27. Vocalization of the consonants in the New England and Middle English periods.

not much English writing during 1100-1200 period; match between sound and spelling worsened; influence of French scribes, confusion in spelling system; new standard English not a direct descendant of West Saxon

Consonants

1. consonant inventory much like that of Present Day English except for sounds in hu/ng/ (velar nasal) and mea/s/ure (alveo-palatal voiced fricative)

2. addition of phonemic voiced fricatives: v, , z; effect of French loanwords: vetch/fetch, view/few, vile/file

3. voiceless fricative /h/ had velar (ME thurh) and alveo-palatal (ME niht) allophones

4. loss of long consonants (OE mann )

5. h lost in clusters, OE hlæfdige>ME ladi, OE hnecca>ME necke, OE hræfn>ME raven

6. voiced velar fricative allophone of g (normally a voiced velar stop in OE) became w after l and r: OE swelgan>ME swolwen, OE feolaga>ME felawe, OE morgen>ME morwen, OE sorg>ME sorow

7. OE prefix ge- lost initial consonant and was reduced to y or i: OE genog>ME inough, OE genumen>ME inomen

8. unstressed final consonants tended to be lost after a vowel: OE ic>ME i, OE -lic>ME ly

9. final -n in many verbal forms (infinitive, plural subjunctive, plural preterite) was lost (remains in some past participles of strong verbs: seen, gone, taken); final -n also lost in possessive adjectives my and thy and indefinite article 'an' before words beginning with consonant (-n remained in the possessive pronouns)

10. w dropped after s or t: OE sweostor> sister, OE swilc>such (sometimes retained in spelling: sword, two; sometimes still pronounced: swallow, twin, swim)

11. l was lost in the vicinity of palatal c in adjectival pronouns OE ælc, swilc, hwilc, micel> each, such, which, much (sometimes remained: filch, milch)

12. fricative v tended to drop out before consonant+consonant or vowel+consonant: OE hlaford, hlæfdige, heafod, hæfde>ME lord, ladi, hed, hadde (sometimes retained: OE heofon, hræfn, dreflian>heaven, raven, drivel)

13. final b lost after m but retained in spelling: lamb, comb, climb (remained in medial position: timber, amble); intrusive b after m and before consonant: OE bremel, næmel, æmerge>ME bremble, nimble, ember (also OE puma>ME thombe)

14. intrusive d after n in final position or before resonant: OE dwinan, punor > ME dwindle, thunder

15. intrusive t after s in final position or before resonant: OE hlysnan, behæs > ME listnen, beheste

16. initial stops in clusters gn- and kn- still pronounced: ME gnat, gnawen, knowen, knave

17. h often lost in unstressed positions: OE hit>ME it

MIDDLE ENGLISH CONSONANT SYSTEM

• no more geminate consonant phonemes

• inventory like that of Modern English, except for the lack of /ŋ/ and /Ȣ/

• the phoneme /x/ still existed with the allophones [h, x, ç]: thought [θǤuxt], high [hi:ç]

• initial stop clusters kn-, gn- still pronounced

28. Mitigation and disappearance of consonants.

Mitigation of consonants (palatalization) is the result of raising the middle back of the tongue to the hard palate. Pronunciation of English consonants do not wear off, and pronounced firmly. However, before front vowels like [i], [i:], [iә], [e], [ei] in consonants may appear undesirable tint easing. To eliminate erroneous palatalisation to pronounce the consonant and vowel separately, somewhat delaying the onset of the articulation of the vowel to the middle part of the language did not rise to the hard palate at the time of pronouncing the consonant: [s-in], [l-es]. Most frequently occurring phenomenon in the flow of speech is elision, ie the process by which a hasty or careless speech articulation is not implemented any sound. This phenomenon is not only speaking, but also for the official and neutral styles. There are several types of elision: historical, not when the letters are pronounced in the initial, medial or final position in the word as a result of historical changes (for example, words such as walk, knee, castle, write), as well as modern elision that often occurs in everyday speech at a rapid pace. I would like to elaborate on examples of modern elision.So, the most common cases of modern elision selected by us from modern audio sources are:omission of the alveolar plosive sounds / t, d /, eg. together last night, second ring; loss of interdental fricative fricative consonants, eg. in the words of months, clothes; the disappearance of the consonant preceding the interdental sound, for example. in the words of fifth, sixth; loss labiodental sound slot in front of the preposition of interdental consonants as well as before other consonants at a faster pace, for example. point of that, box of pens; loss labiodental consonant slot before occlusive sonant, eg. give me three rings; reduction of the double consonant, eg. the next train, you've got to scrawl it.