- •Contents
- •List of abbreviations
- •Preface
- •Introduction
- •Germanic languages
- •Classification of germanic languages
- •Ancient germanic tribes and their classification
- •Germanic alphabets
- •Some phonetic peculiarities of germanic languages
- •Consonants
- •The First Consonant Shift (Grimm’s Law)
- •Ііі. Act The ie aspirated voiced plosives bh, dh, gh changed in Gc to corresponding unaspirated plosives b, d, g, e.G.
- •Verner`s Law
- •Word – Stress
- •Stressed vowels
- •Germanic Fracture (Breaking)
- •Gradation or Ablaut
- •Unstressed Vowels
- •Grammatical peculiarities of germanic languages
- •The Noun
- •The Adjective
- •The Verb
- •Gothic Strong Verbs
- •Vocabulary
- •Old english
- •2.1. Periods in the History of English
- •2.2. Historical Background
- •2.2.1. The Roman Conquest of Britain
- •2.2.2. The Anglo-Saxon Conquest of Britain
- •2.3. Alphabet and Pronunciation
- •Old English Alphabet
- •2.4. Old English Dialects and Written Records
- •2.5. Some Phonetic Changes of the Old English Period
- •2.5.1. Vowels
- •2.5.2. Old English Breaking
- •2.5.3. Palatal Mutation (I-mutation)
- •Monophthongs
- •Diphthongs
- •2.5.4. Back or Velar Mutation (Velarization)
- •2.5.5. Diphthongization of Vowels after Palatal Consonants
- •2.5.6. Lengthening of Short Vowels
- •2.5.7. Unstressed Vowels
- •2.5.8. Consonants
- •2.5.9. Palatalization of Velar Consonants
- •2.5.10. Assimilation, Metathesis, Doubling of Consonants, Loss of Consonants
- •2.6. Old English Morphology
- •2.6.1. Old English Noun: General Characteristics
- •Vowel Stems
- •Consonant Stems
- •2.6.2. Vowel Stems Strong Declension
- •2.6.3. Consonant Stems: Weak Declension, Minor Declensions
- •2.6.4. Root-Stems
- •2.6.5. Pronouns
- •2.6.5.1. Personal Pronouns
- •2.6.5.2. Demonstrative Pronouns
- •Declension of the Demonstrative Pronoun þes
- •2.6.6. Adjectives
- •2.6.6.1. Strong Declension of Adjectives
- •2.6.6.2. Weak Declension of Adjectives
- •2.6.6.3. Degrees of Comparison
- •2.6.7. Adverbs
- •2.6.7.1. Formation of Adverbs
- •2.6.7.2. Comparison of Adverbs
- •2.6.8. The Verb: General Characteristics
- •Conjugation of verbs
- •2.6.8.1. Strong Verbs
- •2.6.8.2. Weak Verbs
- •Conjugation of Weak Verbs
- •2.6.8.3. Preterite-Present Verbs
- •Conjugation of Preterite - Present verbs
- •2.6.8.4. Anomalous verbs
- •Conjugation of the verb dōn
- •Indicative mood
- •2.6.8.5. Suppletive Verbs
- •Conjugation of the verb bēon
- •Indicative mood
- •Conjugation of the verb ʒān
- •Indicative mood
- •2.7. Old English Syntax
- •2.8. The Old English Vocabulary
- •2.8.1. Word-Building
- •Suffixation
- •Prefixation
- •Composition
- •2.8.2. Borrowings
- •Latin borrowings
- •Celtic Borrowings
- •Middle english
- •3.1. Historical Background
- •3.1.1. Scandinavian Invasions
- •3.1.2. The Norman Conquest
- •3.2. Middle English Dialects Rise of the London Dialect
- •3.3. Early Middle English Written Records
- •3.4. Word Stress
- •3.5. Vowels
- •3.5.1. Unstressed Vowels
- •3.5.2. Stressed vowels
- •3.5.2.1. Quantitative Vowel Changes
- •3.5.2.2. Qualitative Vowel Changes
- •Monophthongs
- •3.5.2.3. Monophthongization of Old English Diphthongs
- •3.5.2.4. Rise of New Diphthongs
- •3.6. Evolution of Consonants in Middle English
- •3.7. Spelling Changes in Middle English
- •3.7.1. Changes in the Designation of Vowels
- •3.7.2. Changes in the designation of Consonants
- •3.8. Changes in the Grammatical System
- •3.8.1. Preliminary Remarks
- •3.8.2. The Noun
- •3.8.2.1. Gender
- •3.8.2.2. Number
