Voicing/ Devoicing of Consonants

Voiceless fricatives were not involved in the process of hardening. After they lost their voiced equivalents because of the hardening process, voiceless fricatives underwent the process of voicing and devoicing. In OE, fricatives were voiced between vowels and sonorants or voiced consonants; otherwise they were voiceless initially, finally and next to a voiceless consonant.

This strict distribution of voiced and voiceless fricatives is the proof that they were not separate phonemes yet, but rather allophones.

PG	OE	Gt.	OE	NE
v	v f	sibun [v] hlaifs	seofon hlāfas	seven loaves
f	v f	wulfos wulfs	wulfas wulf	wolves wolf
Ө	ð Ө	siuÞan sauÞ	seoÞan sēaÞan	seethe seethed
γ	γ x	dagos baurgs	daʒas buruh	days borough
s	z s	kiusan kaus	cēosan cēas	chosen chose

Rhotacism

Rhotacism is a development of the consonant [z]. The PG [z] underwent a phonetic modification through the stage of [z ] into [r], becoming a sonorant and merging with the older IE [r]. This change took place both in West and North Germanic dialects.

PG ( Gt)	OE	NE
z	r
maiza auso	māra eare	more ear

Gemination

Gemination is a peculiar Germanic phenomenon. Long consonants in OE were the result of the doubling of consonants that took place in West Germanic languages earlier. The consonant was lengthened after a short vowel before [j]. The resulting long consonants are indicated by means of double letters. Either during that process or later the sound [j] was lost. When the long and short consonants began to occur in identical phonetic conditions (between vowels, their distinction became phonemic. This change didn’t take place if the consonant was preceded by a long vowel, nor did it influence the consonant [r].

Gt.	OE	NE
satjan skapjan saljan	settan scyppan sellan	set shapen sell

Palatalization and Splitting of Velar Consonants in OE

Palatalization influenced velar consonants which split into two sets. [k],[ g], [x], and [γ] were palatalized before a front vowel and sometimes after a front vowel, unless they were followed by a back vowel. In the absence of this phonetic condition, the consonants remained unchanged. This difference was not shown in the spelling of the OE period; over the course of time the phonetic difference between them grew and so palatalized consonants developed into sibilants and affricates. In ME they were indicated by special diagraphs.

Phonetic condition	Change	Examples	NE
Before and after front vowels	k>k’	cinn, birce	chin, birch
	g>g’	sengan	sing
	g: > g’:	есʒ, brycʒ	edge, bridge
	x > x’	neaht, niht	night
	γ > j	dæʒ , ʒeard	day, yard
In other positions	k	can	can
	g	ʒān, ʒrētan	go, greet
	x, h	hors, hlaf	horse, loaf
	γ	daʒas	days

Loss of Consonants in OE

The following consonants were lost in OE:

1) nasal sonorants were lost before fricatives, and in the process the preceding vowel was nasalized or lengthened;

2) fricative consonants were dropped between vowels and before some plosives; the vowel either lengthened or the two vowels formed a diphthong;

3) semi-vowels and consonants were lost in unstressed final syllables – [j] was dropped in suffixes after the palatal mutation of root vowels, and [w] was lost in some case forms of nouns in the position between vowels.

Phonetic condition	Consonants lost	EXAMPLES
		Gt	OE	NE
Before fricatives	nasal sonorants	fimf uns	fīf ūs	five us
Between vowels	fricatives x, h	saihwan	sēon	see
Unstressed final	semi-consonant j	fulljan	fyllan	fill
Position between vowels	semi-consonant w	triwa sǣwe	treo (Nom.) sǣ	tree sea

Summary of the Linguistic Features of the Old English Language:

Phonetics: Phonetically OE was close to other Germanic languages.

Morphological character: OE was a synthetic language with a well-developed system of morphological categories.

Vocabulary: The vocabulary of OE included common Indo-European words, common Germanic words, specific English words and some borrowings from Latin and Celtic. By the end of the OE period, Scandinavian words began to enter the Northern dialects.

Extralinguistic influence: There were several important historical events which influenced the development of the English language: the migration of the Germanic tribes, the adoption of Christianity, which gave OE the Latin alphabet and influenced vocabulary and grammar, and the Scandinavian invasion, which also influenced vocabulary and grammar.

Written Records

- Runic inscription (the Franks Casket, the Ruthwell Cross)

As it was mentioned earlier there was no written language at the beginning of the period. Writing appeared only in the 7th century, with the first alphabet being runic. This type of writing was considered to be mysterious, magic (the word “rune” means “mystery”). This writing was not understood by everyone.

There are two best known runic inscriptions in England that represent the earliest written records. One of them is the “Franks Casket” which is an inscription on a box named after the British archeologist A.W. Franks who found it. It is a small whale bone box with pictures and runic inscriptions and the longest of which is a story that whale bone.

Top (left to right):	ᚠᛁᛋᚳᚠᛚᚩᛞᚢ᛫     ᚪᚻᚩᚠᚩᚾᚠᛖᚱᚷ
Right (running downward):	ᛖᚾᛒᛖᚱᛁᚷ
Bottom (right to left):	ᚹᚪᚱᚦᚷᚪ᛬ᛋᚱᛁᚳᚷᚱᚩᚱᚾᚦᚫᚱᚻᛖᚩᚾᚷᚱᛖᚢᛏᚷᛁᛋᚹᚩᛗ
Left (running upward):	ᚻᚱᚩᚾᚫᛋᛒᚪᚾ

Another one is the Ruthwell Cross – a stone cross 15ft tall, which was inscribed and ornamented on all its sides.

Many other written records in runes preserved on tombsones, rings, coins, weapons with a total amount of 40.

- Manuscripts (Anglo-Saxon Charters; Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum ( Ecclesiastical History of the English people) and "Cædmon’s Hymn"; Beowulf; Anglo- Saxon Chronicles; King Alfred’s translations: Orosius World History, Pastoral Care by Pope Gregory the Great, Ælfric's lives of the Saints, Latin Grammar, Wulfstans’s Homilies).

The first written words in English in Latin characters were personal names and place names. Besides there survived a lot of documents such as wills, agreements, laws, grants, etc. which were copied and are known as Anglo-Saxon Charters. The earliest of them are of the 8^th – 9^th century were written in Kentish and Mercian dialects, later records were done in West Saxon.

As a piece of Old English poetry should be mentioned Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum ( Ecclesiastical History of the English people) written in the 8^thentury and "Cædmon’s Hymn". Beowulf was the greatest poem of that time. It was written in 7^th or 8^th century in the Mercian or Northumbrian dialect but survived in a West Saxon variant of the 10^th century. This poem consists of several songs based on old legends of the ancient Teutons tribal life.

The earliest example (9^th c) of Old English continuous prose is represented by the Anglo- Saxon Chronicles. And King Alfred’s translations of Latin books were very popular that time. During the 10^th century there were two important writers who left their masterpieces in the history: Ælfric and Wulfstan.

Ælfric translated from Latin some parts of the Bible and is the author of the Lives of the Saints and the Latin Grammar.

Wulfstan, an Archibishop of York is famous for the Homilies, passionate sermons.

A page from a Wulfstan manuscript at the British Library (MS Cott., Nero A.i)