4. The system of consonants.

Old English consonantism consisted of the following phonemes:

stops	t	p	k
voiced stops	d	b	g
fricatives	f	s	h	T
voiced fricatives	v	z	D
sonants	m	n	l	r
semi–vowels	w	j

Pronunciation of consonants:

Fricatives were breathed in the initial and final position; voiced in the medial position: faran, ofer, xfre, cnif.

Z	g –	before back vowels:	Zōd
	j –	before a palatal and after a front vowel:	Ziet, dxZ
	γ –	(Cf. Ukranian Г)	fuZol, draZan, sorZ, folZian
h	h –	pharingal	hrof, habban
	x –	palatalized	niht, ryht

There is no example of ‘h’ in an intervocal position.

5. Changes in the system of consonants.

The following changes took place in the system of Old English consonants: voicing of consonants according to Verner’s law. A breathed consonant became voiced if it was accompanied by a stressed vowel:

• s – z – r (z – r: rhotacizm) e.g. OE wxs – wxron NE to lose – forlorn

• T – D – d e.g. NE to seethe – sodden

• h – Z e.g. OE slean – sloh – sloZon – sleZen

• hw – w e.g. seon – seahw – sawon – sewen

Gemination. It’s doubling of the final root-consonant that went along with i-mutation.

e.g.	Goth	OE
	saljan	sellan
	taljan	tellan

Assimilation and Dropping of Consonants.

k, g	- ht e.g.	maZan – meathe	sciepan – sceaft
p, p + dental	- ft	þincan – þohte	libban – lifde
dental	- ss	witan – wisse
s + dental	- st	*mōtan – mōste
fm	- mm	wifman – wimman
fn	-m	antefn – anthem

Dropping of nasals.

n dropped before h, f, s, þ
e.g.		bringen – brohte
		þincan – pohte
	Germ.	Ganse – gōs, Zahn - tōþ	NE goose, tooth
		funf – fīf	NE five
k/Z dropped before dental
e.g.		makjan – made (though it was often kept)
		sxcZan – sxde	NE said;
		mxZden – mxden	NE maiden

Palatalisation.

c before front vowels changed into [tS] ch

e.g. cild – child; ceap – cheap

sc became palatal before every vowel in initial positions [S] sh

e.g. sceal – shall

Z and cZ in final position before front vowels palatalized into [dZ] dg

e.g. brycZ, hrycZ, wecZ – bridge, ridge, wedge

Palatalisation completed in Middle English.