20

Lecture

Spelling Changes in ME. Rules of Reading.

Evolution of the Sound system from the 11^th to 18^th c.

PLAN

1. SPELLING CHANGES IN MIDDLE ENGLISH. RULES OF READING

2. EVOLUTION OF THE SOUND SYSTEM FROM THE 11TH TO 18TH C.

3. VOWEL CHANCES

4. EVOLUTION OF CONSONANTS IN MIDDLE ENGLISH AND EARLY NEW ENGLISH

SPELLING CHANGES IN MIDDLE ENGLISH. RULES OF READING

The most conspicuous feature of Late ME texts in comparison with OE texts is the difference in spelling. The written forms of the words in Late ME texts resemble their modern forms, though the pronunciation of the words was different. Before considering the evolution of English sounds one must get acquainted with the system of ME spelling in order to distinguish between sound changes and graphical changes.

In the course of ME many new devices were introduced into the system of spelling; some of them reflected the sound changes which had been completed or were still in progress in ME; others were graphic replacements of OE letters by new letters and digraphs.

In ME the runic letters passed out of use. Thorn — þ — and the crossed d — ð — were replaced by the digraph th, which retained the same sound value: [θ] and [ð]; the rune “wynn” was displaced by “double u” — w —; the ligatures æ and œ fell into disuse.

After the period of Anglo-Norman dominance (11^th-13^th c.) English regained its prestige as the language of writing, though for a long time writing was in the hands of those who had a good knowledge of French. Therefore many innovations in ME spelling reveal an influence of the French scribal tradition. The digraphs ou, ie, and ch which occurred in many French borrowings and were regularly used in Anglo-Norman texts were adopted as new ways of indicating the sounds [u:], [e:], and [t∫].

Compare the use of these digraphs in some borrowed and native ME words: ME double ['duble] from O Fr double and ME out [u:t] from OE ūt (NE double, out); in NE words soup, group ou also stands for [u:]; ME chief [t|e:f] from French and the native ME thief (NE chief, thief); ME chaumbre ['t∫aumbr∂], chasen [‘t∫a:z∂n] (NE chamber, chase) from French, and native ME child [t|i:ld], ME much [mut|]. The letters j, k, v, and q were probably first used in imitation of French manuscripts. The two-fold use of g and c has survived today, owes its origin to French: these letters usually stood for [d3] and [s] before front vowels and for [g] and [k] before back vowels; cf. ME gentil [d3en’til], mercy [mer’si] and good [go:d], cours [ku:rs] (NE gentle, mercy, good, course).

Other alterations in spelling cannot be traced directly to French influence though they testify to a similar tendency: a wider use of digraphs. In addition to ch, ou, ie, and th mentioned above Late ME notaries introduced sh (also ssh and sch) to indicate the new sibilant [∫], e.g. ME ship (from OE scip), dg to indicate [d3] alongside j and g (before front vowels), e.g. ME edge ['ed3∂], joye [‘d3oi∂] (NE edge, joy); the digraph wh replaced the OE sequence of letters hw as in OE hwæt, ME what [hwat] (NE what). Long sounds were shown by double letters, for instance ME book [bo:k], sonne [‘sunn∂] (NE book, sun), though with vowels this practice was not very regular, e.g. long [e:] could be indicated by ie and ee, and also by e, cf. ME thief [θe:f], feet [fe:t], met∂n [‘me:tan] (NE thief, feet, meet). The introduction of the digraph gh for [x] and [x’] helped to distinguish between the fricatives [x, x’], which were preserved in some positions, and the aspirate [h]; cf. ME knyght [knix’t] and ME he [he:] (NE knight, he); in OE both words were spelt with h: OE cnieht, hē.

Some replacements were probably made to avoid confusion of resembling letters: thus o was employed not only for [o ] but also to indicate short [u] alongside the letter u; it happened when u stood close to n, m, or v, for they were all made up of down strokes and were hard to distinguish in a hand-written text. That is how OE munuc became ME monk, though it was pronounced as [muŋk] and OE lufu became ME love [‘luv∂] (NE monk, love). This replacement was facilitated — if not caused — by the similar use of the letter o in Anglo-Norman.

