2. Voicing and Unvoicing of Fricatives

In OE a voiceless fricative surrounded by voiced sounds (vowels, voiced consonants) became voiced, and a voiced fricative in a final position was unvoiced. OE spelling does not distinguish between voiced and voiceless fricatives, so that the two cases are graphically indistinguishable.

[f] > [v]:	wulf, wulfas (wolf- wolves)
[θ] > [ð], [ð] > [θ]:	bǣþ, baþian (bath, to bathe) weorþan, wearþ (to become; I/he became)
[g] > [h]:	flēogan, flēah (to fly; I/he flew)
[s] > [z]:	græs, grasu; grasian (grass, grasses; to graze)

C. Loss of Consonants

1. n was lost before h, f, s, þ; the preceding vowel became lengthened:

   bringan - * bronhte >	brōhte (to bring – brought)
   * finf >	fīf (five; Germ. fünf)
   * gons >	gōs (goose; Germ. Gans)
   * munþ >	mūþ (mouth; Germ. Mund)

2. The cluster fn often becomes mn by assimilation:

stefn > stemn (voice)

A similar change fm > mm occurred in the word wifman > wimman (woman)

3. The consonant d becomes t when followed or preceded by a voiceless consonant:

bindan – bindst (2^nd p., sg, pres.) > bintst

4. The cluster dþ chanded into t:

bindan – bindþ (3^rd p., sg, pres.) > bint

5. The sound h was lost between vowels:

* sehan > * seohan > sēon (to see)

6. The palatal sound g was occasionally dropped before d and n, the preceding vowel was lengthened:

sægde >	sæde (said)
frignan >	frīnan (to ask)

3. Metathesis

It is a phonetic change which consists in two sounds exchanging their places. It usually affected the consonant r and the vowel in the following words:

Þridda >	Þirda (third)
rinnan >	irnan, iernan (run)
græs >	gærs (grass)

Occasionally metathesis affected other sounds as well, e.g. āscian > āxian (to ask).

IV. Word Stress

According to the Germanic Stress Rule (GSR) the first syllable of the word must be accented. Old English generally has initial stress; but not simply word-initial, as was the case in Early Proto –Germanic. OE stress falls on the first syllable of a simple word. Words beginning with a prefix have their stress either on the prefix or on the root syllable: ‘the OE version of the GSR appears to ‘skip’ certain kinds of prefixes’ [Lass 1997], e.g.:

'æf-þanca (offence) –	of-'þyncan (to displease)
'an-ginn (beginning) –	on-'ginnan (to begin)
'bi- genga (inhabitant) –	be-'gān (to occupy)
'in-stæpe (entrance) –	in-'stæppan (to enter)

It looks at first as if noun and adjective prefixes are stressed, and verb prefixes unstressed. But not always, e.g. the words 'inn-gangan (to enter), 'and-swarian (to answer) are verbs with stressed prefixes; and words be-'bod (command), for-'gifness (forgiveness) are nouns with unstressed prefixes.

There are at least three criteria, which make the situation a bit clearer:

• If the first element is an independent adverb (inn, æfter) it is stressed.

• If a prefixed verb derives from an initial-stressed noun, the stress-pattern of the noun remains intact: and-swarian < and-swaru.

• If a noun is derived from a verb with an unstressed prefix, the stress-pattern of the verb remains: be-'bod < be-'boden, for-'gifness < for-'gifan.