Seminar 2

The Old English Period:

OE Phonetics

1. OE Word Stress.

2. OE Vowel System.

3. Changes of OE Vowels:

a) Changes of Stressed Vowels in Early Old English:

- Independent Changes;

- Accommodation of OE Vowels (breaking and diphthongisation);

- Palatal Mutation.

b) Changes of Unstressed Vowels.

4. OE Consonant System.

5. Changes of Consonants in Early OE:

a) Treatment of Fricatives (Hardening, Rhotacism, Voicing and Devoicing);

b) West Germanic Gemination of Consonants.

6. Changes of Velar Consonants.

7. Loss of Consonants.

LITERATURE

A) Principal:

1. Історія англійської мови / Навчальний посібник для самостійної роботи студентів-філологів, що вивчають англійську мову як фах. – Полтава, 2002. – C. 30-40.

2. Rastorgueva T.A. A History of English. – M., 1983. – Chapter VIII (P.74-90).

3. Иванова И.П., Беляева Т.М., Чахоян Л.П. Практикум по истории английского языка. – СПб, 2000. – С 4-25.

B) Supplementary:

1. Аракин В.Д. История английского языка: Учеб. пособие для студентов пед. ин-тов. – М.: Просвещение, 1985. – Глава II. – С.31-45.

2. Залесская. Л.Д. Пособие по истории английского языкадля заочных отделений факультетов английского языка педагогических институтов. – М., 1984.–С. 20-23.

3. Иванова И.П., Чахоян Л.П., Беляева Т.М. История английского языка. – СПб., 1999. –С. 50-68.

4. Ильиш Б.А. История английского языка. (На англ. яз.). Учебник для студентов фак. иностр. яз. пед. ин-тов. – Л., 1972. – C. 44-56.

Practice assignment

1. Pronounce the following words:

hliehhan ‘to laugh’, lÿþerlic ‘bad’, 3eong ‘young’, eald ‘old’, twë3en ‘two’, fëower ‘four’, fïf ‘five’, fïfum ‘five (dat.), eahta ‘eight’, ni3on ‘nine’, niht ‘night’, mor3en ‘morning’, dæ3 ‘day’, da3un3 ‘dawn’, morðor ‘murder’, scüfan ‘to push, to shove’, cyssan ‘to kiss’, cÿðð ‘kinship’.

2. Account for the difference between the vowels in OE þæt, moon and eal, all going back to PG words with [a] (cf Gt þata, manna, alls).

3. What consonant and vowel changes are illustrated by the following pairs of words:

Gt maiza – OE māra (NE more); Gt kunþian – OE cўðan (OE ‘inform’); Gt dauþs – OE dēad (NE dead), Gt salian – OE sellan (NE sell); OE mæ3den, mǽden (NE maiden); Gt kinnus – OE cinn (NE chin)?

Helpful Information

The Old English Vowels

OE	Gothic	Description; Position; Pronunciation	Examples
a	a	Short back vowel; Mainly in open syllables, when the following one contains a back vowel; English cup	macian (to make), habban (to have)
á	ai	Long back vowel; In any kind of syllables; English star	stán(a stone), hátan (to call)
æ	a	Short back vowel; Met mainly in closed syllables, or in open ones, if the next syllable contains a front vowel; English bad	dæg(a day), wæter (water)
æ'	é, á	Long back vowel; as Gothic é found only in some verbal forms, as Gothic á is the result of the so-called i-mutation; German za"hlen	stæ'lon(stolen), hæ'lan (to cure)
e	i, ai, a	Short front vowel; as Gothic i, ai noticed only in some infinitives, otherwise is result of the mutation of i; English bed	sengean (to sing)
é	ó	Long front vowel; resulted from the i-mutation of ó; German Meer	déman (to judge)
i	i, ie	Short front vowel; can be either stable or unstable, the unstable sound can interchange with ie and y; English still	bindan(to bind), niht- nyht (a night)
í	ie	Long front vowel; also stable and unstable (mutating to ý); English steal	wrítan (to write), hí - hý (they)
o	u, au	Short back vowel; English cost	coren (chosen)
ó	o	Long back vowel; English store	scóc (divided)
u	u, au	Short back vowel; used only when the next syllable contains another back vowel; English book	curon (they chose)
ú	ú	Long back vowel; English stool	lúcan (to look)
y	u	Short front vowel; i-mutation of u; German fu"nf	gylden (golden)
ý	ú	Long front vowel; i-mutation of ú, German glu"hen	mýs (mice)
a.	o	A special short sound met only before nasals in closed syllables	monn (a man)