35. Early Modern English Changes of Consonants

In many cases the change is resulted in the loss of consonants in certain

positions.

The sound I is lost in combinations before k, m , f v

talk; walk; stalk; folk; chalk

palm, calm, qualm, psalm (but not in helm, elm)

half, calf (but wolf, elf)

halves (but silver).

Some of these words, however, preserve the sound in the American

variant of the English language.

The sound I was preserved in the words of Latin origin such as resolve,

dissolve etc.

It was also lost after a vowel before d in should, could, would

The sound b was dropped in combinnation mb when at the end of the

word and not followed by another consonant: lamb; climb; tomb; comb;

numb; bomb

n - in combination mn autumn; solemn; column

t - in combinations stl, stn, ftn, stm and ktl - castle; whistle;

thistle; fa sten ;listen ;g listen ; often; soften; Christmas;

postman; exactly; directly

k - in combination ski — muscle

The consonants were lost in such initial clusters:

g and k in gn, kn:

knight; knee; know; knave; knack, knock; knead, knife

gnat; gnaw; gnarl; gnome

w before a consonant (mainly r) was lost at the beginning of the

words:

wreath; write; wrong; wreck; wrestle; wretched; wring;

wrinkle; wrist

and in unstressed syllables after a consonant in such words as

answer; conquer; chequer; laquer; Southwark; Berwick;

Chiswick; Greenwich; Norwich; Warwick,

and also in such words as sword; two; towards.

The sound h disppeared in many unstressed syllables (save for American

variant of the language where in some cases it is preserved) - forehead;

shepherd; perhaps; Chatham; Nottingham, Birmingham, Brougham

[bru:m].

Qualitative change of consonants is illustrated by voicing of fricatives

(when the preceding vowels was unstressed):

s —> z: dessert; resemble; possess; dissolve; example; exhibit;

anxiety; luxurious (in the words luxury, anxious and

exhibition, where the preceding vowel is stressed, at least has

a secondary stress they are not voiced)

/ —≫ v: o f (but adverb off is usually stressed, and the sound is not voiced)

t f —> cfj: knowledge; Greenwich; Norwich.

36. Nominal Parts of Speech in Early Modern English

In late modern English the ending –es was the prevalent marker of nouns in the plural. In early New English it extended to more nouns- to the new words appearing in English vocabulary, to many words of other way of plural formation or which employed –es as just of the variant endings.

Thus, we see that the complicated noun paradigm that existed in Old English was greatly simplified in Middle English, which is reflected in the following:

1. reduction of the number of declensions.

2. reduction of the number of grammatical categories

3. reduction of the number of categorial forms within one of two remaining grammatical categories- the category of number.

The plural ending –es underwent several phonetic changes: the voicing of fricatives and the loss of unstressed vowels in the final syllables.

The Middle English plural ending –en lost its former productivity and is found nowdays only in oxen, children and brothren, poetic kine (cow). (Children and brothren in Old English belonged to the es-stems with –ru in the plural.)

The small group of Middle English nouns with homonymous forms of the singular and plural has been reduced to three “exceptions” in Modern English: deer, sheep, and swine.

The group of former root-stems has survived as exceptions man, tooth and the like.

The nouns wife-wives and the like have retained consonant interchange.

Now a few words about exception tooth- teeth. In Old English plural ending was –i: tōp- tōp+i. Letter ō compared to the ending –i: top > tēp > tēth > teeth

Also the words foot- feet, goose- geese.

All modern irregular noun forms are according to their origin.