Palatalization

OE vowels changed under the influence of the initial consonants 3, c and the cluster

sc. 3 and c influenced only front vowels, while sc influenced all vowels. As a result of

palatalization the vowel is diphthongized:

e > ie: 3efan > 3iefan (give)

ж > ea: 3жf > 3eaf (gave)

ж> ea: 3жfon > 3eafon (gave-pl.)

a > ea: scacan > sceacan (shake)

o > eo: scort > sceort (short)

Vowel Lengthening

In the 9th century vowels were lengthened before the clusters nd, ld, mb: bindan >

bindan (bind), bunden > bunden (bound), cild > cild (child), wild > wild (wild), climban

> climban (climb). If, however, the cluster was followed by another consonant,

lengthening did not take place, as in cildru (children). The characteristic feature of the

clusters in question is that both consonants arc articulated by the same speech organ and

that they are both voiced.

Contraction

If, after a consonant had dropped, two vowels met inside a word, they were usually

contracted into one long vowel. The main types of contraction are the following:

- ah + vowel > eah + vowel > ea : slahan > sleahan > slean (slay);

- eh or ih + vowel > eo : sehan > seohan > seon (see), tfhan > teohan >teon (accuse);

- oh + vowel > o : fohan > fon (catch).

Long ж, long o, and diphthongs, absorb the following vowel: sжe > sж- dat. sg. (sea), eae>

> ea - dat. sg. (river).

Me Vowels Changes of Unstressed Vowels

An important change characteristic of the ME period affected the unstressed vowels.

All unstressed vowels were as a rule weakened and reduced to a neutral vowel something

like [e], which was denoted by the letter e. Thus, for example the infinitive suffix -an was

reduced to -en, as in bidan > biden, tellan > tellen; in a similar way, sunu > sune, sone

(son), the nominative plural ending -as become -es, as in stanas > stones, and the like.

This weakening of unstressed vowels is closely connected with developments in

declension and conjugation.

From the 13th century, some dialects showed certain vacillation in spelling

unstressed vowels, which probably reflected peculiarities of pronunciation. Thus, in

Northern dialects the unstressed vowel was often spelt i or y: askid, bundin; in West

Midland dialects a u-spelling appears, as in: fadur, stonus.

From the phonemic viewpoint this change indicates a decided separation of the

unstressed vowel phoneme system from that of the stressed vowels. Whereas the stressed

position allows a distinction of many vowel phonemes, the number of unstressed vowel

phonemes is very greatly reduced. Thus, while in OE there was no difference between the

number of vowel phonemes in stressed and in unstressed syllables, in ME there arises a very significant difference in this respect, and the way is paved for the state of things of

typical of NE.

Changes in Stressed Vowels Quantitative Changes

Towards the end of the OE period and in the succeeding centuries vowels in

stressed position underwent a number of important quantitative changes which

considerably altered the status and functioning of short and long vowels in the language.

Phonetic	Change	Examples
conditions	illustrated	OE	ME	NE
Before consonants sequences: sonorant plus plosive ld, nd, mb, ŋg, rd	all short vowels become long	cild findan climban cald feld fundon	child finden climben cold field founden	child find climb cold field found (past of find)
Before other consonant sequences	all vowels become short	cepte blжst wisdom	kepte blast wisdom	kept blast wisdom
In open syllables	e>Ј: a> a: )>):	mete stelan macian talu open stolen	mete stelen maken tale open stolen	meat steal make tale open stolen