Theme 4. Old English Spelling. Old

English Phonology

Aims:

perceive phonetic irregularities between spelling and pronunciation; be able to account for major vowels and consonants changes that occurred in Old English

Points for Discussion:Introduction

1. Spelling Irregularities2. The Phonetic Alphabet3. Vowel changes in Old

English3.1. Breaking (Fracture)3.2. Palatal Mutation (i-

umlaut)3.3. Diphthongization after

Palatal Consonants3.4. Back, or Velar Mutation3.5. Mutation before h.3.6. Contraction

4. Consonants Changes in Old English4.1. Voicing of fricatives in intervocal position4.2. Palatalization of the Sounds (c,sc,c)4.3. Assimilation before t4.4. Loss of consonants in certain positions4.5. Metathesis of r4.6. West Germanic gemination of consonants

Conclusion

Key Terms to Know monophthongs diphthongs Assimilation Breaking (fracture) Palatalization Palatal mutation (i-

umlaut) Diphthongization

Back/Velar Mutation Mutation before h Contraction Voicing of Fricatives Palatalization of j Assimilation before t Gemination of

Consonants

Recommended LiteratureObligatory

David Crystal. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. Cambridge, 1994. PP. 16-19Elly van Gelderen.A History of the English Language.- Amsterdam/ Philadelphia, 2006. -PP. 13-23Valery V. Mykhailenko. Paradigmatics in the evolution of English. - Chernivtsi, - 1999. PP. 22-25; 30-35T.A. Rastorguyeva. A History of English. - Moscow, 1983. - PP. 71-92L.Verba. History of the English language. - Vinnitsa, 2004. - PP. 30-38

Additional: . . . - ., 1985. - C. 31-45

IntroductionThe English have no respect for their language, and will not teach their children to speak it. They cannot spell it because they had nothing to spell it with but an old foreign alphabet of which only the consonants and not all of them have any agreed speech value. Consequently no man can teach himself what it should sound like from reading it.

/G.B. Shaw, Pygmalion, Preface/

The Poem on Spelling Irregularities (source-unknown)

I take it you already knowOf tough and bough and cough and dough?Some many stumble but not you.On hiccough, thorough, slough and through?So now you are ready perhapsto learn of less familiar traps?Beware of heard, a dreadful wordthat looks like beard and sounds like bird,and dead is said like bed, not bead or deed.Watch out for meat, great, and threat thatrhyme with suite, straight, and debt.

(Elly van Gelderen. A History of the English Language, p.14)

1. Spelling Irregularities. The Phonetic Alphabet

The Old English Alphabet was created with the help of Latin and Runic

writing:

wy [y]uj [] ,[]h [x], [x'], [h]s [s], [z] [], ['], [j], []rf [f], [v]pe/doc [k], [k']nbmLa

Old English writing phonetic principle: every letter indicated a separate sound.But, some letters indicated two or more sounds:

2. Word Stress Word stress was fixed. In disyllabic and

polysyllabic words the accent fell on the root-morpheme or on the first syllable. Word stress was fixed; it remained on the same syllable in different grammatical forms of the word.

e.g. Dat. case hlforde ['xla:vrd] cynine ['kynig]

Nom. case hlford ['xla:vord]cynin ['kynig].

Polysyllabic words, especially compounds, may have had two stresses, chief and secondary. The was fixed on the first root-morpheme. In words with prefixes the position of the stress varied: verb prefixes were unaccented, while in nouns and adjectives the stress was commonly thrown on to the prefix. Cf.:

-'risan, mis-'faran v (NE arise, 'go astray');

'mis-dd, 'u-en n (NE misdeed, 'escape').

If the words were derived from the same root, word stress, together with other means, served to distinguish the noun from the verb, cf.:

'and-swaru n and-'swarian v (NE answer, to answer)

'on-in n on-'inna v (NE beginning, to begin)

3.1.Breaking(fracture)

Formation of a short diphthong from a simple shortvowel when it is followed by a specific consonantcluster.

e.g. a+r+cons,l+cons(beforeh) ea +h+cons eae+hfinal eo

(GermanicmonophthongizationsweresubstitutedintoOldEnglishdiphthongs)

a > eaGothic arms > OE earm > NE armOHG fallan > OE eahta (Kent, Wes.) > NE eight > eaOHGSaltz>*slt > OE sealt > NE saltOHE haltan > *hldan > OE healdan > NE holdOHG sah > sh > OE seah > NE sawOHG nah > *nh > OE nah > NE near e > eoOHG fehtan > OE feohtan > NE fightOHG fehu (fihu) > OE feoh > NE feeGothic sterra > OE steorra > NE starOG herza > OE heorte > NE heart

3.2. Palatal Mutation (i-umlaut)

narrowing of the vowel in the stressed position syllable under the influence of i or j

of the following syllable a > ; a>eGoth. sandjan > OE sendan > NE sendOE framian > OE fremman > NE frame > OE hlian > OE hlan > NE healOE n > OE ni > NE any, one

o > oe, e (Dat., singular)OE dohtor > OE dehter < L. *dohtri > NE daughterOE ofstian > OE efstian > NE to hurry

> OE s > OE s < L. osiz > NE gooseOE t > OE t < G. *toiz > NE tooth-teeth

u > yOE full > OE fyllan < *fullian> NE fullOE hnutu > OE hnyte >< *hnutiz > NE nut

> OE ms > OE ms NE mouse miceOE cian > OE can > NE to announcePalatal mutation diphthongs ea > ieOE eald > OE ieldra > NE elderOE hleahian > OE hliehhan > NE laugh eo > ieOE feor > OE fierra > NE furtherOE eon > OE ienra > NE younger > e OE harian>OEheran>NEhearOEelafa>OEelefan>NEbelieve

Ancient Mutations

goose geese tooth teeth man men mouse mice hale health

doom deem full file whole heal fall fell (vb.) blood bleed foul filth

Some English word pairs showing the effects of a

phonological change which took place over 1,200 years ago.

