- •Introductory lecture The History of the English language-Subject and the aims of the History of the English language.
- •Lecture 1 The Origin of the English Language
- •The Anglo-Saxon Conquest
- •Formation of Germanic States in Britain
- •The Writing and the Written monuments of oe
- •The Three Periods in the History of the English Language
- •Phonetic Structure of the oe Vowels
- •The Ablaut (Gradation)
- •Mutation (umlaut)
- •Monophtongs
- •Diphtongs
- •Lengthening of vowels
- •Palatalization
- •Palatalization of consonants
- •Other changes and loss of consonants
- •Lecture4 The Grammar Structure of Old English
- •Morphology. Nouns
- •The Strong Declension of Nouns
- •The weak declension of nouns
- •A separate group of nouns.
- •Old English Adjectives
- •Old English Pronouns
- •Lecture5 The Old English Verb
- •Infinitive Past Past Second
- •Indef. Past Indef. Sing. Past Indef. Plural Past Participle
- •The conjugation of verbs
- •Strong verbs
- •Preterite - present verbs
- •Lecture6 old english syntax
- •The meaning of case forms
- •The usage of pronouns
- •Indicative Subjunctive Imperative Indicative Subjunctive
- •The category of mood in oe
- •Lecture 7 Historical change The reason for studying historical change
- •The importance of text analysis
- •The Middle English Period
- •Lexical influence of the French language
- •The formation of the English national language
- •Lecture 8 Phonetic changes in me
- •Consonant changes
- •Spelling changes in the period after the Norman Conquest
- •General view of the me sound system
- •Lecture 9 Middle English Morphology
- •Middle English Pronouns
- •The demonstrative pronouns
- •Middle English Verbs
- •Lecture 10 Middle English Syntax
- •Lecture 11 The Modern English Period The formation of the English national language
- •Phonetic changes. Vowels.
- •Consonants
- •Voicing and Voiceless Fricatives.
- •Loss of Consonants in Clusters.
- •Loss of consonants in initial clusters
- •Lecture 12 Grammatical changes.
- •Morphology. The Substantive.
- •Interrogative
- •Impersonal and Personal Constructions.
Consonant changes
OE consonants also underwent some changes: OE ƥ ð in ME were superseded by the combination «th», OE ƥis (this) > ME - this. In OE initial «f» denoted the sounds [v], [f], as in fæder > vader ‘father’, fæt > væt. In the OE period the initial letter «c» before a front vowel gave the sound [tƒ] and the combination «sc» gave the sound [ƒ]: scip > ship; sceal > shal. In ME to denote these two sounds there were introduced the French combinations «ch», «sh»: OE cild > ME child. The letter «c» before a back vowel in OE was pronounced as [k], in ME «c» for the sound [k] was superseded by the letter «k»: OE drincan > ME drinken;
OE cyning > ME king. In the OE words niht, riht, brouhte in ME the letter «g» was introduced before «h» (it wasn’t pronounced in ME) we have night, right.
Spelling changes in the period after the Norman Conquest
Vowel changes. For some centuries after the Norman Conquest the written language of England was in the hands of the French who applied to the English spelling the French spelling habits. The following changes took place in the English spelling: a) the sound [u:] which in OE was spelt with «u» changed its spelling, it became ou, ow:
OE hus > hous [hu:s]; ut > out [u:]; cu > cow [ku:]; dun > down [du:n];
[e:] in OE was spelt e, in ME under the influence of the French language words chief, relief changed their spelling e > ie: OE feld [fe:ld] > field [fe:ld]. In most cases the letter «u» was superseded by the letter «o»:
OE cumin > ME coman [ku:m];
OE sum > ME som (some);
OE sunu > ME sone (son);
Besides these changes which were mainly connected with the French borrowings, there were some other changes that can be traced even in MnE. In ME the final i was replaced by «y». In MnE there are a few words with i at the end (taxi). Likewise the letter «u» at the end of the words was superseded by «w», except for the pronouns «you» and «thou»: OE snou > snow.
General view of the me sound system
The ME sound system differs materially from the OE system. We shall first state the main differences on a purely phonetic level, and then proceed to asses the phonetically relevant features of the change.
OE diphthongs of the of the ea or eo type, that is diphthongs containing a second open or half-open element, have disappeared.
Diphthongs of the ei, ai type have arisen, containing a closed second element.
Vowel quantity (shortness/length) has become dependent on phonetic environment.
The affricates [tʃ] and [d3] have arisen.
From the phonemic point of view, the following important points have to be stated:
Vowel quantity has lost its phonemic significance, that is, two vowel phonemes can no longer be distinguished by quantity: length/shortness. Thus the number of vowel phonemes has been reduced.
On the other hand, the appearance of the 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.
The number of consonant phonemes has increased. The sounds [f] and [v], which in OE had been allophones of one phoneme, dependent on the environment, have become separate phonemes, no longer dependent on environment. The same must be said about the sounds [s] and [z].