booklet_3rd_12

14

According to George Bernard Shaw, English word ‘ghoti’ can be pronounced as [fi∫]. Do you agree with this?

(Note: Try ‘gh’ as in English ‘tough’, ‘o’ as in English ‘women’, and ‘ti’ as in English ‘nation’).

Topic 1. Proto-Germanic Period (PG)

1.1. Germanic vowel system. Germanic modification of vowels. IE. ā > PG. ō (Lat. māter – OE. mōdor)

IE. o > PG. a (Lat. octō – Goth. ahtau)

1.2. Germanic consonant system.

1.2.1. Grimm’s Law (Consonant Shift):

B. Exceptions to the 1st Act of Grimm’s Law:

No change after s [s] in consonant combinations [sp, st, sk]: Lat. stare, R.

стоять > OE. standan, E. stand; R. гость, Lat. hostis — гот. gasts, E. guest;

Partial change in consonant combinations [pt, kt]: Lat. octo > OE. eahta; Sans. nakta – Goth. nahts, Lat. nох (gen. noctis) – OE. neaht.

15

1.2.2. Verner’s Law: [t > q > a > d]: Sans. pitár > PG. faðar [Dfaðar] >

OE. fæder (E. father).

1.3. Sound peculiarities of West-Germanic languages.

1.3.1. Doubling of consonants (or gemination) took place between a short vowel and sound [j] (sometimes [r,l]):

Gothic saljan, taljan > OE. sellan, tellan – E. sell, tell.

(Compare: Rus. веселье, знанье; Ukr. весілля, знання).

But: r was not doubled: Goth. arjan – OE. erian (‘to plough’);

Compare: Rus.: перья; Ukr. пір’я.

Doubling failed after long vowels: Goth. fōdjan > OE. fēdan > E. feed. 1.3.2. Rhotacism (development of sound [z]): [s] >[z] > [r]

OE. wæs – wæron (<*wæson); Goth. maiza – OE. mara.

1.4. Anglo-Saxon dialects and their sound peculiarities. 1.4.1. Development of vowel [a]:

a) G. land [land], lanʒ [lanÖ] – OE. land [lånd], lånʒ [lånÖ] (E. land, long). b) Goth. daʒs [dnfòz=– OE. dæʒ xÇñfz=(E. day).

c) Breaking: before [h, r, l] + another consonant, and also before final [h] – [a] > [ea].

Goth. hardus [Dhardus]; G. hart [hart] – OE heard [heard] (E. hard). The same process took place with [ñ] (æld > eald, æhta > eahta, sæh > seah) and [e] ([e > eo]: herte > heorte, melcan > meolcan, selh > seolh, feh > feoh).

1.4.2. Loss of nasal consonants before fricatives [f, qI=s]: Goth. fimf [fimf], OHG. finf [finf] – OE. fīf [fi:f] (E. five).

16

Topic 2. Old English Sound System and Spelling (OE)

2.1. Vowel changes.

2.1.1. Front mutation (= i-umlaut, also known as i-mutation or palatal mutation).

Traces in modern English: vowel interchange now serves to distinguish

different parts of speech: to fill – full, to feed – food, long – length; to tell

– tale, blood – to bleed, Canterbury – Kent;

different forms of a word: mouse – mice, man – men, goose – geese. But not foot – feet.

2.1.2. Changes of PG diphthongs.

PG. [ai] > OE. [a:] PG. stains [stainz] > OE. stān [sta:n] (E. stone); PG. [au] > OE. [e:a] Goth. ausō [Dauzo]> OE. ēare [De:are] (E. ear).

2.2. Consonant changes.

2.2.1. Palatalization of velar consonants (began before the 6th century).

17

2.2.2. Voicing of fricatives.

OE. (n., sing.) wulf [wυlf] – (n., pl.) wulfas [Dwυlvaz] > E. wolf (n., sing.) – wolves (n., pl.); OE. (n., sing.) wīf [wgf] – (n., pl.) wīfes [wgves] > E. wife (n., sing.) – wives (n., pl.);

OE. (n.) bæþ [bæq] – (v.) baþian [Dbaðıan] > E. bath (n.) – bathe (v.)

2.3.OE system of sounds and letters.

