25. Changes in the phonetic system in New English. Vowels in the unstressed position. Vowels under stress. Quantitative changes.
Vowels
in the unstressed
position already reduced in Middle English to the vowel of the
type are dropped in New English if they are found in the endings of
words, for example:
Old English Middle English New English
Nama name name [neim]
writen
write [rait]
sunu sone son [sAn]
The vowel in the endings is sometimes preserved — mainly for phonetic reason: wanted, dresses
- without the intermediate vowel it would be very difficult to pronounce the endings of such words.
Vowels in the unstressed position. Quantitative changes
Among many cases of quantitative changes of vowels in New English one should pay particular attention to the lengthening of the vowel, when it was followed by the consonant [r]. Short vowels followed by the consonant [r] became long after the disappearance of the given consonant at the end of the word or before
another consonant:
Middle English New English
[a] > [a:] farm farm
[
o]
> hors
horse
When the consonant [r] stood after the vowels [e], [i], [u], the resulting vowel was different from the initial vowel not only in quantity but also in quality. Compare:
or [h] before [t]: might, night, light.
Summary
26. Changes in the phonetic system in New English. Consonants.
The changes that affected consonants in New English are not very numerous. They are as follows.
1)
Appearance of a new consonant in the system of English phonemes —
and the development of the consonants [d3] and
from palatal consonants.
Thus
Middle English [sj], [zj], [tj], [dj] gave in New English the sounds
For example:
Note
should be taken that the above-mentioned change took place in
borrowed words, whereas the sounds
which appeared in Middle English developed in native words.
2. Certain consonants disappeared at the end of the word or before another consonant, the most important change of the kind affecting the consonant [r]:
farm, form, horse, etc.
3.
The fricative consonants
were voiced after Unstressed vowels or in words having no sentence
stress — the so-called "Verner's Law in New English":
possess, observe, exhibition; dogs, cats; the, this, that,
there, then, though, etc.
Summary
27. Changes in the phonetic system in New English. Changes in alphabet and spelling in Middle and New English.
As we remember, the Old English spelling system was mainly phonetic. However, the 13th and 14th centuries witnessed many changes in the English language, including its alphabet and spelling. As a result of these modifications the written form of the word became much closer to what we have nowadays.
In Middle English the former Anglo-Saxon spelling tradition was replaced by that of the Norman scribes reflecting the influence of French and often mixing purely phonetic spelling with French spelling habits and traditions inherited from Old
English. The scribes substituted the so-called "continental variant" of the Latin alphabet for the old "insular writing". Some letters, already existing in Old English but being not very frequent there, expanded their sphere of use — like the letter k. New letters were added — among them j , w, v and z. Many digraphs — combinations of letters to denote one sound, both vowel and consonant —
appeared, mostly following the pattern of the French language.
The following letters disappeared:
The New English period witnessed the establishment of the literary norm presupposing a stable system of spelling. However, the spelling finally fixed in the norm was influenced by many factors, objective and subjective in character, preserving separate elements of different epochs and showing traces of attempts to
improve or rationalise it.
In New English with the revival of learning in the 16th century a new principle of spelling was introduced, later to be called etymological. It was believed that, whatever the pronunciation, the spelling should represent to the eye the form
from which the word was derived, especially in words of Latin or Greek origin. Thus,.the word dett borrowed from French dette was respelled as debt, for it could be traced to Latin debitum, dout borrowed from French douter — as doubt from Latin dubitare.
However, the level of learning at that age was far from Perfect, and many of the so-called etymological spellings were Wrong. Here it is possible to mention such words as:
