3) Voicing and devoicing of fricatives
In the meantime the PG set of voicele ss fricatives [f,θ, x, s] and also those of the voiced fricatives which hadn’t turned into plosives – [v, γ] were subjected to a new process of voicing and devoicing. In early OE they became or remained voiced intervocally or between vowels, sonorants and voiced consonants; they became or remained voiceless in other environments, namely, initially, finally and next to other voiceless consonants:
e.g. OE cweðan [ð] between vowels and cwæð [ θ] at the end of the word;
OE Nom, Acc case – wīf, Gen – wīfes
The mutually exclusive phonetic conditions for voiced and voiceless fricatives prove that in OE they were not phonemes, but allophones. OE spelling does not distinguish between voiced and voiceless fricatives.
4) Metathesis
Metathesis is a phonetic change which consists in two sounds exchanging their places. It most frequently affects the consonant r and the vowel in the following words:
e.g. þridda > þirda (third).
The process seems to have developed in this way: first the vowel disappears so that the r becomes syllabic: þrda; eventually the vowel reappears on the other side of the r.
5) Loss of consonants in some positions
Comparison with other OG languages, especially Gothic and O Icel, has revealed certain instances of the loss of consonants in WG and early OE.
Nasal consonants were lost before fricative consonants (h, f, s, p): in the process the preceding vowel was probably nasalized and lengthened.
e.g. Gt. fimf, OE fī f
Gt. uns, OE ū s
OE bronhte > brō hte (brought)
H is lost between vowels:
e.g. tī han > tēon (accuse)
fonhan > fō han > fōan (catch)
Palatal 3 is occasionally dropped before d and n, the preceding vowel is lengthened:
e.g. fri3nan > frīnan (as k)
We should also mention the loss of semi-vowels and consonants in unstressed final syllables. [j] was dropped in suffixes after producing various changes in the root: palatal mutation of vowels, lengthening of consonants after short vowels. The loss of [w] is seen in some case of nouns: Nom. Trēo, Dat. Trēowe (tree).
Old English consonant system
The system of OE consonants in the 9 th and 10th c. fell into noise consonants and sonorants.
The noise consonants were subdivided into plosives and fricatives; plosives were further differentiated as voiced and voiceless.
The fricative consonants were also subdivided into voiced and voiceless.
The most universal distinctive feature in the consonant system was the difference in length.
e.g. OE sticca (NE stick) – stica (Gen case pl of OE stice) (NE stitch)