

au → כּ: cause – couse

 

24. The OE adj and its further development in ME&N E.

OE adj possess 3 categories:

1. gender (m, f, n);

2. number (sg, pl);

3. case (5).

Main features of the adj:

1. repeated the grammatical categories of noun that they modify;

2. 2 types of declension

a. strong (a, l, o - stems of noun; call, manig – always str.);

b. weak (n – stems, i, l, c, a – “same” – always weak);

3. 3 degrees of comparison:

a. Positive (scort)

b. comparative (-ra);

c. superlative (-est/ -ost);

Suppletive forms:

gōd – beltra – bet(e)st;

lүˉtel - læˉssa - læˉst

micel – māra - mæˉst (much)

R – лучший – лучше

4. 5 cases (Nom, Gen., Dat, Accus, Instr. (lүˉtte werede – малым войском).

In ME it became unchangeable part of speech (except for the degree of comparison). The first category to disappear was gender, the Inst case fused with Dat. But at the end of 13^th cent cases were lost.

In ME the degrees of comparison could be build in the same way, only the suffix had been weakened to –er; -est.

The changing of vowels in Early NE survived in old, elder, eldest where the difference in meaning from older – oldest made distinction. Also in father/ further.

 

The OE personal pronouns and its futher development in ME and NE.

OE personal pronouns had 3 persons, 3 numbers (sing, pl, dual) and 3 genders. Eg: ic – sing, wit – dual, wē – plural. Dual number – Germanic feature (wit – мы оба, git – вы оба).

Gender was in the 3^rd person sing. Eg: hē – hēo – hit (m – f – n).

Cases: m f n

N ic þэīī hē hēo hit

G min þin his hire his

D mē þe him hire him

Acc me þe hine hie hit

1^st pers. sg→2^nd pers.sg→3^rd pers. sg.

Many forms have survived in ME. Eg: “and I’ll love thee”.

In OE – a tendency toward harmony which increased in ME.

The fem. pronoun of the 3^rd pers. And mascul. pron. of the 3^rd per. could become identical. The language developed new ways:

1. The pl. “hie” is replaced by Sc (от скандинав.)“they” (13^th);

2. The object case represented by Sc “them” (OE hem);

3. The fem “hēo” → shē (ME) → she (NE) (as hēo was homonymous to hē; hit. The language discriminated this form, “he” – survived.

4. dual number pron. have disappeared;

5. possessive pron have appeared from Germ.

6. the new pron. “there” appeared (Sc);

7. In NE:

· the pron of the 2^nd pers. sg went out of use in the 17^th cent → “you” for sg and pl, the 2^nd pl “you” replaced “gē” OE.

· Late ME “she” is believed to have developed from the OE demonstrative pron of the femin. gender – “sēo”

· the other forms of OE “hēo” were preserved “hire/her” used in ME as the Obj. case and as a possessive pron. is a form of OE “hēo”. “Hers” was derived from “hire/here”.

The OE verb, its gram. categories and morphological types.

The OE verb had numerous persons, number cases, but fewer gram. categ. than Mod. verbs have.

The verb-predicate agreed with the subj. in 2 gram. cat.:

1. number: sg/pl.;

2. person was shown in the Pres. Tense of the Ind. Mood sg. Eg: hē binderþ (he binds) – 3^rd pers sg.

Mood:

1. Indicative – finde → Infin.- findan (sg)

2. Imperative – find

3. Subjective – finde

Tense: Present, Past.

Morphological types:

1. Strong verbs (purely of OE origin) form their Past tense by changing their root vowel. R. – беру – брал. Strong verbs represent an unproductive type.

4 forms: writ an (Infin), wrāt (Past sg), writon (Past pl), written (Past Participle).

2. Weak verbs form their tense with a help of –d/-t (dental suffix) → productive type; Germanic origin.

3 forms: maxean (Infin), maxode (Past sg), maxod (Participle II). Eg: maxodon – Past pl.

3. Preterent - Present (12^th cent). Their present forms were once past tense forms. Eg: dugan (avail), cunnan (can), magan (may).

4. Anomalous (irregular). The forms are derived from different roots. Eg: bēon: ist (1^st pers. sg), wæron (Past pl), wæst (Past sg.). Also: dōn (do), gān (go), willan (will).

