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Файл:HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE = История английского языка.pdf
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OE Phonetics and its Development
The sound system is characterized by the following
- vowels: [i, e, æ, a, o, u, y]
[i:, e:, a:, o:, æ:, u:, y:],
- diphthongs: [ie, eo, ea, ie:, eo:, ea:],
- consonants: [p, b, k, g, t, d, l, n, ŋ, m,w, h, j, f(v), Ɵ(ð), s(z)].
The comparison of the OE sound system with the one of MnE
shows that these two systems have both common and
distinguishing features. The features that distinguish the OE
sound system from the modern one are such:
1. Lack of full correspondence between the constituents of the
two systems. For example, the sound [ǝ:] which characterizes
the MnE sound system is not found in the OE one. The same
can be said about the consonants [tʃ, ʃ, Ʒ, dƷ] which appeared
in the English language only after the Norman invasion in the
11th century and were borrowed from the French language.
Vice versa, the sounds [y, y:] found in OE do not characterize
the English language of today.
2. Discrepancy between the systems of diphthongs. MnE
diphthongs are [ai, oi, ei, ou, ǝu, au, uǝ, iǝ, ɜǝ].
3. All the OE vowels have their long counterparts, as for the
MnE period, some of the monophthongs exist only in a single
version, either long or short. For instance, long sound [ǝ:] has
no short counterpart and vice versa short sound [e] has no
long counterpart. The same can be said about the diphthongs,
all the OE diphthongs may be both short and long, MnE
diphthongs are only short.
4. Three OE consonants [f(v), Ɵ(ð), s(z)] exist in two main
variants, voiceless and voiced. That means that pronunciation
of these consonants depends on their position in a word (upon
their phonetic environment). The voiced variant of these
phonemes is found in the intervocal position (in the position
between two vowels). For example, deofōl, niÞa, wesan.
Voiceless pronunciation is observed in all the other cases:
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fīndan, sinƷan, Þæt. In MnE things are different, voiced [v, ð,
z] and voiceless [f, Ɵ, s] are separate phonemes. Each of them
may be found in any position and their pronunciation no
longer depend upon their phonetic environment: development,
indefinite, vast, fast, that, thanks.
One of the tasks of the History of the English Language is to
investigate the development that led the phonetic from one state
of things (OE) to the other (MnE).
Changes in the OE Sound System
1. [i]-mutation (пересогласовка на [i], переднеязычная
пересогласовка) is a change of a root vowel caused by the
sound [i] which was originally found immediately after the root.
The mechanism of this change may be explained by the phonetic
phenomenon which is called assimilation. When we begin to
pronounce the root vowel our organs of speech are getting ready
to pronounce the vowel that follows the root. The change of the
position of our organs of speech leads to the change of the
quality of the vowel. As a result of [i]-mutation OE vowels
(when found in the root followed by [i]) underwent such
changes:
ā > ǣ ō > ē ū > ӯ
a > æ o > e u > y.
E.g. OE MnE
āniƷ > ǣniƷ any
mannis > menn men
fōtis > fēt feet
mūsis > mӯs mice
fullian > fyllian fill
As seen from the examples above, the sound [i], which
caused the mutation of the root vowel, disappeared in the
majority of the OE words.
[i]-mutation took place (as it is supposed) in the 6th and 7th
centuries but the results of this phenomenon may be observed
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even in in MnE. Thus, [i]-mutation may be used to explain the
vowel interchanges in the following language oppositions:
- singular / plural: foot – feet, mouse – mice, goose – geese;
- positive / comparative and superlative degrees of comparison
of adjectives: old – elder – the eldest, far – further – the
furthest;
- noun / verb: blood – to bleed, food – to feed;
- adjective / verb: full – to fill.
2. The Old English Fracture (breaking - преломление) took
place in the VII-VIII centuries. It is a diphthongization of vowels
found in the position before L + consonant, R + Consonant, H +
Consonant, H (final).
e.g.: herza > heorte (MnE - heart).
This phenomenon caused the charge of only two vowels. As a
result of OE fracture short [æ] changed into [ea] and short [e]
into [eo].
e.g.: ahtau > eachta > eight,
fehtan > feohtan > fight,
melkan > meolkan > to milk.
As a result of OE fracture two English verbs (to tell and sell)
developed the sound interchange in the opposition infinitivepast, which is the language of today sounds as tell – told, sell –
sold. This development can be illustrated by the following
scheme.
