Development of the phonetic system of old english

WORD STRESS

Like in its Old Germanic predecessor, the word stress in OE was dynamic or force. In disyllabic and polysyllabic words stress fell on the root morpheme or on the first syllable. There were two types of word stress: verbal and nominal. Verbal roots were stressed while in nominal parts of speech the first syllable which could be considered a prefix received the stress. From this, the stress started to distinguish between verbs and nouns. Compound words had two stresses, and the main stress fell on the first syllable.

Word stress had a major impact on the development of the vowel system. Given that the unstressed vowels were weaker, they changed differently from the stressed vowels.

VOWELS

The phonetic system of the English language changed greatly in comparison with any other Germanic language. Both the stressed and unstressed vowels of English were subject to changes; stressed long monophthongs and diphthongs underwent more changes than short ones. Furthermore, the quantity of vowels changed over the course of the development of the language.

The fact that long vowels didn’t retain their quality determined changes of stressed vowels. Some long monophthongs were diphthongized, while conversely diphthongs underwent monophthongization. Also, new diphthongs developed because of the vocalization of consonants.

Due to force stress, the vowels used in unstressed syllables weakened considerably. This vocalic weakening was a gradual process, and it was only reflected in writing up to the beginning of the ME period. (It was during the ME period that the unstressed [ə] was dropped, first at the end of three-syllable words, then at the end of disyllabicwords. By the end of the ME period, this vowel was also dropped in those inflections terminating in a consonant. For this reason, there are many monosyllabic words in the English language).

The characteristic features of OE vowels were dependent upon the place of articulation in accordance with horizontal movement of the tongue, vertical movement of the tongue and vowel length.

The OE vowel system included the original Germanic vowels as well as the vowels which had developed and changed with the English language. The Germanic diphthongs can be also treated as sequences of monophthongs which experienced regular changes in OE. These changes were independent, i.e. they took place irrespective of their surrounding.

Vowels in the English language underwent qualitative, quantitative, dependent(assimilative) and independent (non-assimilative, spontaneous) changes. Every change was a gradual process and their beginnings could be traced to the growth of variation in pronunciation. Such variation was manifested in a number of allophones, one of which eventually prevailed and replaced the others. Different allophones prevailed in different dialects.

Tendencies across the development of the vowel system:

1. Stressed and unstressed vowels changed in different ways.

2. Long monophthongs became closer, some were diphthongized.

3. Short monophthongs became more open.

4. Diphthongs, which in Proto-Germanic had been sequences of monophthongs rather than diphthongs, became monophthongized or turned into diphthongs with different glides. Most of the new diphthongs developed as a result of assimilative changes under the influence of preceding or following consonants.

5. Systematic changes in the vowel system took place across different periods. The OE vowel system was symmetrically based on the feature of length; short and long vowels and diphthongs differed only in length. There was no qualitative difference between long and short vowels. By ME this symmetry was lost, though some monophthongs still had short and long counterparts. There were no more long diphthongs and there were some long monophthongs which didn’t have short counterparts. In New or Modern English, long and short monophthongs have qualitative differences: they have a different place of articulation and they separate into tense and lax.

6. Over the course of time, dipthongs proved to not be very stable. They were monophthongized while new diphthongs developed as a result of new assimilative changes.

7. The modern rules of vowel pronunciation began to develop in ME when the length of the vowel began to depend on the position. Vowels long before specific consonant clusters or became short before other clusters. During this same period, the difference in pronunciation between vowels in open and closed syllables developed.

8. New types of reading developed in the NE period; these were assimilative changes influenced by the consonant [r].

9. Unstressed vowels developed differently than their stressed counterparts; in OE the number of unstressed vowels was reduced, and no long monophthongs or diphthongs were used in the unstressed position. In ME the number of unstressed vowels reduced even further to include [i], [e],[a] and schwa [ə]. In NE we can distinguish between native and borrowed words given that the status of unstressed vowels within them is different. Thus in native and completely assimilated words the following unstressed vowels can be found: [i], [e] and[ə]. Within borrowed words practically no restriction exists – both long monophthongs and diphthongs can be used in the unstressed position.

The biggest independent qualitative change of vowels was the Great Vowel Shift which lasted during several centuries. It influenced all long monophthongs and even several diphthongs.