 

 

15. Major vowel changes in NE. Great Vowel Shift. Vocalization of [r].

The short vowels were more stable.

1. ME [α] – NE [æ] man – mæn

after w (a) → o wæs > wαs > [woz]

2. ME short “u” lost its labial character and became [۸] except in some dialects. Eg: ME ‘comen’ [kumen] > NE come [k۸m].

3. lengthening before –ss, -ft, -nt, -st;

4. shortening before sing. dental and velar cons. [e:], [u:] before ∂, θ.

the Great Vowel Shift (O. Gerpersen 14^th cent.)

Short Vowels:

i>i>I sitten – sit [sit]

y>i>i byllan>bill [bil]

æ>a>æ æppel>apple [æpl]

u>u>۸ under>under [۸ndə]

e>e>e bedd>bed [bed]

o>o>o god>god [god]

a>a>æ cat>cat [kæt]

Long vowels:

ī>ī>āī tīme>time [taim]

yˉ>ī>āī myˉs-mice [mais]

e>e>i: metan-meet [mi:t]

æ>æ>i: sæ>sea [si:]

ū>ū>au hūs>house [haus]

ā>ā>ou rād>road [roud]

a>a>ei nama>name [neim]

[r] was vocalized to the neutral vowel [ә] when final or before another consonant in the 17^th cent. Eg: far [faә], bird As a result a number of new vowels appeared in E: a: (far), o: (fork), ε: (girl). Also such new diphthongs appeared iә, uә, εә (here, care, sure); thriphthongs [auә, ouә] (our, lower) + lengthening: arm, four

Intrusive [r] – that’s not found in the word but it’s pronounced.

 

 

Changes in the noun system in ME and NE.

In ME the muscul gender became the main. the gender lost its inflections. The OE Nom, Acc, Dat cases fell together into Common case.

The Gen used to denote possession → becomes possessive case.

In ME the pl usually take –es which is the continuation of OE –as.

Process of simplification:

· changing in the structure of the word;

· fluctuation of gender. Also the principle of analogy – ability of the language to adapt a less common form to a more widely used one. Eg: черное кофе.

· Adj – an unchangeable part of speech (except for the degrees of comparison).

 

Strong verbs in OE and their development.

The OE verb had numerous persons and number cases, but fewer gram. categ. than NE verb had.

Str. verbs form their Past tense by changing their root vowel, had 4 principle forms:

· Infinitive – wrētan;

· Past sg – wrāt;

· Past pl – writan;

· Participle II – writēn.

They can be found in Rus → IE origin. Eg: беру – брал, несу – нес.

Often denoted the most important actions and states. In NE they are mainly irregular verbs.

Had 7 classes:

1. 1-6 classes use vowel gradation;

2. 7 class include reduplication verbs, build their Past tense repeating the root vowel.

3. The principle forms have the same endings:

Inf. - -an;

Past sg - ---;

Past pl - -on;

Part. II - -en.

4. some verbs with the root ending in –s; -p; -f employed an interchange of consonants [s → z → r], [θ → ð → d], [f → v];

5. The classes differed in the number of verbs and in their role and weight in the language.

6. Classes 4 and 5 deffered in the stems of Part. II. Classes 2, 3 and 4 – had identical vowels in the stems of Part. II.;

7. Classes 1 and 2 - contained in the root [I, u]. Classes 3, 4 and 5 – contained the gradation.

8. In ME many str. verbs changed into weak – they began to use dental suffix instead of the root verb change.

9. The root vowel in the Past sg and pl fell together. In the 15^th cent – one stem is used. In NE – 3 forms of str verbs are used. Eg: writ – wrote – written.

10. The OE endings –an

-en →-en (NE)

-en

 

The sources of NE plural forms of the noun.

OE singular and plural.

They were well distinguished formally in all the declensions, very few homonymous forms.

The pers. pronoun of the 1^st and 2^nd pers – 3 numbers: sg, pl and dual. Eg: ic (sg) – wit (dual) – wē (pl).

ME the noun preserved the formal distinctions of 2 numbers. Late ME –es.

The –es under went several phonetic changes:

· the voicing of fricatives;

· the loss of unstressed vowels in final syllables.

