1. Linguistic features of Germanic languages: vowels.

G l-s have some peculiarities in the sphere of vowel sounds, which distinguish them from other IE languages. After all changes in Late PG the vowel system contained the following sounds:

Short: i e a o u ; Long: i: e: a: o: u:

Indo-European short o and a appear as short a:

IE Germanic

Russ. Яблоко/ Germ. Apfel

Lat. Noctem/ Goth. Nahts

Russ.ночь /germ. Nacht

Indo-European long o and a appear as long o:

IE Germanic IE Germanic

Lat. Frater/ goth. Broar /lat. Flos /OE bloma

As a result of these changes, there was neither short o nor long a in Germanic languages. Later on these sounds appeared from different sources. Stress (1^st syllable). I-mutation

a  o  æ 	E (Baddi-bedd)
a: 	æ:
ŏ/ō 	ĕ/ē
ŭ/ū 	ŷ/ỹ (new!)
ĕă/ēā  ĕŏ/ēō 	ĭě/īē (new!) (ealdira-ieldra)

gradation or ablaut- root vowel change in strong verbs etc.

2. Spelling changes in ME and NE. Rules of reading. (ME resembled to today’s lang). After the period of Anglo-Norman dominance (11^th–13^thc.) English regained its prestige as the lang-ge of writing. Though for a long time writing was in the hands of those who had a good knowledge of French (French influenced). In ME some letters passed out of use.

þ , ð – were replaced by the digraph th, which retained the same sound value: [Ө] and [ð];

ou – long u (hus (house)) ie, ei – long e (brief)

ch – тч sh (ssh and sch) (ME ship (OE scip)),

dg to indicate [dз], j, g; z (g, y) wh - hw (what [hwat]).

G [dз] and с[s] before front vowels but

[g] and [k] before back vowels.

Y stands for [j] at the beginning of words, otherwise, it is an equivalent of the letter i, (yet [jet], knyght [knix’t]).

Long sounds - double letters ( ME book [bo:k]).

y - long i (ME very [veri]),

ow - long u (down)

in NE [u] changed to [Λ]. It follows that the letter o stood for [u] in those ME words which contain [Λ] today, otherwise it indicates [o].

3. Linguistic features of Germanic languages: consonants.

The consonants in Germanic look ‘shifted’ as compared with the consonants of non-Germanic Ls. The changes of consonants in PG were first formulated in terms of a phonetic Grimm’s Law (consonant shift). Grimm’s Law had 3 acts:

1. [p], [t], [k] -> voiceless fricatives [f], [th], [x]; (pater-fadar)

2. [b], [d], [g] -> voiceless stops [p], [t], [k]; (duo-twai)

3. aspirated [bh], [dh], [gh] ->voiced [b], [d], [g]. (bhratar-druder)

Verner’s Law explains some correspondences of consonants which contradicted Grimm’s. All the early PG voiceless fricatives [f,,h], s, became voiced between vowels if the preceding vowel was unstressed: f → b,  → d, s → z and h → g.

4. Me phonetics: vowel (reduction, shortening/lengthening,

development of OE monophthongs in ME).

In the ME period a great change affected the entire system of vowel phonemes. Pronunciation of unstressed syllables became indistinct: OE [e/i], [a], [o/u] – ME [i] and [ə]

Shortening - a long vowel occurring before 2 consonants is shortened.. However, long vowels remain long before the ‘lengthening’ consonant groups ld, nd, mb, (child).

Monophthongization of OE Diphthongs – all OE diphthongs were monophthongized in ME.

OE [ea] -> a, as in eald – ald ‘old’, healf – half.