Vowels under stress

Qualitative changes

— Changes of monophthongs

Three long monophthongs underwent changes in Middle English. the rest of the monophthongs presenting their original quality. Out of the seven principal Old English short monophthongsa,

e, o, i, u, aе, у — two changed their quality in Middle English, thus [ae] became [a] and [y] became [i], the rest of the monophthongs remaining unchanged, for example:

Old English

paet

waes

Middle English

that

was

— Changes of diphthongs .All Old English diphthongs were contracted (became monophthongs) at the end of the Old English period.

But instead of the former diphthongs that had undergone contraction at the end of the Old English period there appeared in Middle English new diphthongs. The new diphthongs sprang into being due to the vocalization of the consonant [j] after the front vowels [e] or [ae] or due to the vocalization of the consonant [y] or the semi-vowel [w] after the back vowels [o] and [a].

22. Changes in the phonetic system in Middle English. Vowels in the unstressed position. Vowels under stress. Quantitative changes.

All vowels in the unstressed position underwent a qualitative change and became the vowel of the type of [э] or [e] unstressed. This phonetic change had a far-reaching effect upon the system of the grammatical endings of the English words which now due to the process of reduction became homonymous. For example:

—forms of strong verbs

Old English writan — wrat — writon — writen

with the suffixes -an, -on, -en different only in the vowel component became homonymous in Middle English:

writen — wrpt — writen — writen

—forms of nouns

Old English Nominative Plural a-stem fiscas

Genitive Singular fisces

Middle English for both the forms is fisces;

Or Old English Dative Singular fisce

Genitive Plural fisca

Middle English form in both cases is fisce.

Vowels under stress

Besides qualitative changes .mentioned above vowels under stress underwent certain changes in quantity.

— Lengthening of vowels

The first lengthening of vowels took place as early as late Old English (IX century). All vowels which occurred before the combinations of consonants such as mb, nd, Id became long. Old English Middle English (New English) [i] > [i:]

climban climben climb

findan finden find

cild cild child

[u] > [u:] hund hound hound

The second lengthening of vowels took place in Middle English (XII—XIII century). The vowels [a], [o] and [e] were affected by the process. This change can be observed when the

given vowels are found in an open syllable.

— Shortening of vowels

All long vowels were shortened in Middle English if they are found before two consonants (XI century).

Through phonetic processes the lengthening and the shortening of vowels mentioned above left traces in grammar and wordstock.

Due to it vowel interchange developed in many cases

between:

— different forms of the same word;

— different words formed from the same root.

For instance:

Middle English [i:] — [i] child children

[e:] — [e] kepen but kept

[i:] — [i] wis wisdom