- •Module 2 old english historical background. Old english phonetics
- •Periods in the history of English
- •2. Old English historical background
- •3. The dialects in Old English
- •4. Old English alphabet and pronunciation
- •Old English Alphabet
- •5. Old English phonetics
- •5.1. Word stress
- •5.2. The system of Old English sounds
- •5.3. Basic phonetic changes in Old English
- •5.3.1. Changes of vowels
- •Splitting of [a] and [a:] in Early Old English
- •5.3.1.2. Development of Diphthongs
- •Old English Reflexes of Proto-Germanic Diphthongs
- •5.3.1.3. Oe breaking (fracture)
- •5.3.1.4. Palatalization
- •5.3.1.5. Mutation, or Umlaut
- •Palatal mutation
- •5.3.2. Consonant changes in oe
- •5.3.2.1. West Germanic gemination of consonants
- •5.3.2.2. Loss of Consonants in Some Positions
- •Old English consonant system
- •Table 2.4 Old English Consonants
- •6. Conclusions: Phonological status of oe sounds
- •I. Phonemics of oe consonants
- •II. Phonemics of oe vowels
5.3.2. Consonant changes in oe
5.3.2.1. West Germanic gemination of consonants
In all WG languages most consonants were lengthened after a short vowel before [j]. This process is known as WG “gemination” or “doubling” of consonants, as the resulting long consonants are indicated by means of double letters, e.g.: *fuljan > OE fyllan ‘fill’; *sætjan > OE settan ‘set’, cf. Gt satjan.
The change did not affect the sonorant [r], e.g. OE werian ‘wear’; nor did it operate if the consonant was preceded by a long vowel, e.g. OE dēman, mētan ‘deem’, ‘meet’ – the earlier forms of these words contained [j], which had caused palatal mutation but had not led to the lengthening of consonants (the reconstruction of pre-written forms *mōtjan and *dōmjan is confirmed by OS motian and Goth domjan).
5.3.2.2. Loss of Consonants in Some Positions
Comparison with other OG languages, especially Gothic and O Icel, has revealed certain instances of the loss of consonants in WG and Early OE.
Nasal sonorants were regularly lost before fricative consonants; in the process the preceding vowel was probably nasalised and lengthened. Cf.: Gt fimf, O Icel fim, OHG fimf – OE fif ‘five’, Gt uns, OHG uns – OE ūs ‘us’.
Fricative consonants could be dropped between vowels and before some plosive consonants; these losses were accompanied by a compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel or the fusion of the preceding and succeeding vowel into a diphthong, cf. OE sēon, which corresponds to Goth saihwan, OE slēan “slay”, Goth slahan, G. schlagen, OE sæde and sæ:de ‘said’.
We should also mention the loss of semi-vowels and consonants in unstressed final syllables. [j] was regularly dropped in suffixes after producing various changes in the root: palatal mutation of vowels, lengthening of consonants after short vowels. The loss of [w] is seen in some case forms of nouns : Nom. trēo, Dat. trēowe “tree”; Nom. sǽ, Dat. sǽwe “sea”, cf. Goth triwa, saiws.
Old English consonant system
Table 2.4 shows the system of OE consonants in the 9th and 10th c.
Table 2.4 Old English Consonants
Place of articulation
Manner of articulation |
Labial, labio-dental |
Fore-lingual (dental) |
Medio-lingual (palatal) |
Back lingual (velar) |
|
Noise consonants |
plosive voiceless voiced |
p p: b b: |
t t: d d: |
k’ k’: g’: |
k k: g g: |
fricative voiceless voiced |
f f: v |
: s s: ð z |
x’ x’: γ’ (j) |
x x: (h) γ |
|
Sonorants |
m m: w |
n n: r l |
j |
(η) |
The system consisted of several correlated sets of consonants. All the consonants fell into noise consonants and sonorants. The noise consonants were subdivided into plosives and fricatives; plosives were further differentiated as voiced and voiceless; in this set, however, sonority was merely a phonetic difference between allophones. Cf. OE pin – bin, where the difference in sonority is phonemically relevant, and OE hlāf [f] – hlāford [v], where the difference is positional: the consonant is voiced intervocally and voiceless finally (incidentally, voiced and voiceless fricatives were not distinguished in OE spelling).