Middle english phonetics

1. Supply the missing vowels in these phonetic transcriptions of ME words paying special attention to the vowel length.

1) slepen / ´sl…pqn / “sleep” 2) slepte / ´sl…ptq / “slept” 3) name / ´n…mq / “name” 4) feld / f…ld / “field” 5) mild / m…ld / “mild” 6) hund / h…nd / “hound” 7) climben / ´kl…mbqn / “climb” 8) tale / ´t…lq / 9) child / C…ld / “child” 10) children / ´C…ldrqn / “children” 11) open / ´…pqn / “open” 12) wise /´w…zq / “wise” 13) wisdom / ´w…zdqm / “wisdom” 14) speken / ´sp…kqn / “speak” 15) behind / bq´h…nd / “behind”.

2. Examine the following ME words and write their OE counterparts: a) in phonetic transcription and; b) in normal orthography.

1) goon “go” 2) hoom “home” 3) stoon “stone” 4) boot “boat” 5) knowen “know” 6) man “man” 7) can “can”.

3. The following words all had / a: / in OE:

1) Zāt “goat” 2) rāp “rope” 3) rād “road” 4) āc “oak” 5) āþ “oath” 6) sār “sore” 7) tācen “token” 8) māra “more”.

What is the usual development of OE / a: /? Determine the ME form of each word.

4. The following words all had / æ / in OE.

1) blæc “black” 2) bæc “back” 3) æsk “ash” 4) Zlæd “glad” 5) wæs “was” 6) mæZ “may” 7) dæZ “day” 8) æfter “after”.

What is the usual development of OE / æ /? Determine the ME form of each word.

5. Write the ME developments of the following OE words:

a) in phonetic transcription and; b) in normal orthography.

1) sæ “sea” 2)dæl “deal”, “part” 3) æfre “ever” 4) clæne “clean” 5) dæd “deed” 6) hælan “heal” 7) hætu “heat” 8) lædan “lead”.

6. The following are phonetic transcriptions of OE words. Write their ME developments: a) in phonetic transcription and; b) in normal orthography.

1. / 'ke:pan / “keep” 2) / 'ke:pte / “kept” 3) / 'wi:zdo:m / “wisdom” 4) / 'wi:s / “wise” 5) / 'bli:nd / “blind” 6) / 'we:nan / “think” 7) / 'we:nde / “thought” 8) / k’i:ld / “child” 9) / k’ildru / “children”.

7. All the words listed below had / y / or / y: / in OE. Write their ME counterparts.

1) fyrst “first” 2) hyll “hill” 3) fyr “fire” 4) cyssan “kiss” 5) hyd “hide” (noun) 6) syn “sin” 7) lytel “little” 8) fyst “fist”.

8. Examine the OE words given below to describe the vowel change which seems to have affected each group of words between the OE and ME periods.

/ ea / 1) earm “poor” 2) bearn “child” 3) wearm “warm”

/ ea: / 4) ēāc “also” 5) ēāst “east” 6) dēād “dead” 7) hēāp “heap”

/ eo / 8) feoh “cattle” 9) deorc “dark” 10) leornian “learn”

/ eo: / 11) bēōn “be” 12) dēōr “deer” 13) dēōp “deep” 14) cēōsan “choose”.

9. What effect did the vocalization of the palatal fricative / j / have on a preceding vowel in ME? Write the ME developments of the OE words given.

1) dæZ “day” 2) læZ “lay” 3) mæZ “may” 4) mæZden “maiden” 5) weZ “way” 6) reZn “rain” 7) seZl “sail” 8) siZ “victory” 9) tiZele “tile” 10) siZþe “scythe” 11) FrieZdæZ “Friday”.

10. What effect did the vocalization of the velar spirant / γ / have on a preceding vowel in ME? Write the ME developments of the following OE words.

1) ZnaZan “gnaw” 2) soZu “sow” (noun) 3) laZu “law” 4) draZan “draw” 5) daZnian “dawn” (verb) 6) āZen “own” 7) fuZol “fowl” 8) buZan “bow”.

11. What caused the appearance of diphthongs in the following ME words?

1) raughte “reached out” 2) slaughter “slaughter” 3) broughte “brought” 4) boughte “bought” 5) plough “plough” 6) dough “dough”.

12. Examine the OE words listed below to write their ME developments:

1. in phonetic transcription and; b) in normal orthography.

1) cild “child” 2) hwilc “which” 3) cin “chin” 4) tæcan “teach” 5) cēse “cheese” 6) brycZe “bridge” 7) ecZe “edge” 8) wyscan “wish” 9) fisc “fish” 10) sceadu “shade” 11) scēāp “sheep”.

13. Can you account for the fact that the affricates / C / / G / in the ME words given below are unaccounted for by OE sources?

1) charme “charm” 2) chaunten “chant” 3) gender “gender” 4) gentil “gentle” 5) general “general” 6) charite “charity” 7) changen “change”.

14. What consonants were lost in the following words in ME? State the environmental conditions which determined the loss of each consonant.

1) OE swylc – ME swuch “such” 2) OE hwilc – ME which “which” 3) OE hēāfod – ME heed “head” 4) OE hafoc – ME hauk “hawk” 5) OE hlāford – ME loverd “lord” 6) OE hlæfdiZe – ME levedy “lady” 7) OE hlūd – ME loud “loud” 8) OE hnecca – ME nekke “neck” 9) OE hrōf – ME roof “roof” 10) OE hryscan – ME russhen “rush” 11) OE hrinZ – ME rynZ “ring”.