3.3. Back, or Velar Mutation

Back vowels o/u (sometimes a) influencing the preceding syllable caused the formation of diphthongs.

The process was not universal (in west saxon literary language it occurred only before the sounds r, l, p, b, f, m)

e.g.

i > ioOE hira > OE hiora >

NE theirOE silufr > OE siolufr >

NE silverOE sifon > OE siofon >

NE sevenOE limu > OE liomu >

NE limbs

e > eoOE hefon > OE heofon

> NE heavenOE efor > OE eofor >

NE boar

a > eaOE saru > OE searu >

NE armour

3.4. Diphthongization after Palatal Consonants

Diphthongs resulted diphthongization after palatal consonants sk', k' and j (in spelling c, sc, )

a > ea Lat. castra > OE ceaster > NE townOE scacan > OE sceacan > NE shakeOE scamu > OE sceamu > NE shame

e > ieOE efan > OE iefan > NE giveOE etan > OE ietan > NE get

> ea (the sound was actually derived from a).

OE f > OE eaf > NE gaveOE t > OE eat > NE year

o > eo OE scort > OE sceort > NE shortOE yong > OE eon > NE young

3.5. Mutation before h

Sounds a and e that preceded h underwent several changes:- mutating to diphthongs ea, ie and finally were reduced to i/y:e.g.OE naht > neaht > niht > nieht > nyht > NE nightThe words with such mutation are not very numerous. It is observed in the past tense of the verb maan (may) meahte > miehte > mihte > myhte and several other words.

3.6. Contraction

The consonant h proved to have interfered with thedevelopment of many sounds. When h was placedbetweentwovowelsthefollowingchangesoccurred:

ethtvowel>OEsehen>seon>NEseeithtvowel>OEtihan>tn>NEaccuseothtvowel>OEfohan>fn>NEcatch

3.7. Lengthening of vowels before the clusters nd, ld, mb

ExplainstheexceptionintherulesofreadingthesoundsintheclosedsyllablesinthepresentdayEnglish:

e.g.climb,find,bold,told,comb.

4. Consonants Changes in Old English

TheOEsystemofconsonantsphonemeshavechangedbut little in comparison with other Germaniclanguages. The system of consonants of the OldEnglish period is presented in the following table(everyshortconsonantinOEhadacorrespondinglongone):

4.1. Voicing of fricatives in intervocal position

f > v

OE ofer [over] NE over

OE hlf hlfas ['hlvas] NE leaf leaves

OE wif wfe, wfa [wv, wva] NE wife wives

> OE er [er] NE

other

OE rae [ra] NE quickly

Voiced sibilant z was very unstable in OE (and other west-Germanic languages) and very soon changed into r (rhotacism)wesun weren (now were, but was)maiza mra (now more, but most)

It is due to rhotacism that common Indo-European suffix -iza (Ukr. -i) used to form the degrees of comparison is so different now in Ukrainian. and English, but comparing such words as:Goth. softiza Ukr. OE softra NE softer.We may easily find that the suffix is essentially the same.

4.2. Palatalization of the sounds k', sk' and kg' (marked as c, sc and c) developed in assibilation, that is formation of a sibilant in places before front vowels.

c > [k] > [] > chcild > childceosan > choosehwilc > which

sc [sk] > [] > shsceap > sheepscip > shipsceotan > shootsceort > short c ['] > [d] > dbryc > bridgehryc > ridgewec > wedge

4.3. Assimilation before t

velar + t > htscan (scte) > shte NE seek sought brinan > brhte NE bring brought labial + t > ftesceapan > easeaft NE creature fn > mnstefn > stemn (voice)

dental + t > sswitan > wisse (instead of witte-knew) fm > mmwifman > wimman (woman) d > t bind > bint (binds)

Thesoundtwhenitwasprecededbyanumberofconsonantschangedthequalityofaprecedingsound.

4.4. Loss of consonants in certain positions

bronhte brhte NE broughtfimf fif NE fireoner - er NE othermun m NE mouth

Other examples of similar loss was the loss of before d and n; the vowel was lengthened, too:

mden mden NE maidensde sde NE said

Besides h that was lost in intervocal position, the sounds n and m were lost before h, entailing the

lengthening of the preceding vowel:

4.5. Metathesis of r

cons + r + vowel > cons + vowel + rOE ridda irda NE thirdOE brunnan burnan NE burnOE hros hors NE horse

Metathesis of sounds is observed also with other sounds:

ascian axian NE askwascan waxan NE wash

InseveralOEwordsthefollowingchangeofthepositionofconsonantstakesplace:

4.6. West Germanic gemination of consonants

OE fullian fyllan > NE fillOE stjan settan > NE setOE salian sellan > NE sell, origionall giveOE talian tellan > NE tell

Intheprocessofpalatalmutation,whenjwaslostandtheprecedingvowelwasshort,theconsonantafteritwasdoubled(geminated):

Questions for Self- Control

What was the main tendency of the changes of stressed long vowels? What was the main tendency of the changes of stressed short vowels? What vowel change is called breaking? What vowel change is called diphthongization? What vowel change is called palatal mutation? What vowel change is called velar mutation? What are the principal features of the OE vowels?

Questions for Self-Control (continued)

What peculiar features did the consonants have in OE?

What change is called hardening? What change is called rhotacism? What change is called gemination? What caused splitting of velar consonants

in OE? What vowels could be used in the

unstressed position in OE?