- •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.
Consonants
Development of [x]
We must distinguish two variants of the development of [x]: (1) before t; (2) in final position.
[x] before t is lost, and the preceding short vowel is lengthened. For example: light [lixt>li:t], bright [brixt>bri:t], night [nixt>nit].
Long [i:] arising from this change took part in the vowel shift: [li;t>lait]. Spelling did not reflect this change, and these words are spelt with gh up to the present time. After the digraph gh had become silent, it was introduced into the word delight (from Fr. delit), on the analogy of the word light. In forms like brought, fought the [ou] developed into [o:].
[x] final mostly changes into [f], as in rough, enough, cough, laugh. In a few words final [x] was lost, as in bough, dough, rough, through.
Loss of [1] before [k, m, f, v].
[1] was lost before [k] and the labial consonants [m, f, v]. Thus, the words talk, walk, chalk came to be pronounced [to:k], [wo:k], [to:k].
However [1] before [v] was preserved on words of Latin origin, as in dissolve, resolve, valve.
[1] was also lost before [d] in should and would, which were usually unstressed.
[1] appeared in words which had not had it in ME. This often happened in words of French origin; introduced of [1] might be supported by influence of the Latin prototype of the word and by imitation of French Latinizing spelling of the 14th and 15th centuries. Here belong the words: fault (ME) faute < O.Fr. faute < Latin falta from fallo ‘deceive’, realm (ME reaume < Ofr.reaume < Lat regalimen). It may be assumed that the letter first appeared as an etymologizing spelling, and then, under influence of various factors, the sound [1] appeared in these words.
Appearance and Loss of [w].
With an initial labialized vowel there appeared an initial [w]. The most well-known example is the word one. The development seems to have been this: [o:>wo:n>wu:n>wun>w˄n]. a similar development took place in the adverb once [w˄ns<ME ones].
[w] was lost in an unstressed syllable after a consonant in the words answer [a:ns], conquer [kɔŋkə], liquor [likə].
[w] was preserved in the words conquest [kŋkwist], forward [fo:wəd], and in other words containing the suffix – ward, except towards, which vacillates between [t:dz] and [tu’wɔ:dz]; also in the words language. In a stressed syllable w disappeared in the group “consonant + w + labialized vowel”, e.g. sword [so:d], two [tu:].
Voicing and Voiceless Fricatives.
About the same time voiceless consonants were voiced in several types of words. Voicing mainly affects the consonant [s] and the cluster [ks], which become [z] and [gz] respectively. In a few words it also affects the consonants [f] and [t], which accordingly become [v] and [d].
[s>z]. The most well-known examples of this voicing are some words of French origin: dessert [di’zə:t], resemble, possess. However, in some other words, under identical phonetic conditions, the consonant remained voiceless: dissect, dissemble, dissent.
[kz>gz]: exhibit [ig’zibit], exhort [ig’zɔ:t].
The change [tʃ> dʒ] occurred in ME knowleche> ME knowledge.
The voicing of the initial fricative in the pronominal words the, this, that, then, there, though, etc. may as well belong here.