92. Me phonetic system. Weakening of the unaccentedwords.

Stressed vowels in Middle English.

In Middle English two types of phonetic changes took place in the system of stressed vowels: qualitative changes and quantitative ones.

Qualitative changes are those which affected the quality of the vowel and quantitativechanges affected its quantity (length of a vowel). Long vowels became short, short vowels were lengthened.

Qualitative changes of stressed vowels in Middle English

1.Contraction (сокращение, стяжение дифтонгов) of Old English diphthongs

One of the earliest phonetic changes that affected the quality of vowels in ME was the contraction of Old English diphthongs. OEeo(long and short) and ea(long and short)became simple vowels e and æ , which coincided in their quality with the first element of the diphthong: eo > ē, ea > æ:

Thus, the simple vowels which developed from OE diphthongs fused with the corresponding OE simple vowels as a result of it in Middle there were two identical simple vowels, which differ in their quality, one being Mid.E. æ: < OE æ: and from the Germanic diphthong ea and the second ē < OE ē and from the Germanic diphthong eo. These vowels had a similar further development: OE > ME e; eo: > ME ē; OE ea > ME æ, ea: > ME æ:

OE heorte > Mid.E. hērte (heart)

OE heord > ME hērd(e) (пастух)

OE feorr > ME fēr(r) (far)

OE seon (to see) > ME sē(n)

OE deor (deer) > ME dēr (олень)

It should be noted that the contraction of the diphthong ea took place in the early 11 century. Later, in the 12th century, the front vowel æ: (< OE ea) undergoes further changes depending on the quantity: short æ becomes short awhile the long æbecomes long open ȩwhich is reflected in modern English as a digraph ea.

Short a: OE heard > ME hærd (11 c.) > hard (12 c.)

OE earm > ME ærm (11 c.) > arm (12 c.)

OE hearpe (harp) > ME hærpe > harpe (12 c.)

Long a:

OE beatan (to beat) > ME bæten (11 c.) > bȩten (12 c. long open e)

OE east (east) > ME æst (11 c.) > ȩst (12 c. long open e)

OE heap (heap) > ME hæp (11 c.) > hȩp (12 c. long open e)

OE sea (sea) > ME sæ (11 c.) > sȩ (12 c.)

The same process took place with OE simple long vowel æ:

OE sæ > ME sæ > sȩ (12 c.) Mod. E. sea (ȩ > ea)

Thus in ME there were two long vowelse which differ in their quality, which, however, were not confused: one of them being open – ȩ and the other – closed long closed e. The difference between them is reflected in Modern English spelling: the open ȩ is designated by the digraph eawhile the closede –by the digraph ee.In their further development these two vowels fused into one – the long sound [i:]but the difference in spelling survives till now:

Mod. E. see < ME s ē (long closed) < OE seon (to see)

Mod. E sea < ME sȩ (long open) < OE sæ (long æ ) In the same way:

Mod.E. meat < ME mȩt < OE mæt (long æ ) < *ea (by contraction of the long diphthong ea)

Mod.E. meet < met (long closed e) < OE mētan (long closed e).

2.Development of oe å

In the western dialects åchanged intoo,in all otherdialects – intoa. Literary English generally reflects the second vowel (a) though some cases of the eastern development are also found:

OE lånd – western dialects lond

– other dialects land

OE låmb – western dialects lomb

– other dialects lamb

OE månn – western dialects mon(n)

– other dialects man(n)

93. ME phonetic system. Qualitative Changes, palatalization of consonants.

Qualitative Changes

Both monophthongs and diphthongs underwent radical changes during the Middle

English period.

a) Monophthongs

OE [a, o, ō, u, ū, e, ē, і, ī] remained more or less unchanged in Middle English, while

OE [ā, æ, ǽ, y, ÿ, å] changed radically.

1. OE [ā]>ME. [ō] everywhere but in the northern dialect. This new [ō] was of a much more open nature than the OE [ō] preserved in Middle English. In order to

distinguish the two kinds of [ō] we shall use the symbol õ to denote the open [ō] and

the symbol ọ for the close [ō]. In Middle English manuscripts the two types of [ō]

were mostly represented by the same symbols: o in open syllables and oo in closed

ones. Later the two[ō]'s were distinguished not only in sound, but in spelling as well,

[ọ] being as a rule represented by the digraph oo, and [ō] by the digraph oa in closed

syllables and the letter о in open ones.

E.g. OE bāt, āc, nā > ME boot, ook, no (E boat, оak, no); OE Ʒōd, sōna > ME good,

sone (E good, soon).

ME [ō] from [o] in open syllables was also of an open nature and mostly coincided

with [õ]<OE [ā]. Therefore we find the same way of representation of ME [õ] in E

hope (< OE hopa) and E stone (< OE stān).

2. OE. [ǽ] > ME. [ę] (more open than [ė] < OE [ē]). Thus in Middle English there

were two types of long [ē]: an open [ę] and a close [ė]. In Middle English

manuscripts they were often expressed in the same way: a single letter e in open

syllables and a double ее in closed ones. Later these different sounds were

distinguished also in writing: [ę] was represented by the digraph ea and [ė] by the

digraph ее.

E.g. OE sǽ, mǽl > ME se, meel (E sea, meal); OE fēlan, fēt > ME felen, feet (E

feel, feet).

The sound [ė] developed in ME. also as a result of the lengthening of [e] in open

syllables. Thus, OE etan, mete > ME ēten, mēte (E eat, meat).

3. OE [æ]>ME [a].

E.g. OE æt, pæt, dæƷ > ME at, that, day,

4. OE [å] > ME [o] only in West Midland. In all other dialects OE [å] > ME [a].

ME lond, mon, long (West Midland dialect)

E.g. OE lånd, mån, lånƷ

ME land, man, lang (Other dialects) (E land, man, long).

In most cases the Modern English form is based on that of the Eastern dialects. Only

before -ng-forms with o predominate.

E.g. long, strong, song.

i,ī in the North-East.

5. OE y, ÿ remained unchanged in the South-West (written u, ui).

e,ē in the South-East (Kent)

Palatal mutation.

Mutation is the change of one vowel to another through the influence of a vowel in the succeeding syllable. The most notable - i-Umlaut or palatal mutation. Palatal mutation is the fronting and raising of vowels through the influence of [i] or [j] in the immediately following syllable. Due to the reduction of final syllables the conditions which caused palatal mutation had disappeared in most words by the age of writing; these sounds were weakened to [e] or were altogether lost.

Breaking. Formation of a short diphthong from a simple short vowel when it is followed by a specific consonant cluster. a – ea.

Palatal Mutation (i-umlaut). Narrowing of the vowel in the stressed position syllable under the influence of i or j of the following syllable.

Back, or Velar Mutation. Back vowels o/u (sometimes a) influencing the preceding syllable caused the formation of diphthongs. The process was not universal (in west saxon literary language it occurred only before the sounds r, I, p, b, f, m).

Diphthongization after Palatal Consonants. Diphthongs resulted diphthongization after palatal consonants sk, k and j (in spelling c, sc, 3).