Вопрос 33 Changes of vowel in me

There are qualitative and quantitative changes of vowel in ME. Quantitative vowel changes - In Later OE and in Early ME vowel length began to depend on phonetic conditions. The earliest of positional quantitative changes was the readjustment of quantity before some consonant clusters: 1) Lengthening - ME - in 9-10 century. Short vowels were lengthened before two consonants – a sonorant and a plosive. All vowels occurring in this position became long, e.g. OE wild – ME wild [wi:ld] – NE wild.

Shortening - occurred at long vowels before two consonants. All vowels in this position became or remained short, e.g. OE cēpte > ME kepte [΄keptə] – NE kept.

3) Short vowels became long in open syllables, e.g. OE nama > ME name [na:mə] – NE name. This lengthening

initially affected the more open of the short vowels [e], [a] and [o] 13 cent.

unstressed vocalism: There was a reduction of unaccented syllables in a final position, and then it is lost. At First there was weakening, and then loss of a unstressed syllable.

Qualitative vowel changes.

After Norman invasion continued to develop the dialect: Northern dialect(бывший Northumbrian), East-Midland(Mercian), West_midlend(Mercian), South-Eastern(Kentish), South-Western(Wesseks).

Short vowel - у краткого -а- - сохранился во всех диалектах. -а- или-о- befor nosal: in east-Midland закрепилось(fix) –о- (con), в остальных закрепилось – а- (can). -æ- (лигатура) – found во всех диалектах, но сам значок не существовал. Зап-центр, Кент - -æ turn into –е- (wæs – wes). In the rest - -æ перешел в –а- (wæs – was). e- во всех диалектах без изменений. о – без изменений. i – без измененй . u - без изменений. y – в разных диалектах развивалось по разному: сев, вост-центр –/y/-/i/ и в последствии знак –y- стал обозначать только этот звук (bisy). Wентр, юго-зап – letter –u- стала обозначать звук /ü/ (busy). Кент – /y/ - /e/ (besy). y-i –labialization. Y-e –labial+opening. Y-u. The vowels [y] and [y:] existed in OE dialects up to the 10th c., when they were replaced by [e], [e:] in Kentish and confused with [ie] and [ie:] or [i] and [i:] in WS. In Early ME the dialectal differences grew. In some areas OE [y], [y:] developed into [e], [e:], in others they changed to [i], [i:]; in the South-West and in the West Midlands the two vowels were for some time preserved as [y], [y:], but later were moved backward and merged with [u], [u:]

Long vowels – This was and early instance of the growing tendency of all long monophthongs to become closer, so [a:] became [o:] in all the dialects except the Northern group (hām – hōm, stān – stōn) -ō- иногда depicts as digraph –оа-. Долгая æ(была только в Уэссекском диалекте) преходит в –ē- открытую. (изображалась диграфом –еа-). OE slæpan – ME slēpan В других диалектах –æ- (являлась результатом умлаута) перещла в –ē- закрытое. ( изображалась диграфом –ее-). ē – ēзакр. ō- ōзакр., ū – без изменений, ī- без изменений.

OE diphthongs in ME were monophtongonized. ea – a (healf- half). eo: Сначала ео прешло в гласный ö(который изображался как ео и просуществовал а зап-центр и юго-зап диалектах до 14в.) В остальных диалектах с 12 в. ö пререшел в –е-) heorte- herte. Долгий ea преходит в ē откр. hleapan – lepen. Долгий eo – ē закр. (изображался как –ее) seon – sen.

