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Word Stress:

In OE a dynamic or forced stress was employed. In disyllabic and polysyllabic words the accent fell on the root-morpheme or on the first syllable. Word stress was fixed; it remained on the same syllable in different grammatical forms of the word and, as a rule, did not shift in word-building either. Polysyllabic words, especially compounds, may have had two stresses, chief and secondary, the chief stress being fixed on the first root-morpheme. In words with prefixes the position of the stress varied: verb prefixes were unaccented, while in nouns and adjectives the stress was commonly thrown on the prefix: ā-'risan, mis-'faran – v (NE arise, ‘go astray’); tō-weard, 'or-eald – adj (NE toward, ‘very old’); 'mis-dǣd, 'uð-ƷenƷ – n (NE misdeed, ‘escape’). If the words were derived from the same root, word stress, together with other means, served to distinguish the noun from verb: 'and-swaru n – and-'swarian v (NE answer, answer); 'on-Ʒin n – on-'Ʒinnan v (NE beginning, begin). Generally, common English nouns, adjectives and adverbs are more often stressed on the 1^st syllable than on any other syllable. Verbs with prefixes are usually stressed on the second syllable. If a word has four or more syllables, there are two stresses in it: primary (strong) and secondary (weak). So, in general we may say that in terms of word stress OE and ModE have several common features.

Old English Vowels:

OE Breaking (Qualitative changes): OE fracture is diphthongization of short vowels before certain consonant clusters. It is the vowels a and e that undergo fracture. a > ea before the clusters: r + consonant, l + consonant, h + consonant and before final h. E.g.: *ærm > earm; æld > eald; *æhta > eahta; *sæh > seah. e > eo before clusters: r + consonant; lc/lh/h + consonant and before final h. E.g.: herte > heorte; melcan > meolcan; selh > seolh; feh > feoh. The front vowel is parcially assimilated to the following hard consonant by forming a glide which combines with the vowel and forms a diphthong.

Palatalization: OE vowels also change under the influence of the initial palatal consonants Ʒ, c and sc. Ʒ and c influence only front vowels, while sc influences all vowels. As a result of palatalization the vowel is diphthongized: e > ie (e.g. Ʒefav – Ʒiefan); æ > ea (*Ʒæf > Ʒeaf); ǣ > ēa (*Ʒæfon > Ʒēafon); a > ea (scacan > sceacan); o > eo (scort > sceort).

Mutation or i-Umlaut: By mutation we mean a change of vowel caused by partial assimilation to the following vowel. Mutation brings about a complete change in vowel quality: one phoneme is replaced by another. i-umlaut is a kind of a partial regressive assimilation of a root vowel causes by i or j of the following syllable and resulting in fronting and narrowing of the root vowel: sandian > sendan; larian > leran. The labialized front vowels [y] and [y:] arose through palatal mutation from [u] and [u:]: fullian > fullan; musi > mys.

Back Mutation or Velar Mutation: was caused by back vowels (a, o, u) of the following syllable: limu > liomu, cæru > caru > cearu (NE care). Velar mutation was mostly spread in the Mersian dialect of the OE period and was regularly observed in the words which comprise the liquids /r/, /l/ and the voiceless fricative /f/ between a root vowel and back vowel following it.

Lengthening (Quantitative changes): 1) vowels were lengthened before clusters nd, ld, mb: bindan > bīndan; cild > cīld; wild > wīld. If the cluster was followed by another consonant, lengthening did not take place, as in cildru ‘children’. 2) before fricatives f, ð, s due to rejection of nasals: OE fīf (OHG finf), OE ūs (OHG uns. 3) due to loss of /x/ after a vowel in the immediate proximity of -l- or -r-: OE rēn (Gth rign). 4) in the final position (stressed): OE swā (Gth swa).

Development of unstressed vowels: unstressed vowels were developed due to r1) rejection of vowels in the middle of the word (OE mæƷden – Gth magaÞs); 2) rejection of u in two-syllabic words after stressed vowels (OE sceapu – sceap) and in three-syllabic words after a short vowel followed by another short vowel (OE recedu > reced; heafodu > heafod). ǣ > æ (later e) in final position and suffixes (*fiscǣ > fisce); ū > u (later o) in the superlative suffix ‘ust’ (blacūst > blacust > blacost); ī > i (later e) in final position (*Andī > *endi > ende). Exception: u was preserved 1) in absolute finality – sunu; 2) in suffixes -unʒ, -uc – munuc; 3) before –m - daʒum.

The major consonant change was palatalization or splitting of velar consonants or fronting. /k/ - /tʃ/ before front vowels (cild/child); /g/ - /j/ before front vowels (gieldan/jieldan (yield)); /sk/ - /ʃ/ in all positions (skall/shall); /f/ - /v/ between voiced sounds (this explains modern English pattern such as half/halves).

Metathesis: r + short vowel, usually when the short vowel was followed by s or n, r+ vowel turned into vowel + r: e.g. brima > birma.

Hardening: The PG voiced [ð] (due to Verner’s Law or to the third act of the shift) was always hardened to [d] in OE and other WG languages: Gt wasida – OE werede. The two other fricatives [v] and [y] were hardened to [b] and [g] initially and after nasals, otherwise they remained fricatives: Gt broÞar – OE brōÞar – NE brother; Gt guma – OE ʒuma.

Rhotacism: PG [z] underwent a phonetic modification through the stage of [ʒ} into [r] and thus became a sonorant: Gt wasjan – OE werian; Gt maize – OE māra – NE more.

Voicing and devoicing of fricatives: Voiceless fricatives [f, θ, x, s] and also those of the voiced fricatives which had not turned into plosives, that is [v] and [y], were subjected to a new process of voicing and devoicing. In early OE they became or remained voiced intervocally and between vowels, sonorants and voiced consonants; they remained or became voiceless in other environments, namely, initially, finally and next to other voiceless consonants: Gt sibun [v] – OE seofon – NE seven; Gt wulfos – OE wulfas [v] – NE wolves; Gt siuθan [θ] – OE seoÞan [ð] – NE seethe; Gt dagos – OE daʒas – NE days; Gt kiusan [s] – OE cēosan [z] – NE choose; Gt kaus [s] – OE cēas [s] – chose.

Germination: In all WG languages, most consonants were lengthened after a short vowel before [j]. This process is known as WG “germination” or “doubling” of consonants, as a result long consonants are indicated by means of double letters: e.g. *fuljan > OE fyllan (NE fill); *sætjan > OE settan (NE set). The change did not affect the sonorant [r], nor did it operate if the consonant was preceded by a long vowel.