Vowels.
loss of unstressed [∂]: at the outset of MnE the vowel [∂] is lost. It was lost when it was final and also when followed by a consonant: lived, fille, stopped, tables. However, it was preserved and later changed into [i] in the groups [s∂z], [z∂z], [∫∂z], [dz∂z], [t∂d], [d∂d]. it was also preserved and eventually developed into [i] in some adjectives and participles: learned, wicked, ragged. Loss of [∂] had special consequences for the spelling: the letter “e” was preserved in words having a long root vowel. In this case the so-called mute “e” arose which denotes length of the preceding vowel. When final [∂] was lost in words ending in –we like “morwe, sorwe, narwe”, the result was “morw, sorw, narw”: in the 16th c. final –w developed into the diphthong [∂u]: morrow, sorrow, narrow.
loss of vowels in intermediate syllables: in some three-syllable and four-syllable words the vowel of a middle syllable is lost: chapiter►chapter; phantasie►fancy.
the change of [er] into [ar]: this change began in the 14th c. but was completed in the late 15th c. It is reflected mainly in spelling, in a few cases the combined spelling “ear” is adopted: ferre→far; sterre→star; werre→war; herthe→hearth; herte→heart.
the Great Vowel Shift: the most significant phonetic change of this period was the Great Vowel Shift which left imprint on the entire system of MnE. The essence of the shift was the narrowing of all ME long vowels and diphthongisation of the narrowest long ones:
i:→ai time, finden
e:→i: kepen, field
ε:→e:→i: street, east
a:→ei maken, table
o:→o:→ou stone, open
o:→u: moon, goos
u:→au mous, now
au→o: cause, drawen
changes of short vowels: the short vowels of NE were more stable than the long ones: only two out of five underwent certain alterations:[a] and [u]. ME [a] is reflected as [æ] in NE: ME that [θat] – NE that [θæt]. The more pbvious change of ME [a] came about when it was preceded by the semivowel [w]: was, water. The other change was a case of delabialization: ME short [u] lost its labial character and became [λ]; ME hut [hut] - NE hut; ME comen - NE come.
growth of long monophthongs and diphthongs: new long monophthongs and diphthongs developed in NE from the vocalisation of some consonants. Two voiceless fricatives [χ] and [χ’] were vocalised towards the end of ME. The glide [u] is already shown in ME spelling: taughte, braughte. Later [au] was contracted to [o:] according to regular vowel changes and [χ] was lost. The palatal fricative [χ’] changed into [j] during the 15th c.; it changed into [i] and together with the preceding [i] yielded a long monophthong [i:]: night [niχ’t]→[nijt]→[ni:t]→[nait]. The most important instance of vocalisation is the development of [r] which accounts for the appearance of many new monophthongs and diphthongs in the 16th or 17th c. It was vocalised when it stood after vowels, either finally or followed by another consonant. Losing its consonantal character [r] changed into the neutral sound [∂] which was added to the preceding vowel as a glide forming a diphthong:
after short vowels
o+r → o: for, thorn
a+r → a: bar, dark
i+r → з: first
e+r →з: serven
u+r → з: fur
∂+r → ∂ brother
after long vowels
i:+r → ai∂ shire
e:+r → i∂ beer
ε:+r → i∂ ere (ear)
ε:+r → ε∂ there
a:+r → ε∂ hare
o:+r → o∂/o: floor
o:+r → u∂ moor
u:+r → au∂ flour (flower)
rise of long [a:] and [o:]: Long [a:] is found in MnE in different environments. There are two main sources of modern [a:]:
[a:] from [a] → [a-æ-æ:-a;]; it occurs before [θ,δ] – bath, path, father, rather; fefore [s] – class; grass; before [st] – cast, fast; before [sk] – ask, mask; before [sp] – grasp, clasp;
[a:] from [au]; in some cases MnE has [a:] in words where ME [a] was followed by the cluster “l+consonant” and had developed into [au] from which [o:] might have been expected: calm, palm.
The group [al] developed into [aul] already in the 15th c., so the words “all, call, talk” were pronounced [aul], [kaul], [taulk]. In the 16th c. the diphthong [au] developed into [o:] whith the spelling “au, aw”: walk, tall.
Before “lf, lv” and “m, n+consonant] [a:] developed: calf, half; plant, example.
rise of long [з:]: in the 16th c. a new vowel appears, its appearance is connected with changes of some vowels before [r] and with vocalization of [r]. It arises in the following cases:
from the group i+r: fir, sir, dirt;
from u+r: fur, curtain, burn;
from o+r after “w”: worm, word, world;
from e+r: heard, learn.
