1.2.2. Quantative changes

Besides qualitative changes mentioned above vowels under stress underwent certain changes in quantity.

• lengthening of vowels

The first lengthening of vowels took place as early as Late old English (IX century). All vowels which occurred before the combinations of consonants such as mb, nd, ld became long.

Old English Middle English New English

[i] > [i:] climban climben climb

Findan finden find

Cild cild child

[u] > [u:] hund hound hound

The second lengthening of vowels took place in Middle English (XII – XIII century). The vowel [a], [o] and [e] were affected by the process. This change can be observed when the given vowels are found in an open syllable.

Old English Middle English New English

a > ā talu tale tale

e > ē sprecan speken speak

o > ō hopian hopen hope

• Shortening of vowels

All long vowels were shortened in Middle English if they are found before two consonants (XI century).

Old English Middle English New English

cēpte cepte kept

wīsdōm wisdom wisdom

Through phonetic process the lengthening and the shortening of vowels mentioned above left traces in grammar and word-stock.

Due to it vowel interchange developed in many cases between:

• different forms of the same word;

• different words formed from the same root.

For instance:

Middle English [i:] – [i] child children

[e:] – [e] kepen but kept

[i:] – [i] wis wisdom

3. Consonants

The most important change in the consonant system that can be observed if we compare the Old English and Middle English consonant system will be the development of the fricative consonant [∫] and affricates [t∫] and [dз] from old English palatal consonants or consonant combinations thus:

[k’] > [∫t] cild child

Benc bench

cin chin

cincen chicken

[sk’] > [∫] scip ship

Sceal shall

[g’] > [dз] bryc bridge

Thus we can notice that variants of some Old English consonant phonemes developed differently. For example:

The phoneme denoted in Old English by the letter c had two variants: [k] – hard and [k’] – palatal, the former remaining unchanged, the latter giving us a new phoneme, the phoneme [t∫ ].

The phoneme denoted by the letters “g’ or “c “ and which existed in four variants: [g’], [g] – in spelling “c “ and [j], [γ] – in spelling “g” had the following development:

[g’] > [dз] bridge

[j], [γ] were vocalized: dæз > dai, зiet > yet,

boЗa > boue, draзan > drauen

[g] remained unchanged: зōd > good

Special notice should be taken of the development of such consonant phonemes that had voiced and voiceless variants in Old English, such as:

[f] – [v] in spelling f

[s] – [z] in spelling s

[θ] – [ð] in spelling ð,þ

They became different phonemes in Middle English.

٭٭٭