Old English phonetics Vowels

In OE existed an exact parallelism btw long and the corresponding short vowels. Not only monophthongs (7 pairs: a x e I o u y) but even diphthongs (2 pairs ea eo) found their counterparts which differ from them not only in quality but also in quantity. All the diphthongs were falling diphthongs with the 1^st element stronger than the 2d, the 2d was more open.

All OE vowel phonemes can be traced back to common Germanic vowel phonemes. OE monophthongs are as a rule a further development of some common Germanic monophthongs. Some OE monophthongs developed from common Germanic diphthongs. OE short diphthongs originated from monophthongs.

Changes: 2 types – assimilative and independent (non-assimilative). Independent don’t depend upon the environment in which the given sound was found. Assimilative changes are explained by the position of the sound in the word.

* Breaking (in the 6^th century). It affected 2 vowels - ǽ and e when they were followed by the consonants r l h generally followed by another consonant. The resulting the vowel was a diphthong. Breaking produced a new set of vowels in OE – the short diphthongs ea eo. Breaking was spread among dialects – west saxon, Anglican (Mercian, northumbrian). ald -> eald (old)

* Diphthongisation – could be caused by preceding consonants: a glide arouse after a palatal consonants as a sort of transition to the succeeding vowel. After a palatal consonant k’ sk’ j short and long e ǽ turned into diphthongs with a more close vowel as their 1^st element. scǽmu>sceamu (shame)

* Palatal mutation (qualitative change, 6-7^th centures) is a change of 1 vowel to another trhough the influence of a vowel in the succeeding syllable. A vowel in a stressed syllable followed by the sound i or j in the next syllable became higher or more palatal and more narrow (exception – e i). as a result new phonemes entered the vowel system in OE – y – result of mutation of u.

* palatalization – change under the influence of the initial palatal consonants з c sc scort – sceort (short)

* mutation before h

* contraction – if, after a consionant dropped, 2 vowels met inside a word, they were contracted into one long vowel. Sehan seohan seon

In final unaccented syllables long vowels were shortened. Some short vowels in final unaccented syllables were dropped.

Old English phonetics Consonants

14 consonant phonemes (p b m f t d s r l p c з h).

All the consonants fell into noise consonants and sonorants (m w n r l j n). The noise consonants were subdivided into plosives (b p d t k g) and fricatives (v f z s x t ө ð).

Peculiarities: relatively small number of consonant phonemes, the absence of affricates, dependence of the quality of the phoneme upon its environment in the word.

Dependence of the quality of the phoneme upon its environment in the word: 1) f P ð s are voiced or voiceless depending upon their phonetic position (btw vowels-voiced). 2) the phoneme denoted by the letter c gave at least 2 variants – palatal k’ and velar k (palatal before i) 3) з – voiced velar plosive g at the beginning of the word before back vowels or consonants or in the middle of the word after n, and it is voice palatal j before and after front vowels.

Grimm’s law (Germanic consonant shift) – voiceless plosive consonants p t k of indo european languages shifted in Germanic language into the voiceless fricative consonants f Ө h (kardia - heorte).

Verner’s law Germanic voiceless fricatives f Ө h which appeared due to grimm’s law later became voiced if they were found after unstressed vowels (pater – fxder - father)

Loss of consonants in some positions: fricative consonants could be dropped between vowels and before some plosive consonants sǽзde - sǽde (said); nasal sonorants were lost before fricative consonants fimf – fif (five)

Palatalization – c before a front vowel became palatalized and approached the affricative t∫, sc -> ∫, cз з ->dз

N was lost before h bronhte – brohte (brought)/ before h f s p

H was lost between vowels tihan – teon (accuse)