Changes in the 17th century.
the change of [a] into [o] after [w]: ME short [a] remained unchanged after [w], but in the 17th c. the group [wa] developed into [wo]: labial articulation of the consonant was exteneded to the vowel. The change [wa→wo] didn’t take place when [a] was followed by one of the velar consonants [k, g, η], in this case [a] developed into [æ].
the change of [u] into [λ]: short [u] changed into [λ] in words with u-spelling (but, cut), sometimes with o- spelling (some, love) and ou-spelling (rough [ru:f→ruf→rλf], enough). The vowel [λ] is also found in a few words which had in ME [o:] represented by “o” or “oo”. These words went through the shift of [o:→u:→u→λ] (month, done, blood, flood). [u] remained unchanged in words where it was preceded by a labial consonant (bull, pull).
the change of [e:] into [i:]: long close [e:] resulting from ME long open [ε:] was narrowed to [i:]. The sound values of the digraphs “ea” and “ee” coincided (beat, sea). In “great” and “break” the [e:] was preserved and was eventually diphthongized into [ei].
other changes: [ei] and [e:] merged into [ei] (says, said) and [o:] and [ou] also merged (stone, oak). Most unstressed vowels were reduced to either [r] or [∂] in the 2nd syllable of dissylabic words or in the 1st syllable of dissylabic words (wishes, admire).
Consonants.
development of [χ]: two variants of the development of [χ] are distinguished: a) before “t” and b) in final position. [χ] is lost before “t” and the preceding vowel is shortened (light [liχt>li:t]). Final [χ] changes into [f] (cough, laugh), where it remained to be denoted “gh”; in a few words it was lost (though, through).
loss of [l] before [k, m, f, v]: it was lost before [k,m,f,v] and the words like “talk, plam, calf, halves”came to be pronounced [to:k], [pa:m], [ka:f], [ha:vz]. [l] was preserved before [v] in words of Latin origin (resolve, valve). [l] was also lost [d] in “should” and “would”.
appearance and loss of [w]: in a few words with an initial labialised vowel there appeared an initial so-called prothetic [w]. The most well-known example is the word “one” in OE it was “ān”, in ME “ōn”. The development is like that: [o:n>wo:n>wu:n>wun>wλn]. [w] also appeared in the word “woof”, but it was lost in anstressed syllables after a consonant (answer, conquer).
voicing and voiceless fricatives: voiceless consonants were voiced in several types of words. It mainly affected the consonant [s] and the cluster [ks] which became [z] and [gz] (words of French origin: dessert, resemble; exhibit, anxiety). In a few words it also affected [f] and [t∫] which became [z] and [dz] (of>off; knoweleche>knowledge).
loss of consonants in clusters: in many words when a word ended in ttwo consonants, the final one was los: [mb]> [m]: lamb, climb; [mn]> [m]: damn, solemn; [ln]>[l]: kiln. In a cluster of three consonants the middle one was dropped: [stl]>[sl]: castle, rustle; [stn]>[sn]: fasten, glisten; [ftn]>[fn]: often, soften; [stm]> [sm]: Christmas; [ktl]> [kl]: exactly; [ktn]> [kn]: exactness; [skl]> [sl] muscle; [ndz], [ldz]>[nz, lz]: strange, divulge; [nt∫, lt∫]>[n∫,l∫]: French, milch. Words having one final consonant sometimes acquire another with final –n added –d: poune>pound, boun>bound.
change of [d] to [δ] when close to [r]: [d] became [δ] in the neighbourhood of [r] in the words: fader>father, weder>weather. A similar change [t>θ] took place: autour>author.
[j] merged with preceding consonant: it happens after an unstressed vowel and affects clusters [sj, zj, tj, dj]. [sj] often spellt by –ti-, -xi- >[∫]: pension, session, anxious; [zj]>[z]: collision, division; the group [zju]>[zu,z∂]: measure, pleasure; [tj]>[t∫] often spellt by “ture, tue”: fortune, statue; [dj]>[dz]: soldier, educate.
loss of consonants in initial clusters: in certain cases a cluster is lost: [k, g] are lsot before [n]: knight, gnaw; when [kn, gn] was preceded by a vowel it was preserved: diagnosis. Initial [w] is lost before [r]: write. The cluster [hw] or the voiceless [w], which was denoted by the spelling “wh”, changed into [w]: what.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE ARTICLE.
The traditional view is that the definite article appeared in OE, while the indefinite article appears only in ME. In OE the meaning of the demonstrative pronoun “sē” (that) is weakened so that it approaches the status of an article. Therefore in OE there appears a new grammatical category within the system of substantives: the category of determination represented by the opposition: the article/absence of article.
In ME an indefinite article arose. It had its origin in the numeral “ān” (one). First signs of such development were already seen in OE. Then long “ā” in unstressed position was shortened and there appeared an unstressed variant “an”. When the long “a” changed unto long “o” the numeral became “ōn”; the divergence in sound between the stressed and the unstressed form furthered the separation of the article from the numeral.
When “ōn” or “an” was followed by a word beginning with a consonant, the -n was dropped and there arose the variants “ō”, “a”. With the numeral, this alternation was later abandoned, and the form “ōn” came to be used in all environments. With the indifenite article, the alternation of “an” and “a” depending on the initial sound of the following word has been preserved until today.