•monophthongs (7 long, 7 short): a, ā, æ (‘ash’), , e, ē, i, ī, o, ō,

u, ū, y, (+ [å]);

•diphthongs (4 long, 4 short): ea, ēa, eo, ēo, (ie, īe, io, īo);

•consonants: b, c [k, t∫], d, f [f, v], ʒ (‘yogh’) [Ö, j, γ], h [h, x, χ], l, m,

n, p, r, s [s, z], t, ð (‘eth’) / þ (‘thorn’) [q, ð], (‘wynn’) [w]; sometimes found x [ks / cs / hs].

Test yourself:

1.How many vowel monophthongs were there in OE?

2.What happened to IE vowels o and ā in Germanic languages?

3.What kind of linguistic phenomenon is palatal mutation?

4.Why did each of the fricative consonants f, s, þ denote two sounds in OE?

5.What kind of phenomenon is rhotacism?

6.Which acts did the Grimm’s Law consist of?

7.Which sounds caused the doubling of consonants in Anglo-Saxon dialects?

8.What did K. Verner pay attention to when he explained some exceptions to the Consonant Shift?

9.How did sibilants and affricates develop in the OE period?

10.What happened to nasal consonants before fricatives in Anglo-Saxon dialects?

11.What kind of phenomenon is breaking?

12.How did unstressed vowels change in OE?

18

Topic 3. Middle English Sound and Spelling Changes (ME)

3.1. Middle English spelling changes.

3.1.1.OE. letters that went out of use: æ, ʒ, þ, ð, ;

3.1.2.Letters borrowed from French: g, j, k, q, v, z;

3.1.3.Digraphs introduced for consonants: ch [t∫], sh [∫], th [q / az, gh [χ],

ph [f], ck [k], dg [d], qu [kw];

3.1.4. Digraphs introduced to denote long vowel sounds: oo [iI=çW]; ee, ie, ei

[e:, c:]; ou, ow [u:];

Influence of French:

3.1.5.c [s] before e, i, y; c [k] before a, o, u (according to the French norm); c > k: OE. cēpan [Dke:pan] > ME. keepen [Dke:p n]

3.1.6.In words with many vertical strokes letter u was substituted by letter o: OE. cuman > ME. comen [Dkυm n] (E. come [k^ãzFK

Compare: son, some.

Task: Compare the spelling and pronunciation of words from the table below in Old English and Middle English:

3.1.Middle English vowel changes.

3.2.1. Development of unstressed vowels. Levelling of endings. OE. standan > ME. standen [DstandFn] (E. stand);

OE. sunu > ME. sone [DsunF] (E. son).

3.2.2. Development of stressed vowels.

A. Development of monophthongs : Quantitative and Qualitative changes.

19

Quantitative changes:

3.2.2.1. Lengthening of short vowels before homorganic clusters mb, ld, nd

(started in the 9th century).

OE. cild [t∫ıld] > ME. child [t∫i:ld] (E. child).

But: Homorganic lengthening failed before three-consonant clusters, thus in OE. noun, plural cildru [D t∫ıldru] (E. children) – [i] was not lengthened; 3.2.2.2. Shortening of long vowels ( 11th century).

OE. dūst [du:st], wīsdom [Dwi:zdom] > ME. dust [dυst], wisdom [Dwızd m]; 3.2.2.3. Lengthening of [a, o, e] in open stressed syllables of disyllabic words (13th century).

OE. Dtalu > ME. tale [Dta:l ] (E. tale); OE. Detan > ME. etan [Dc:t n] (E. eat).

Qualitative changes:

3.2.2.4. Development of monophthongs ā, æ, , å, y, .

•[æ] > [^]. OE. cæt > ME cat [k^t / kat];

•[æ:] > [c:]. OE. sæ> ME. se [sc:];

•[a:] > [i]. OE. bāt > ME. boot [bl:t] > ENE. boat [bl:t] (E. boat [bèst]); [a:] > [o:]. OE. stān > ME. stone [DstoWn ] (E. stone [stèsåzF;

•[å] > [o] only in West Midland: OE. land, man > lond, mon; [å] > [a] in all other dialects: OE. land, man > land, man;

•[y] > [ı] in the North-Eastern dialects: ME. hill [hil] (E. hill); [y] > [υ] in the Western dialects: ME. hull [hυl];

[y] > [e] in the Southern dialects: ME. hell [hel];

•[ ] > [i:] in the North-Eastern dialects: ME. fir [fi:r] (E. fire); [ ] > [υi] in the Western dialects: ME. fuir;

[ ] > [c:] in the Southern dialects: ME. fer;

20

B. Development of diphthongs in ME. 3.2.2.5. Development of OE diphthongs:

3.3.