Eg:

1. after a voiced consonant/vowel: stones OE > stoυəz > stæυnz

2. after a voiceless cons.: bookes [bo:kəs] > bu:ks > bυks.

3. after affricative [s, z, ∫], [t∫], [dg]: di∫əs > di∫iz;

The ME –en- last its productivity in NE: oxen, brethren, children.

Some nouns with homonymous form of number: sheep, deer, swine.

The gram. of former root –st has survived only as exceptions: man – men, tooth – teeth.

Forms like “data”, “antennae” have come from other languages.

Loans in OE

Not numerous, 600 words from Celtic & Latin. Then Teutons came to live in E and the l-ges mixed. But very few survived. Proper names. (London – dan (a hill)).

3 ways of Latin influence:

- 1^st c. A.D: the words belonged to spheres: trade, religion, everyday’s life, agricultural products (win -wine), plum, pepper,

- 7^th c. A.D with the introd. Of Christianity. (hymn, angel). A l-ge of science and church (school, master, altar)

- Translation loans (калькирование). We observe this process when a compound word from the source l-ge is exactly translated into another l-ge (Evangelum lat. – good message; wunden – stefna (ship))

Many compounds contain the root [ju:θ] - война: [ju:θ]- beorn (man of war, warrior)

Borrowings after the Roman Invasion:

- Place names: castra – лагерь – Lancaster, port – Devonport

- Military affairs: wall, street

 

 

Strong verbs in OE

The strong type of verbs was inherited from IE. The verbs of this type build their Past & Part II with the help of ablaut of vowel gradation (перегласовка). Ablaut was to be found in all IE l-ges. It survived in Russian as well (несу-нес, беру-брал). Due to numerous positional vowel changes the IE ablaut shows many variations: 7 typesrīsan-rās-rĩson-risen; drĩncon- drănc-druncon-druncen.

He number of strong verbs in E which still retain the OE model is only ~70, The origin of the terms “strong/weak verbs” – Jacob Grimm. Strong verbs do not need any suffixes, support, outside the root.

In ME a very significant change in the former paradigm of strong verbs happened: thy had the same root for all persons: OE 1/3 – dranc; 2 - drunce→ ME drank

This contributed to greater regularity. Diff. vowels for past sg & pl fell together (coincided)

 

The development of monophthongs in ME.

The OE close labialized vowels [y, y:] disappeared in early ME, in some dialects they were replaced by:

[y, y:] → e. e: in Kentish

i, i: in Wessex;

The long OE [a:] was narrowed to [o:] – stan OE – stone NE

11^th cent – monophthongization of OE diphthongs: æ˘ˉa>ā˘, ē˘ Eg: stream > strēm

eō˘>ē˘

1. the GVS, 14^th cent.

i: → ai time ME – time

e: → i: field ME – field

ε: → i: east ME – east

a: → ei table ME – table

כּ: → ou soo – so

o: → u: goos – goose

u: → au mous – mouse

au → כּ: cause – couse

 

24. The OE adj and its further development in ME&N E.

OE adj possess 3 categories:

1. gender (m, f, n);

2. number (sg, pl);

3. case (5).

Main features of the adj:

1. repeated the grammatical categories of noun that they modify;

2. 2 types of declension

a. strong (a, l, o - stems of noun; call, manig – always str.);

b. weak (n – stems, i, l, c, a – “same” – always weak);

3. 3 degrees of comparison:

a. Positive (scort)

b. comparative (-ra);

c. superlative (-est/ -ost);

Suppletive forms:

gōd – beltra – bet(e)st;

lүˉtel - læˉssa - læˉst

micel – māra - mæˉst (much)

R – лучший – лучше

4. 5 cases (Nom, Gen., Dat, Accus, Instr. (lүˉtte werede – малым войском).

In ME it became unchangeable part of speech (except for the degree of comparison). The first category to disappear was gender, the Inst case fused with Dat. But at the end of 13^th cent cases were lost.

In ME the degrees of comparison could be build in the same way, only the suffix had been weakened to –er; -est.

The changing of vowels in Early NE survived in old, elder, eldest where the difference in meaning from older – oldest made distinction. Also in father/ further.