Thus in ME the word “the” has its counterpart in the word “a(n)”, so one may say that English has an article system represented by two members: the definite and the indefinite articles. Therefore, the whole system of determination may be represented in the following way: a) no article::article (marked); b) definite article::indefinite article.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE CATEGORY OF TENSE.
In OE there are only two tenses expressed by synthetic means: the present and the past. The future is, if necessary, expressed by lexical means. To express the future of the verb “be” forms of the root “be-“ are mostly used. OE has athree moods: the indicative used to state an action as real; the other two have a subjective meaning: the imperative expressing order or request to a 2nd person and the subjunctive expressing an action that is merely supposed. During the OE period the system of the verb acquires some analytical formations arising from syntactical phrases such as “habban+participle II” for the result of an action, “sceal/wille+infinitive” for a futer tense, “wesan/bēon+participle II” for passive voice, “sceolde/wolde+imfinitive” with modal meaning.
A special future form, which started in OE, becomes in ME a regular part of the tense system. The auxiliaries “wil/shal” are deprived of their original modal meanings. Perfect forms, which arose in OE, are widely used in ME. In ME first instances of a continuous aspect consisting of the verb “be(n)” and participle I appears. There are two possible sources for it: a) OE phrases consisting of the verb “bēon” and participle I in –ende; b) OE phrases consisting of the verb “bēon”, the preposition “on” and a verbal substantive in –inz, like “hē is on huntinze”. Perfect continuous forms are quite rare in ME. The subjunctive mood preserved in ME many features it had in OE; it was often used in temporal and concessional clauses. In conditional clauses the prrsent subjunctive is used to denote a possible action. An unreal conditions referring to the present is expressed by the past subjunctive or the phrase “wolde+infinitive”, when referring to the past the phrase “wolde+perfect infinitive” is used. The passive voice was very widely developed in ME and was formed by the phrase “ben+participle II” which expressed both a state and an action.
The system of perfect forms and the category of aspect go on unfolding in NE. The mood system developed in NE mainly towards creating more precise means of expressing modal meanings and, in this connection, towards growth of analytical verb forms. Thus, the use of patterns “should/would+infinitive” grew in main clauses of a conditional sentences. Syntactical subjunctive forms of the 1st and 3rd persons were also used to express appeal or wish. In NE the verb “do” was widely used as an auxiliary for the present and past.
WORD ORDER IN THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH.
The order of words in OE was relatively free. The position of words in the sentence was often determined by logical and stylistic factors rather than by grammatical constraints. The order of words could depend on the communicative type of the sentence: a question, a statement, the type of clause, the presence and place of secondary parts. a peculiar type of word order is found in many subordinate and some coordinate clauses: the clause begins with the subject following the connective and ends with the predicate or its finite part, all the secondary parts being enclosed between them.
Hēr cuōm sē here tō Rēadinzum… – In this year came that army to Reading…
Ōhthere sæde his hlāforde, Ælfrēde cyninze þæt hē ealra Norδmonna norþmest būde…
In ME and NE the word order on the sentence underwent noticeable changes: it becomes fixed and direct: subject+predicate+object or sbject+the notional part of the predicate. Stabilization of the owrd order was a slow process, which took many hundreds of years. The fixation of the word order proceeded together with reduction and loss of inflectional endings, the two developments being interwind, though syntactic changes were less intensive and less rapid.
Though the word order in Late ME may appear relatively free, several facts testify to its growing stability. The practice of placing the verb-predicate at the end of a subordinate clause was abandoned. The place before the predicate belonged to the subject, which is confirmed by the prevalence of this word order in prosaic texts.
In the 17th-18th c. the order of words in the sentence was generally determined by the same rules as operate in English today. The fixed word order prevailed in statements, unless inversion was required for communicative purposes or for emphasis. The order of the subject and predicate remained direct in sentences beginning with an adverbial modifier. In questions the owrd order was partially inverted – unless the question referred to the subject group. The analytical forms of the verb and the use of the do-periphrasis instead of simple forms made it possible to place the notional part of the predicate after the subject even with simple predicate.
NEGATION IN THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH.
Negative words are freely used in OE, their number in a sentence not being limited.
e.g.: ne mæz nān þinz his willan wiδstandan (nothing can withstand his will)
Occasionally the negative pronoun “naht, noht” is used:
e.g.: ne con ic noht sinzan (I cannot sing)
Negative words are used in ME in much the same way as in OE. One predicate group can contain two, three, or more negative words.
e.g.: he nolde no rausoun (he did not want any ransom)
The negative pronoun “noght, nought” becomes a particle “noght, not, nat” which reinforces the negative meaning of the particle “ne”:
e.g.: mynde of man ne may not ben comprehended (mind of man cannot be comprehended)
This “noght” is often used without a preceding “ne” and eventually suppresses it.
In NE several negative words could still be used within one predicate group.however about he middle of the 17th c. double negation began to decline and gradually became a feature of dialect and non-literary speech.