The oe vowel system
Monophthongs
i: i y y: u u:
e: e o o:
æ: æ a a:
Diphthongs: ea ea eo eo ie ie
Examples: is risan* bedd fet sæt slæpan talu ban hlot locian full
Stream deop hiehst eald eorl ieldra
(*Long vowels are singled out)
In general the quantity of the vowel was not positional. Length and shortness distingwished between the meanings: compare: Zod (god) and Zod (good).
The OE vowel sytem is complicated: some of the vowels are common Germanic whereas the others have changed their quality. So here are some correspondences: Gothic short /a/ corresponds to OE /æ/ : dags – dæZ; Gothic /ai/ corresponds to /a:/ : stains – stan.
OE fracture(преломление) is diphthongization of short vowels before certain consonant clusters:
æld – eald (old), æhta – eahta (eight), herte – heorte (heart)
Here the front vowel is partially assimilated to the following hard consonant by forming a glide.
Palatalisation. OE vowels also change under the influence of the initial palatal consonants /j/, /k’/, /sk’/. As a result the vowel is diphthongized:
Zildan – Zieldan (yield)
Mutation, or Umlaut (перегласовка) is a change of vowel caused by assimilation to the following vowel. (There are 3 types of mutation: i-mutation, back mutation and h-mutation).
The most important is i-mutation. The process began in the 5th-6th centuries and affected practically all vowels.
Fullian > fyllan (fill), wopian > wepan (weep), tællian >tellan
In some cases new phonemes appeared, for example, the phonemes /y/ and /y/.
Contraction (стяжение). In the combination vowel-h-vowel the consonant is dropped and the vowels are contracted into one long vowel.
Sleahan > slean (to slay), seohan > seon (see), fohan > fon (catch)
Lengthening of vowels in certain conditions. In the 9th century vowels were lengthened before the clusters nd, mb, ld.
Bindan > bindan (bind), climban > climban (climb), cild > cild (child)
If the cluster was followed by another consonant, lengthening did not take place, as in cildru.
Consonants in OE.
The OE consonantal system consists of the following sounds:
Labial dental velar
p b m f t d Þ D n s r l c Z h
Some consonant letters denoted different sounds in different positions.
Voicing and unvoicing fricatives. In OE a voiceless fricative is voiced when surrounded by voiced sounds and an initial or final fricative is unvoiced. (OE spelling does not distinguish between voiced and voiceless fricatives).
Wif [f] – wife, wifum , wifa, wifes [v]; wearD [T] – weorDan [D] (was – to be)
Palatalisation. At a very early time the consonant C [k] becomes palatalized before a front vowel and approaches the affricate [C] : [k] >[k'] >[C] as in cild. The last stage could have been approached in Late OE. In a similar way the cluster SC was palatalized and approached [S] at the same time: scip [sk] > [sk'] > [S] .
The same process occurred in the case of Z [g] and cZ [gg]. Before a front vowel and at the end it developed into [G] as in brycZ.
Loss of consonants and other changes. Some consonants changed their quality according to the following formular:
A velar consonant + t > ht, a labial consonant + t >ft, a dental consonant + t > ss
Socte (past tense from secan) > sohte (MnE: seek – sought – sought)
N was lost before fricatives:
Bronhte (past tense from bringan) > brohte (MnE: bring – brought – brought)
munD > muD (MnE: mouth)
Metathesis is a phonetic phenomenon consisting of two sounds exchanging their places.
Dridda > Dirda (third)
First the vowel disappears and r becomes syllabic and then the vowel reappeares on the other side of r.
Stress in OE mostly falls on the first syllable of a word: ' Eoworvicceaster, 'norDweardum. But if the word begins with a prefix, the first root syllable is stressed: of'dune (down), Ze'Deode (language).
General features of phonetic changes. Nearly all phonetic changes (fracture, mutation, palatalisation, loss of consonants, contraction of vowels, etc.) are due to one common principle, that of assimilation. Thus, the general tendency in OE phonetics is that various parts of a word coalesce into a closer unit.