3.3.1. Simplification of some consonant groups (hr, hn, hl):

hr, hn, hl [hr, hn, hl] > r, l, n [r, n, l] : OE. hrinʒ, hlāford, hnutu > ME. ring, loverd, nute > E. ring, lord, nut.

3.3.2.Development of sound [γ]: ʒ [γ] > [w] w:

OE. boʒa, morʒen > ME. bowe, morwen (E. bow, morrow).

Compare Russian: его ([г > в]).

Note: later this [w] denoted by w vocalized after vowels.

3.3.3. Vocalization of [j] and [w] after vowels:

[j] > [i]; [w] > [s]: OE. snāw [sna:w] > snow [snow] > ME. snow [snFυ].

Test yourself:

1.Which OE letters went out of use in the ME period?

2.Which consonant was lost at the beginning of words?

3.Which phenomenon brought about the appearance of new ME diphthongs?

21

4.What happened to most unstressed vowels in the ME period?

5.What kind of changes are qualitative changes of vowels?

6.How did short vowels in open stressed syllables of disyllabic words change?

7.What happened to short vowels before homorganic consonants?

8.What was done to make reading of words with many vertical strokes less difficult?

9.How did OE diphthongs change in the ME period?

10.Which vowels developed differently in various dialects? 11.How did fricative consonant sound [γ] develop in ME.? 12.Which consonants are called homorganic?

Topic 4. Early New English Sound and Spelling Changes

4.1. Early New English (ENE) spelling changes:

Group I. Changes connected with the loss of endings:

OE. hnutu > ME. nute [DnsíF] > ENE. nut [n^t]

OE. tacan > ME. taken ['ta:kFn] > ENE. take [tÉfk]

Group II. Changes connected with doubling of consonants:

Group III. Changes connected with the Latin origin of some words:

ME. dette, doute (from Latin debitum, dubitare) > ENE. debt, doubt

ME. scool (from Latin scholar) > ENE. school

Group IV. Changes connected with introduction of digraphs ea and oa:

22

4.2. ENE vowel changes.

4.2.1. Changes in long vowels. The Great Vowel Shift:

4.2.2. Changes in short vowels. 4.2.2.1. Development of vowel [a]:

ME. [a] > [æ] map, cat; after [w]: [wa] > [wl] want, was, quantity. But: wag [wæÖ], wax [wæks].

4.2.2.2. Delabialization:

[u] > [o] > [^]: ME. some [‘sυm ] – ENE. some [s^ãz; ME. son [sυn]

– ENE. son [s^åz;

Also: [u:] (< [i] > [l] before [d, t, k]) > [^]: blood, flood.

4.2.3. Development of ME. diphthongs in ENE:

4.2.4. Combinative changes of vowels.

4.2.4.1. Influence of [r].

a)[ê] > [F] after vowels in medial and final positions;

b)Development of –er in the middle of words: –er [er] > –ar [ar] (ME.

derk, ferm, sterre > ENE. dark, farm, star). But compare: clerk [klok],

sergeant [sod(è)nt].

4.2.4.2. Influence of [l].

[a + l] > [aυ] + [l] > [aυl] > [il] all, tall;

[l] is not pronounced before [k, m, f]: talk, walk; calm, half, palm;

4.2.4.3.

[a > (æ > æ:) > a:] after, craft, draft, pass, grass, bath;chance, dance, answer; cast, last, fast; ask, mask, task; clasp, gasp, grasp.

4.3. ENE consonant changes.

4.3.1. Development of sound [χ] denoted by gh.

At the end of words gh [χ] > gh [f]: ME. laugh [laυχ] > laugh [laυf] > ENE. laugh [la:f]; Medially gh [χ] before t was lost in pronunciation: ME. daughter [Ddaυχt r], eight [eiχt] > ENE. daughter [Ddit ], eight [eit];

Lengthening: [i > i:] ME. night [niχt] > [ni:t] > ENE. night [nait].

4.3.2. Voicing of fricatives in weakly-stressed syllables and words: ME. [f] > NE [v] of, active (< ME. actif)

ME. [s] > NE [z] is, his, comes, possess

ME. [q] > NE [ð] with, the, they