One of the mosl important sound change:, of the Early ME period was the loss of OE diphthongs and the growth of new diphthongs, with new qualitative and quantitative changes. Long and short: [ea:], [eo:], [ie:] and [ea], [eo], [ie]. Towards the end of the OE period some of the diphthongs merged with monophthongs: all diphthongs were monophthongised before [xt], [x’t] and after [sk’]; the diphthongs [ie:], [ie] in Late WS fused with [y:], [y] or [i:], [i]. In Early ME the remaining diphthongs were also contracted to monophthongs: the long [ea:] coalesced (united) with the reflex of OE [ǽ:] – ME [ε:]; the short [ea] ceased to be distinguished from OE [æ] and became [a] in ME; the diphthongs [eo:], [eo] – as well as their dialectal variants [io:], [io] – fell together with the monophthongs [e:], [e], [i:], [i]. As a result of these changes the vowel system lost two sets of diphthongs, long and short. In the meantime anew set of diphthongs developed from some sequences of vowels and consonants due to the vocalization of OE [j] and [γ], that is to their change into vowels. In Early ME the sounds [j] and [γ] between and after vowels changed into [i] and [u] and formed diphthongs together with the preceding vowels, e.g. OE dæз > ME day [dai]. These changes gave rise to two sets of diphthongs: with i-glides and u-glides. The same types of diphthongs appeared also from other sources: the glide -u developed from OE [w] as in OE snāw, which became ME snow [snou], and before [x] and [l] as in Late ME smaul and taughte.

Quantitative changes of vowels in OE and ME

At the end of OE and in the immediately succeeding centuries accented vowels underwent a number of quantitative changes which affected the employment and the phonological status of short and long vowels in the language. In OE quantity was the main basis of correlation in the vowel system: short vowels were phonemically opposed to long ones, roughly identical in quality. In later OE and in Early ME vowel length began to depend on phonetic conditions.

The earliest of positional quantitative changes was the readjustment of quantity before some consonant clusters;it occured in Early ME or perhaps even in Late OE.

1) Short vowels were lengthened before two homorganic consonants, a sonorant and a plosive; consequently, all vowels occuring in this position remained or became long e.g. OE wild-- ME wild [ wi:ld] ( NE wild);

2) All other groups of two or more consonants produced the reverse effect: they made the preceding long vowels short- and henceforth (vpred') all vowels in this position became or remained short, e.g. OE cepte- ME , kepte['kcpte] ( NE kept).

3) Short vowels became long in open syllables. This lengthening mainly affected the more open of (,he short vowels[e], [a] and fob but sometimes, though very seldom, it is also found in the close vowels it] and [u).

In order to achieve an average uniformity in the length of the syllable, and also to use an average amount of energy for its pronunciation, the vowel was shortened before a group of consonants and was made longer of the were consonants following, that is , in "open" syllables. Lengthening of vowels before homorganic groups looks as an exception or a contradiction, to account for this lengthening it was suggested that - nd, -ld and the like were virtually equivalent to single consonants, therefore a long vowel would not make the syllable too heavy.

Qualitative changes of vowels in Mid E.

In mid E. the pronunciation of short vowels in unstressed syllables became increasingly indistinct. If in OE any short vowels could occur in unstressed position in late ME only 2 new vowels ə and I could be found there. And even these 2 vowels were not directly contrasted in unstressed vowels had been practically lost. Thus in OE where is the morphological forms of the verb could be differentiated through their endings, which leveled under one and same endings in the late English (sunu, suna – sone сын). From the phonetic point of view these change indicate a decisive separation of unstressed vowels from stressed ones. While in OE there was no principal difference in the quality of vowel phonemes stressed or unstressed syllables in Mid.E there developed a very significant difference n this respect: all unstressed vowels weakened or reduced to e. This was not only phonemic change it had also far reaching morphological consequences. The short OE æ was replaces in ME by the back vowel à (wæ – was). In the ME the vowel ý was diabolized and it produced various results depending on dialect y, y: - i, i: (east-midland, northern), u, u: - (west-midland, south-western), e, e: - (southern, former Kentish). F.e cysan- kissen, kussen, kessen. Modern literary English comprised the words of various dialects, that underwent the process of delabilazation of y during ME. (mycel-much, lyft-left, blyscan-blush). But at the same time there are several reflecting cases of compromise between 2 different dialects in spelling and pronunciation of same words. Thus the spelling of the word busy reflects the west-midland dialects while its pronunciation is influenced by the east-midland dialect. In the similar way the history of the verb “ to build” bears the features of east and west-midland dialects.