Oe Phonology

Alphabets The literature of the Anglo-Saxons is fortunately one of the richest and most significant of any preserved among the early Germanic tribes. The Germanic tribes – The Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes, which invaded Britain in the middle of the V century, brought with them their Runic alphabet, founded on one of the alphabets of the Mediterranian area. They have left some Runic inscription made on rock, whale bone, and ancient arms. Among them are: Frank’s box, the Ruthwell cross and some others.

The sound system of Old English differed from that of Latin: example þ for /ø/ and for /w/; ӡ / g /, for four variants /g, g’, g.g’/; letter c denoted the sound / k, k’ /, the letter ‘h’ denoted / X, X’ /. The letter ‘f’ was used –for / f, v /; letter’ S’ denoted / s, z /, ‘y’ denoted the sound which does not exist now / ü /.

Prose and poetry. The oldest pieces of Old English literature are Cædmon’s hym; Old English poety- Beowulf, a folk epic;

The translation from Latin into English of Pope Gregory’s “Cura Pastoralis” (Pastoral Care), Bede’s “Ecclesiastical History of the English People”, the translation of Orosius’ ‘World History’, with Kind Alfred own notes.

Stress. strong stress was put on the first syllable of a word (fiscas, ‘fiscere)

Vowels. There were six long and six short vowel phonemes in Old English, monophthongs and diphthongs.

front	back	ēo – eo
ī – i	ā – a	ēā – ea
ē – e	ō – o	īē – ie	(Wessex dialect)
āē – ae	ū – u	iō – io	(Anglian dialect)

Consonants. In OE there were variants of phonemes / k, h / which were palatalized when they followed or preceded front vowels as’ cild’ / k’ / or’ nyht’ / x’ ø and hard when followed or preceded by vowels –as ’cuman / k /, ‘hūs’ øx /.

The rune ӡ denoted several sounds:

1. In the initial position of the word before consonants and back vowels, and in the middle of the word after “n” it represented the glottal [g]: lanӡ, ӡod, sinӡan.

2. After back vowels and after consonants “r”, “l” it denoted voiced consonants g (like that of Ukrainian type “г”), e.g.: daӡas, sorӡ, folӡian.

3. In the initial position of the word before front vowels, after back vowels it sounded like palatal [j]: ӡiefan, ӡear, dæӡ

There were no affricates or sibilants in Old English such as [ʒ, ʃ, tʃ, dʒ], they developed later.

Sounds. The most important changes are the following:

1) Palatalization of Germanic a, ā.

Palatalization of vowels is the fronting of their articulation (the change of the sound from a back one to a front one).

Germanic a corresponds to oe æ

Examples: Goth dags – OE d æʒ

Goth fadar – OE f æder

Goth was - OE wæs

Germanic ā, which developed from Indo European ē, and was preserved in Gothic as ē corresponds to OE æ.

2) Development of OE a^o

Germ. ‘a’ was not palatalized, it changed to a sound intermediate between ‘a’ and ‘o’.

Goth lang – OE lånd, o, Sax. man – OE mån

Long ‘ā’ developed into ō in OE (IE ē, Goth ē, West Germ. ā, OE o).

Goth mēna OHG. māno; OE mōna (moon)

3) Development of OE ā

OE ā corresponds to the Germanic diphthong ai.

e.g.Goth stains	OE stān (stone)
Goth ains	OE ān (one)
Goth haims	OE hām (home)

4. Old English Diphthongs. In Old English there were pairs of diphthongs long and short.

a) OE ēā corresponds to Goth au

Goth auk OE ēāc; Goth augo OE ēāge (eye)

Goth auso OE eare (ear).

b) The Germanic diphthongs ‘eu’ and ‘iu’

Goth dius OE dēor (deer); Goth diups OE dēop (deep).

Goth friund frēond; Goth stiurjan - OE stiuran-steoran.

4. Breaking -- is the change of a vowel into a diphthong under the influence of the following consonant. In OE (V-VI centuries) the vowels ae, ē, ī developed into short diphthongs when followed by h, r+a consonant, l+a consonant. h influenced long and short vowels; r+a consonant influence short vowels and l+a consonant influenced ae.

Ex. Goth ahtau OE eight (eahta )

Goth fáehu – OE freah (cattle)

Goth arms OE^e arm (poor)

Goth háirto / e / – OE heorte (heart)

Goth dars OE dearr ( to dare)

4. Palatal Mutation -- is the change of a stressed vowel to a narrower and a more front sound under the influence of ‘i’ or ‘j’ in the following syllable.

1. /ü/ which was later on indicated by the letter y.( Goth fuljan OE fyllan (to fill)

2. Germanic ‘o’ changed into ‘e’ (Goth fotis (plural of fot) OE fēt (feet)

Lat. Oleum OE ele (oil)

4. Lengthening of stressed Vowels

Short vowels became longer in the following cases:

a) When a nasal consonant was dropped out before a fricative

Goth fimf OE fīf (five)

Goth uns “ūs” (our)

OHG gans OE gōs (goose)

This phenomenon took place before the sixth century.

b) When ‘h’ fell out between vowels.

Goth^x sehan OE sēon (to see)

Goth slahan OE slēan (to slain)

This phenomenon also took place before the sixth century.

3. In the X th century short vowels became long in a stressed position before the following combination^s of consonants: id, nd md

Ex. Before the X th cildru the X-th cent.

cild cīld

mind mīnd

bindan bīndan

climban clīmban

The vowel was not lengthened if these combinations were followed by another consonant, for example:

OE cild after the X-th cent. cīld but

plural

OE cildru “ “ “ cildru

OE syndri “ “ “ syndri

4. The Change of S into Z and into r in Old English. In some cases the Old English sound r developed from the Old Germanic intervocal / z /, where ‘S’ between two vowels was voiced.