The letter y came to be used as an equivalent of i and was evidently preferred when i could be confused with the surrounding letters m, n and others. Probably y acquired the new sound value [i, i:] when the OE vowels [y, y:] shown by this letter had changed into [i, i:]. Sometimes, however, y, as well as w, were put at the end of a word for purely ornamental reasons, so as to finish the word with a curve; ME nyne [‘ni:n∂], very [‘veri], my [mi:] (NE nine, very, my). w was interchangeable with u in the digraphs ou, au, e.g. ME doun, down [du:n] and was often preferred finally: ME how [hu:], now [nu:], lawe [‘lau∂], drawen [‘drau∂n] (NE how, now, law, draw).

Table 1

Peculiarities of Middle English Spelling

Letters indicating vowels		Letters indicating consonants
	Single letters
a [a]		c [s] or [k]
y, as well as i [i]		f [f]
o [o] or [u]		g [d3] or [g] j [d3] k [k] s [s] or [z]
		v (often spelt as u) [v] y [j]
	Digraphs
ee [e:] or [ε:]		ch, tch [t∫]
ie [e:]		dg [d3]
oo [o:] or [ב:]		gh [x] or [x’]
ou [u:j or [ou]		qu [kw]
ow [u:] or [ou]		th [θ] or [ð] sh, sch, ssh [∫] wh [hw]

Evolution of the sound system from the 11th to 18th c.

The sound system of the English language has undergone profound changes in the thousand years which have elapsed since the OE period. The changes affected the pronunciation of words, word accentuation, the systems of vowel and consonant phonemes.

The sound changes are grouped into two main stages: Early ME changes, which show the transition from Written OE to Late ME — the age of literary flourishing or “the age of Chaucer” — and Early NE changes, which show the tran­sition from ME to later NE — the language of the 18th and 19th c.

Word Stress in Middle English and Early New English.

In Late ME poetry we find a variety of differently stressed words. Though poetry permits certain fluctuation of word accent, this variety testifies to greater freedom in the position of word stress.

New accentual patterns are found in numerous ME loan-words from French. Probably, when they first entered the English language they retained their original stress — on the ultimate or pen-ultimate syllable. This kind of stress could not be preserved for long. Gradually, as the loan-words were assimilated, the word stress was moved closer to the beginning of the word in line with the English (Germanic) system. This shift is accounted for by what is known as the “recessive” tendency. In disyllabic words the accent moved to the first syllable, so that the resulting pattern conformed to the pattern of native words, e.g. ME vertu [ver’tju:] became NE virtue [‘v∂:t∫∂]. The shift can be shown as follows: s's>'ss (s stands for “syllable”).

In words of three or more syllables the shift of the stress could be caused by the recessive tendency and also by the “rhythmic” tendency, which required a regular alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables. Under the rhythmic tendency, a secondary stress would arise at a distance of one syllable from the original stress. This new stress was either preserved as a secondary stress or else became the only or the principal stress of the word, e.g.

ME recommenden [reko'mend∂n]>NE recommend [,rek∂'mend]— ss'ss>,ss's;

ME disobeien [diso'bei∂n] > NE disobey ['diso'bei] — ss'ss>'ss's.

In many polysyllabic words both tendencies, the recessive and the rhythmic, operated together and brought about several changes. For instance in NE consolation [,kons∂’lei∫n] we find the results of the shift from the final to the preceding syllable [lei] due to the recessive tendency and a secondary stress on the first syllable. In NE possibility the rhythmic factor accounts both for the primary and secondary stresses (the original position of the accent was on the last syllable).

Sometimes the shifting of the word stress should be attributed not only to the phonetic tendencies but also to certain morphological factors. Thus stress was not shifted to the prefixes of many verbs borrowed or built in Late ME and in Early NE, which accords with the OE rule: to keep verb prefixes unstressed, e.g. ME accepten, engendren, presenten, NE accept, engender, present. Cf. NE verbs befall, mistake, forget. Corresponding nouns sometimes, though not always, received the stress on the first syllable: NE 'present n — pre'sent v; 'discord n — dis'cord v. The latter pairs of words show that the role of word accen­tuation has grown: word stress performs a phonological function as it distinguishes a verb from a noun.