2.4. Old English Dialects and Written Records

There were four main dialects on the territory of Britain: Northumbrian, spoken by Angles who lived North of Humber, Mercian, spoken by Angles between the Humber and the Thames, some West-Saxon dialects, spoken by the Saxons South of the Thames (the most important of them is the Wessex dialect), Kentish, the language of the Jutes.

The rise of Wessex as a political power in the IX c. had its consequences for the West-Saxon dialect: it became the dominating literary language of the epoch.

The West-Saxon dialect is represented by the works of King Alfred (lived 849-900), both original compositions and translations of Latin texts, by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (up to 891), works of the Abbot Ælfric (X c.) and sermons of Wulfstan (early XI c.).

The Northumbrian dialect is represented by the Runic texts of the Ruthwell Cross and Frank’s Casket, translation of the gospels, «Caedmon’s Hymn» and «Bede’s Dying Song».

The Mercian dialect is represented by translations of the Psalter (IX c) and hymns.

The Kentish dialect is represented by Translation of Psalms L-LXX and old charters.

2.5. Some Phonetic Changes of the Old English Period

2.5.1. Vowels

There were seven short and seven long monophthongs and four short and four long diphthongs in OE:

Short monophthongs: i, e, u, o, a, æ, y, å

Long monophthongs: ī, ē, ū, ō, ā, ǣ, ӯ

Short diphthongs: ea, eo, io, ie.

Long diphthongs: ēa, ēo, īo, īe.

In most cases īo was a variant of ēo, æ was substituted for a in closed syllables (bæd -asked) and in open syllables with a front vowel in the next syllable (dæʒes - of the day).

In OE the system of stressed vowels underwent changes which resulted in the appearance of new phonemes and their allophones. Nearly all OE phonetic changes – fracture, mutation, palatalization, loss of consonants and contraction of vowels – appear due to one common principle, that of assimilation.

2.5.2. Old English Breaking

Breaking is diphthongization of front vowels before h, l, r + another consonant or before final h. Breaking is dated in Early OE, for in OE texts we find the process already completed. The front vowels e, æ, ǣ were involved in this process.

e > eo before l + a consonant: *melcan > meolcan (to milk)

before r + a consonant: *herte > heorte (heart)

before h final: *feh > feoh (cattle, property)

æ > ea before l + a consonant: æld > eald (old)

before r + a consonant: *ærm > earm (arm)

before h + a consonant: *æhta > eahta (eight)

ǣ > ēa before h final *nǣh > nēah (cattle)

Fracture is most consistently carried out in the West Saxon dialect.