Phonotactics

Phonotactics studies the characteristics of phoneme sequences. In every language there exist phoneme sequences which are typi­cal of the language, which occur in quite a number of words, and those which do not occur in the language (e.g. [tl] and [dl] do not occur in English).

Therefore, for our purposes it is useful to view the phoneme sequences, or clusters both diachronically and synchronically. Di-achronically, new clusters are being gradually introduced under the influence of words, borrowed from other languages, e.g.:

[bw] — Buenos [g w] — guava

[pw] — pueblo [f1] — schlitz

or they form part of scientific terms:

[skl] — sclerotic [fw] — schwa

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A Russian learner of English, as a rule, finds it extremely difficult to pronounce the phoneme sequences, or clusters (both prevocalic and postvocalic). That is why the pronunciation of the most difficult clusters should be trained with the help of various pragmalinguistic materials, an instance of which is adduced below:

Wreathed in smiles, Jemima raised her hand in a deferential gesture. Although rouged, her cheeks still had a pallor of a life spent indoors. As an affectation she spoke with a lisp, running the risk of appearing on Kate Marriage’s current list of poseurs. For, as far as fashion was concerned, lisps were definitely out. However, lavish parties, with or without the means to support them, were definitely in. Not that Jemima and her mother mind­ed. Both bereaveds were bold enough to flaunt most superficial social customs. They felt that they risked nothing by behaving with genuine warmth of friendship.

As far as the complete list of clusters is concerned, it is ad­duced in Appendix 4.

Chapter 3.

A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE HISTORY

OF THE ENGLISH ORTHOGRAPHY

We cannot understand English orthography unless we have some knowledge of its history. English orthography dates back to the VII century when the Latin alphabet was applied to Old Eng­lish. However, it is a well-known fact that before the Latin alpha­bet was introduced, Anglo-Saxons used another kind of writing which was also employed by other Germanic peoples. This was the so-called “runic” writing. Runes were usually carved out on wood or stone, thus >| (the rune “thorn”) w (the rune “wen”).

The runic writing was a modification of the “mediterranian circle” one.

So, in the VII century Christianity was introduced in Eng­land. Latin was used extensively, being the means of international

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communication at that time. It was then that Old English was first committed to writing. The infinity of its sounds was reduced to a limited number of meaningful graphic symbols. There were 23 letters of the Latin alphabet and the two runes w (“wen”) and p (“thorn”). But what happened on the ontological level, on the level of actual speech, we can only surmise. It is always the case with dead languages that what we say is a kind of reconstruction, agreed upon by the scholars, who specialize in this field of study.

In Old English, spelling was purely phonetic: each letter had a more or less definite pronunciation associated with it. Hence, as a general rule, every change in spelling indicates a change in pronunciation as well. Thus, for example:

Ohthere sstde his hlaforde, mlfrеde cyninзe, {teethе ealra Nor6monna norpmest bude. Hе cwse6 fjset hе bude on раёm lande norpweardum wip pa Westsai. Hе sstde еah pset pset land sie swipe lan norp ponan; ac hit is eal wеste, buton on fеawum stowum styccemailumwicia6 Finnas, on hunto6e on wintra and on sumera on fiscape be pare set.

(from Ohthere’s Account of His First Voyage)

There was, however, no established orthographic tradition. For example, the Old English [o] was graphically represented both by <Q> and <a> (Nor6monna, land, lang).

Beginning with the XII-th century quite a number of phonetic changes took place in English. Old norms of pronunciation were gradually ousted by new ones. For example, in Old English the letter<c> stood for [k] and [k’] indiscriminately. But in Middle English<k’>became [tf], and the change of pronunciation had to be reflected in writing.

After the Norman invasion in 1066, French became the offi­cial language, the language of the Court and commerce. Only the lower classes still spoke and wrote in Anglo-Saxon, each dialect developing its own orthography.

By the XIV-th century English had again acquired its inde­pendence and official status. As far as its written form was con­cerned, the changes which took place were conditioned both by the phonetic changes that occurred in the intervening period and by the influence of the French orthography.

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Next comes the extract from the “Canterbury Tales” by G. Chaucer. The orthography of this passage is discussed in de­tail later on.

Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote

The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,

And bathed every veyne in swich licour,

Of which vertu engendred is the flour;

Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth

Inspired hath in every holt and heeth

The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne

Hath in the Ram his halve cours y-ronne,

And smale foweles maken melodye

That slepen al the nyght with open ye —

So priketh hem nature in here corages —

Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,

And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,

To ferne halwes, couthe in sondry londes;

And specially, from every shires ende

Of Engelond to Caunterbury they wende,

The hooly, blisful martir for to seke,

That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke;

Bifil that in that seson on a day

In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay,

Redy to wenden on my pilgrymage

To Caunterbury with ful devout corage,

At nyght were come into that hostelrye

Wel nyne and twenty in a compaignye

Of sondry folk by aventure y-falle

In felawshipe, and pilgrims were they alle,

That toward Caunterbury wolden ryde.

1) First and foremost, a large number of French words were borrowed with French letters and spellings: licour, flour, vertu, nature, aventure, corage and so on. As in French, <c> was used indiscriminately for [k] and for [s]: specially but cours.

<y> that in Old English was used for [u] (bryd, f yr) in Mid­dle English stood for [i] and [j], for example: melodye, veyne, pilgrymage, hostelrye, nyne.

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2) One more feature of Middle English orthography which can be accounted for by the influence of the French orthography is that instead of <u> <o> began to be written. E.g.:

O.E. Sunne > M.E. Sonne Cuman > come

3) Thirdly, in Middle English there appeared a great number of digraphs (as in French):

O.E. brstd > M.E. breeth hstd > heeth

French <ou > (ow) stood for [u:]: licour, Southwerk, devout. <ch> was used to reflect in writing the mediolingual affricate

[tf]: swich, which. <th> was used instead of <p> and <6> which disappeared

in Middle English. <gh> stood for [x] instead of Old English <з>. <ph> stood for [f]: Zephirus. <sh> stood for [Г]: shoures.

4) Old English <sc>became [Г], a new fricative, and as there was no [Г] in French, there were quite a number of ways of com­ mitting it to writing: sch, sh, ssh, shc, ss.

We may conclude that in the Middle English period the main tendencies in the development of the English orthography were the following: Middle English pronunciation changed greatly, and attempts were made to reflect these changes with the help of the French orthography.

It follows that the inconsistencies and irregularities of the English orthography can be traced back to Middle English, when orthography became more or less fixed and changes in pronuncia­tion which took place later were not reflected in it.