When speaking about vowel changes we should keep in mind that spelling did not necessarily change simultaneously with the pronunciation and that’s why it seems so complicated now.

Development of Stressed Vowels in Old English

Independent Changes of Stressed Vowels

Splitting of [a] and [a:].

The Proto-Germanic short [a] and long [a:] were fronted, and in the process of fronting they split into several sounds. The change of [a] > [æ] and [a:] > [æ:] resulted due to fronting or palatalization of [a, a:]. It is important to note one restriction: before a nasal consonant, [a] changed to [ɔ] or [ã], and [a:] changed to [o:].

PG	OE	Gt.	OE	NE
	æ	Þata	Þæt	that
	о, ã a	mann(a)	mon	man
		dagos	daʒas	days
PG    OE     OHG   OE NE a: æ: dâr Þǣr there o: mâno       mōna   moon

Development of Proto-Germanic Diphthongs

PG diphthongs underwent regular, independent changes in Early OE. The diphthongs with i-glide were monophthongized while those with u-glide changed to long diphthongs [ea:], [eo:] and [io:].

PG	OE	Gt.	OE	NE
a + i	a:	stains	stān	stone
e + i	i:	meins	mīn	mine , my
a + u	ea:	augo	ēаʒе	eye
e + u	eo:	kiusan	cēosan	choose
i + u	io :	diups	dēop, dīop	deep

Some OE diphthongs developed thanks to breaking. If a front vowel stood before a velar consonant, a glide developed between them, and this glide together with the original monophthongs formed a diphthong. Because of breaking, the short diphthongs [ea] and [eo] appeared. These dipthongs were counterparts to long diphthongs which had developed from those of PG. Short diphthongs are a unique feature of OE.

Early OE	OE	Gt.	OE	NE
before l + l, l + a consonant
æ	ea	alls	eall	all
before h, h + a consonant
æ e	ea eo	ahtau leihts	eahta   lēoht	eight light
before h final
æ	ea	sæh	seah	saw
before r + a consonant
e æ	eo ea	hairto (OHG) herza    hardus	heorte   heard	heart hard
before h final
e	ea	feh	feoh	cattle

Diphthongization after sk’, k’, j (6th century)

Diphthongization came about due to preceding consonants – a glide appeared after a palatal consonant when transitiong to a vowel.

After the palatalized consonants [k’], [sk’] and the palatal consonant [j], short and long [e] and [æ] developed into diphthongs with a front close vowel as their first element. At first the initial element of these diphthongs was unstressed, but with time the stress shifted and the diphthong acquired the typical form of a nucleus and a glide.

Early OE	OE	OG	OE	NE
e ie		OHG skild	scield	shield
		Gt giban	ʒiefan	give
æ ea		Gt. skadus	sceadu	shade
		loan-word (L): castra	ceaster	chester
æ: ea:		OHG jâr	ʒēar	year

Palatal Mutation (7th century)

The qualitative change of Old English vowels that experts call palatal mutation, or i-mutation, occurred somewhere during the 6th—7th centuries. Palatal mutation is the fronting and raising of vowels through the influence of [i] or [j] in the immediately following syllable.

Practically all monophthongs and diphthongs were palatalized in this phonetic condition. It spurred the growth of new vowel interchanges, and consequently the variability of root-morphemes increased – many related words and grammatical forms acquired a new root vowel.

The mechanism of palatal mutation can be described in the following way: the sound [i] or [j] influenced caused the palatalization of the preceding consonant, and this palatalized consonant caused the palatalization of the preceding vowel.

Vowels prior to palatal mutation	Mutated vowels	OG words prior to palatal mutation	OE words	NE
æ a o	e	Gt mats Gt saljan Gt sandjan	mete sellan sendian	meat sell send
a:	æ :	OE l ā r Gt. laisjan	læran	teach
о	e	OE dohtor	dehter	daughter
о:	e:	OE bōc	bēc	books
u	y	Gt fullian	fyllan	fill
u:	у:	OE mūs	my:s	mice
ea eo	ie	OE eald OE feor	ieldra fierra	elder farther
ea: eo:	ie:	Gt galaubjan OE þeod	ʒelīefan elþiediʒ	believe ‘of a tribe’

The consequences of palatal mutation can be observed on the morphological level as a growing variation of grammatical forms; the root morphemes of the etymologically related words acquired different vowels.

