2.5. Me consonant changes

The changes in English consonants in ME are represented by two opposite trends: some new sounds developed, while some sounds disappeared.

– Towards the end of OE period new fricatives developed from palatal plosives [k’ and g’] and also from the consonant cluster [sk]. The new phonemes which arose from theses sounds were [C, G and S]. Thus,

[k’] > [C]	cild benc	[CIld] [bFnC]
[sk] > [S]	scip fisc	[SIp] [fIS]
[g’] > [G]	bryche	[bryGF]

– Voiced allophones (positional variants) [v, z, D] of voiceless fricatives [f, s, T] became independent sounds. In OE the language didn’t use them to differentiate the words, but in ME because of their use in French loans and other changes they began to distinguish pairs of words (fan vs. van, seal vs. zeal)

– The English consonants also suffered some losses during the ME period. The fricative [ɣ] was vocalised in EME. As a result of this, a) diphthongs with V-glide developed, eg. OE boha [bOɣa] > ME bowe [bOVq] ‘bow’; b) [V] was lengthened, when it was followed by [ɣ], eg. OE fuhol [fVɣOl] > ME fowl [fHl] ‘fowl’; or c) [ɣ] became the semivowel [w] after [r or l], eg. OE folhian [fOlɣIQn] > ME folwen [fOlwqn] ‘follow’.

– In the clusters [x + a consonant] the voiceless fricative was lost in the beginning of many words in LME: OE hrinh [xrIng] > ME ring [rIng]

– In LME long consonants were shortened.

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Thus, due to the changes in ME:

1. All vowels in unstressed position were levelled.

2. No principally new monophthongs appeared in the system, though four of them [æ], [x:], [y] and [y:] disappeared.

3. The system of OE diphthongs was replaced by a new one consisting of sounds with the glide closer than the nucleus. There were no long diphthongs any more.

4. The OE parallelism between short and long vowels did not exist any more. The length of the vowel depends on their environment.

5. New consonants appeared in ME.

6. The resonance of the fricatives (the voiced or the voiceless nature) became phonemic.

3. Sound changes in New English

The changes that affected the sound system in NE were great and numerous. New sounds appeared ([Z, W, A, N, x]), there occurred positional disappearance ([w] before [r] in write, [k] and [g] before [n] in knee, gnat), different positional sound changes ([aI > eI, aV > L, V > A] etc.)

3.1 Vowel changes in ne

– The Great Vowel Shift

The biggest phonetic change of the period was the Great Vowel Shift, which began early in the 15th c and was completed until the 18th c. All long vowels were raised, and the highest ones were diphthongised. This phonetic process isn't reflected in spelling.

		ME	NE
[u:]	> [aV]	hous [hu:s]	house
[i:]	> [aI]	time [ti:mq]	time
[e:] [F:]	> [i:]	seen [se:n] sea [sF:]	see sea
[o:]	> [u:]	roote [ro:tq]	root
[Q:]	> [eI]	maken [mQ:kqn]	make
[O:]	> [OV]	stone [stO:nq]	stone

– Vocalisation of [r]

One of the most important changes in vowels was caused by the consonant [r] in 16-17th cc. The vocalisation of [r] caused three kinds of change: lengthening, change of quality, and diphthongisation. Short vowels followed by [r] developed into long due to its vocalisation. Sometimes the vowels acquired a new value under the influence of [r].

	ME	NE
[Q+r] > [Q:]	farm [fQrm]	farm
[O+r] > [O:]	hors [hOrs]	horse
[F+r] > [E:]	her [hFr]	her
[I+r] > [E:]	fir [fIr]	fir
[V+r] > [E:]	fur [fVr]	fur

When a long vowel was followed by [r] in a word, the given consonant did not prevent the Great Vowel Shift, but it changed the vowel into a diphthong or a thriphthong.

	ME	NE
[ei+r] > [Fq]	fare [fQ:rq]	fare [feIr] > [fFq]
[i:+r] > [Iq]	here [he:rq]	here [hi:r] > [hIq]
[u:+r] > [Vq]	moor [mo:r]	moor [mu:r] > [mVq]
[aI+r] > [aIq]	fire [fi:rq]	fire [faIr] > [faIq]
[aV+r] > [aVq]	our [u:r]	our [aVr] > [aVq]

– Minor qualitative changes

Round about 1600, ME [F] and [Q] both became closer: the former moved to [e], and the latter to [x], until it was preceded by [w]. In this position it was rounded into [P], unless it was followed by [k], [g] or [N].

	ME	NE
[Q] > [x]	that [TQt]	that [Txt]
[w+Q] > [wP]	was [wQs]	was [wPz]
But:	wax [wQks]	wax [wxks]

In the 17th c. the short vowel [V] became ungrounded [A]. But it often retained unchanged after [b, p, w and f] or before [l] in almost all cases.

[V] > [A]

ME cut [kVt] >

NE cut [kAt]

But: bull, pull, push, full, wolf, etc.

The ME diphthongs with a-nucleus changed in NE.

• [aI] merged with [eI].

• [aV] was contracted to [L]

	ME	NE
[aI] > [eI]	dai [dai]	day [deI]
[aV] > [L]	lawe [laVq]	law [lL]