Infinitive Past
OE tellan telde
tellan teolde (OE Fracture)
ME tellen tolde
MnE tell told
3. Lengthening of Vowels
In the period of the 8 – 9th centuries vowels [i] and [u] were
lengthened if they were found in the position before -ld, -nd, -mb
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(e.g.: findan > fīndan, fundan > fūndan, cild > cīld, climban >
clīmban).
These vowels weren’t lengthened if these sound clusters -ld, -
nd, -mb were followed by another consonant, like in the word
cildru > children. With the further development this
phenomenon led to the Vowel interchange in the modern
opposition child – children.
Singular Plural
OE cild chidru
cild chidru
ME cild [i] children
MnE child [ai] children
4. Delabilisation of [y:]
This phenomenon took place in the X century as a result [y:]
changed into [i:], [y > i]. e.g.: fӯllan > fīllan, mӯs > mīs, fyrst >
first.
This change took place in all the words that contained the
sound [y] irrespective of its position and phonetic environment.
5. Voicing of fricatives
In OE a voiceless fricative surrounded by voiced sounds
becomes voiced, but OE spelling does not distinguish between a
voiced and a voiceless fricative. Thus, the word wife has a
voiceless fricative in its singular nominative form. But when we
build nominative plural wifes the fricative finds itself in the
position between two vowels and becomes voiced.
Singular Plural
OE wif wifes
ME wife wives
[i] [i]
MnE wife wives
This phenomenon has a refection in MnE which manifests
itself in the consonant interchange in the opposition singular -
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plural of the word ending in ‘-f’. E.g.: knife – knives, leaf –
leaves, wife – wives.
6. Loss of consonants before fricatives
Let’s compare English and German words with the same
meaning.
English German
e.g.: goose – Gans
mouth – Mund
other – andere
us – uns
five – fünf.
As seen from the examples above the German words differ
from their English correspondences by the sounds [n]. However,
it is quite obvious that these words (English and German) may
be traced back to the same root, that means that on a certain
stage of the English language development the sound [n] was
lost before the fricatives [h, f, s, Ɵ].
7. Palatalisation of [k, sk, kg] - c, sc, cƷ in writing
At a very early time the sound [k] before a front vowel and
occasionally in some other position became palatalized. In late
OE it approached [tʃ] and in ME it reached the state of [tʃ]. In
similar condition the sound cluster [sk] changed into [ʃ] kg into
[dƷ]. E.g.: cild – child, scip >ship, brycƷ > bridge, cirice >
church, scire > shire, sceap >sheep. Scola > school remained
an exception.
8. Simplification of the initial clusters
By the 11th century consonant clusters hl-, hn-, hr- were
simplified. E.g.: hlūd >lūd (melody), hring> ring, hnut > nut.
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Practical assignments
The OE Phonetic Changes
1. Account for the Vowel or Consonant Interchanges in the
following pairs of the MnE words (mind that the present
vowel interchanges of these words are the relics of phonetic
phenomena which took place in the 6-9th centuries A.D.: Imutation, O.E. Fracture, Lengthening of Vowels, Voicing of
Fricatives): Full – fill, strong – strength, sell – sold, blood –
bleed, old – elder, house (O.E. hus) – houses, louse – lice,
brother – brethren, far – further, tell – told, behind –
hindrance, child – children, wife (O.E. wif) – wives.
2. Account for the difference in phonetic structure of the
following English and German words: Fűnf – five, Gans –
goose, Mund – mouth, uns – us, brang – brought, sanft –
soft, ander – other, Dunst – dust.
The OE Texts
Reading rules of the OE texts:
1. Vowels: a – [a], ā – [a:], ō – [o:], ǣ – [æ:], y – [y], o – [o], e [e] (the endings are read), u – [u], i – [i];
2. Consonants: Ʒ – [g] or [j] at the end of the word before a
vowel dæƷ [dej], Þ – [ð] in the intervocal position or [Ɵ] in all
other cases, s – [z] in the intervocal position or [s] in all other
cases, f – [v] in the intervocal position or [f] in all other cases, c
– [k], h – [h], w – [w].
3. The stress in the OE words usually falls on the long root syllable (e.g. hlāforde) and never falls on the last syllable in the polysyllabic word.
The OE Texts Analysis
The analysis of the OE nouns and verbs should be done
according to their grammatical categories and morphological
classification.
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The OE Noun
The OE Noun had three grammatical categories:
1) Gender:
- Masculine;
- Feminine;
- Neutral.