Velar Mutation

Velar occurred in some OE dialects due to the influence of back vowels in succeeding syllables. These back vowels transformed the stressed root vowels into diphthongs. This change occurred differently in separate English dialects.

Vowels prior to velar-mutation	Mutated vowels	OG words prior to velar-mutation	OE words	NE words
e	eo	OHG swestar	sweostor	sister
æ a	ea eo	WS cæru, caru	cearu	care
i	io	Gt silbur	seolfor	silver

Later in all the dialects (with the exception of the Kentish dialect), these diphthongs transformed into the diphthong [eo]. Short diphthongs were monophthongized in Early ME; the results of the Velar mutation are rarely observed further into the development of the language.

Changes of Unstressed Vowels in OE

In accord with the force stress of OE, stressed and unstressed vowels were pronounced with different force of articulation. And because of this (among other reasons) stressed and unstressed vowels developed in different ways. In OE, long unstressed vowelswere shortened, and some shortvowels([i], [u]) were dropped in an unstressed position. Thus, the number of vowels in unstressed syllables was reduced to five monophthongs:[ –i, e, a, o, u].

Loss of unstressed vowels in OE	Reduction of unstressed vowels in OE	Development of new unstressed vowels in OE
ОНG magatin –  OE mæʒden Early OE hēafod (Nom.) – heafdes (Gen.)	Early OE wisdom – OE wisdom skeapu – OE scēap	Gt. wintrus – OE winter OI fīngr - OE fīnger

Old English Vowel System

LENGH	MONOPHTHONGS	DIPHTHONGS
short	a æ  e  i  o  u  y	ea  eo  io  ie
long	a: æ: e: i: o: u: y:	ea: eo: io: ie:

CONSONANTS

Consonants have always had more stability in their functioning than vowels, and as such underwent fewer changes, however there are some peculiarities in every period.

1. The system of consonants in OE period consisted of 14 phonemes of the following types: plosives, fricatives and sonorants; there were no sibilants or affricates in it which can be found now. According to the place of articulation there were alveolar, dental, labial, and velar consonants. The OE consonants could be voiced and voiceless because of their position, there were long and short consonants, and some consonants had palatalized equivalents. If the short plosives and sonorants were the same that we can observe now, the fricatives changed; some of them disappeared while some new fricatives developed.

Another peculiar feature is that voiced and voiceless fricatives were not separate phonemes, but rather positional allophones: voiced and voiceless fricatives were not used in the same phonetic position. The process of their differentiation into different phonemes was completed in NE.

2. Palatalization of velar consonants led to their splitting, along with the further development of palatalized variants into fricatives and affricates. The process of the development of affricates and fricatives is not complete, and more words have plosive sounds replaced by fricatives or affricates – it is an assimilative change as it happens under the influence of the succeeding [j].

3. The loss of consonants occurred through all periods of English development. Some consonants were lost as a result of the process of vocalization. In other cases, consonants were dropped, often causing lengthening of the preceding vowel. In ME and NE periods, the consonants were lost in pronunciation while remained in spelling.

Old English Consonant System

Plosives	Short voiceless Short voiced Long voiceless Long voiced	p t k b d g p: t: k: b: d: g:	Palatalized: k’ sk’ k’: g’:
Fricatives	Short Long	f – v, Ө – ð, s – z, x – x’, γ – γ’ f: Ө: s: x:	Palatalized x’:
Sonorants	Short Long	r l m n w j l: m: n:

CHANGES OF CONSONANTS IN OLD ENGLISH

Hardening

In OE, PG voiced fricatives were hardened to corresponding plosives, while voiceless fricatives developed new voiceless allophones. Thus according to Verner`s Law the PG voiced [ð] was hardened to [d]; [v]and [γ] were hardened to [b] and [g], respectively, in the initial position and after nasal consonants, but otherwise remained fricatives.

PG	OE	Gt	OE	NE
ð	d	blōð	blōd	blood
v	b	broÞar	bгōÞor	brother
γ	g	guma	ʒuma	man