2) Number:
- Singular;
- Plural.
3) Cases:
- Nominative (Who? What?);
- Genitive (Whose?);
- Dative (Whom to? Where to?);
- Accusative (Whom? What? Where?).
The morphological structure of the OE noun determined the
type of the declension. The type of the declension depended
upon a stem-building suffix. There were several types of the
stem-building suffixes in all Old Germanic Languages. They
were: a(ja, wa), o (jo, wo), u, i, en, er, es.
The scheme of the analysis of the OE Noun
1) define the gender of the noun,
2) define its number;
3) define the case of the noun;
4) define the type of the stem-building suffix.
For example:
Þær bið swyðe mycel huni - There is very much honey.
Have a look at the example from the glossary:
huni , n. n. a. – honey
noun neutral gender stem-building suffix
So the noun huni is of 1) neutral gender, 2) singular
number, 3) Nominative Case and 4) it has a stem-building suffix
a.
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The OE Verb
The OE Verb had the following grammatical categories:
1) The category of Tense:
- Present;
- Past;
- The idea of the Future Tense is expressed with the help
of the Present Tense.
2) The category of Number:
- Singular;
- Plural.
3) The category of Person:
- The first person;
- The second person;
- The third person.
4) The category of Mood:
- The Indicative Mood;
- The Imperative Mood;
- The Subjunctive Mood.
5) The Category of Aspect remains disputable among the
linguists.
Morphological classification of the OE Verb.
Morphologically the OE Verb may be divided into four
groups:
1) The group of Strong Verbs (7 classes);
2) Weak Verbs (3 classes);
3) Preterite-Present Verbs;
4) Suppletive verbs.
The scheme of the analysis of the OE Verb
1) Define the Tense of the verb;
2) Define its Person and
3) Number,
4) Define the Mood of the verb,
5) Define the type of the verb and class it belongs to.
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For example:
Ōhthere sæde his hlāforde Ælfrēde cynin e – Ohthere said to
his Lord King Alfred.
The verb sæde – the infinitive - sec an
We look the infinitive up in the glossary:
sec an, wv. 3 – say
verb weak verb the third class
Thus, the verb sæde is in 1) the Past Tense, 2) 3) it’s third
person singular, 4) it’s the Indicative Mood. 5) The verb belongs
to the third class of the weak verbs.
Practical assignments
The OE Texts
1. Read and translate the Text “Ohthere’s Account of his
Voyage around the North Cape” into Russian. Analyze
the nouns and verbs from the point of view their
grammatical categories.
Ōhthere sæde his hlāforde Ælfrēde cynin e Þæt hē ealra
NorÞmanna norÞmest būde. He cweÞ Þæt hē būde on Þæm
lande norÞ weardum wiÞ Þā Westsæ. He sæde Þēah Þæt Þæt
land sīe swīÞe lan norÞ Þonan; ac hit is eal wēste, būton on
fēawum stōwum styccemǽlum wīciaÞ Finnas, on huntoÞe on
wintra and on sumera on fiscaÞe be Þære sæ.
Proper names
Ōhthere [o:hthere] – Ohthere, a seafarer, guest of king
Alfred;
Ælfrēd – Alfred (born in 849), a king of Wessex;
NorÞman – Scandinavian;
Westsæ – the sea west of Scandinavia, i.e. modern North
Sea;
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Finnas – people inhabiting East and North of the
Scandinavian Peninsula, ascendants of the modern Finns.
2. Read and translate the passage from the piece of O.E.
poetry BEOWULF (lines 837-852). Analyze the nouns
and verbs from the point of view their grammatical
categories.
Beowulf
Þā wæs on mor en, mīne efræ e,
ymb ðā if healle guð-rinc moni ;
fērdon folc-to an feorran ond nēā [ha]n
eond wīd-we as wundor scēāwian,
lāÞes lāstas. Nō his līf- edāl
sārlīc Þūhte secga ǽne um,
Þāra Þe tīr–lēāses trode scēāwode,
hū hē wēri -mōd on we Þanon,
nīða ofercumen, on nicera mere,
fǽ e ond eflÿmed feor-lāstas bær.
Þær wæs on blōde brim weallende,
atol ÿða eswing, eal emenged,
hāton heolfre, heoro-drēōre wēōl;
dēað-fæ e dēo , siððan drēāma-leās
in fen-freoðo feorh āle de,
hæÞene sāwle; Þær him hel onfēnƷ.
Беовульф
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(так люди мне сказывали)
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