- •3.8.2.3. Decay of Noun Declensions
- •3.8.3. The Adjective
- •3.8.3.1. Declension of Adjectives in Late Middle English
- •3.8.3.2. Degrees of Comparison
- •3.8.4. Adverbs
- •3.8.4.1. Formation of Adverbs
- •3.8.4.2. Comparison of Adverbs
- •3.8.5. The Pronoun
- •3.8.5.1. Personal Pronouns
- •3.8.5.2. Possessive pronouns
- •3.8.5.3. Demonstrative Pronouns
- •3.8.5.4. Rise of the Articles
- •3.8.6. The Verb: General Characteristics
- •Conjugation of Verbs
- •Conjugation of Verbs Past Indicative
- •3.8.5.1. Changes in the Morphological Classes of Verbs in Middle English and Early New English
- •3.8.6.1. Strong Verbs
- •3.8.6.2. Weak Verbs
- •3.8.6.3. Preterite-present Verbs
- •3.8.6.4. Suppletive verbs
- •Conjugation of the verb bēon in Old English, Middle English and Early New English
- •Conjugation of the verb bēon in Old English, Middle English and Early New English
- •Conjugation of the verb ʒān in Old English, Middle English and Early New English
- •Conjugation of the verb ʒān in Old English, Middle English and Early New English
- •3.8.6.5. Rise of Analytical Forms
- •Future Forms
- •Perfect Forms
- •Passive Forms
- •Continuous Forms
- •3.8.7. Development of the Syntactic System
- •3.9. Middle English Vocabulary Changes
- •3.9.1. Native Derivational Affixes
- •3.9.2. French Derivational Affixes
- •3.9.3. Scandinavian Borrowings
- •3.9.4. French Borrowings
- •New english
- •4.1. The formation of the English National Language
- •4.2. Changes in Pronunciation
- •4.2.1. Development of Unstressed Vowels
- •4.2.1.1. Loss of unstressed –e [ə]
- •4.2.1.2. Loss of Vowels in Intermediate Syllables
- •4.2.2. Stressed Vowels
- •4.2.2.1. The Great Vowel Shift
- •4.2.2.2. Shortening of Long Vowels
- •4.2.2.3. Development of Short Vowels
- •4.2.2.4. The Development of the New Short [л]
- •4.2.2.5. Changes in Diphthongs
- •4.2.2.6. Vowel Changes under the Influence of Consonants
- •4.2.3. Consonants
- •4.2.3.1. Voicing of Voiceless Consonants
- •4.2.3.2. Loss of Consonants Development of [X]
- •Simplification of Consonant Clusters
- •4.2.3.3. Change of [d] to [ð] when Close to [r]
- •4.2.3.4. Development of Sibilants and Affricates in Early New English
- •4.3. Changes in Spelling
- •4.4. Local Dialects in New English
- •4.4.1. Scottish Dialect
- •4.4.2. Northern Dialects
- •4.4.3. Western, Central and Southern Dialects
- •4.5. Some Essential Grammatical Changes of the New English Period: Morphology
- •4.5.1. The Noun
- •4.5.1.1. Number
- •4.5.1.2. Cases
- •4.5.2. The Pronoun
- •4.5.2.1. Personal Pronouns
- •4.5.2.2. Possessive Pronouns
- •4.5.3. The Adjective
- •4.5.4. The Adverb
- •4.5.5. The Verb
- •4.5.5.1. Personal Endings
- •4.5.5.2. Changes in Strong Verbs
- •4.5.5.3. Changes in Weak Verbs
- •4.5.5.4. Rise of Invariable Verbs
- •4.5.5.5. Changes in Preterite-Present Verbs
- •4.5.5.6. Irregular Verbs
- •4.6. New English Syntax
- •4.7. New English Vocabulary Changes
- •4.7.1. Latin Loanwords
- •4.7.2. Latinization of French Loanwords
- •4.7.3. Greek loanwords
- •4.7.4. French Loanwords
- •4.7.5. Mixed vocabulary of New English
- •4.7.6. Italian and Spanish Loanwords
- •4.7.7. Russian Loanwords
- •4.8. The Expansion of English
- •4.9. The English Language in the usa
- •4.9.1. Some peculiarities of American Pronunciation
- •4.9.2. American Spelling
- •4.9.3. Some peculiarities of American Grammar
- •4.9.4. Vocabulary of American English
- •Conclusion
- •Bibliography
4.2.3.3. Change of [d] to [ð] when Close to [r]
In the XVc. the consonant [d] changed into [ð] in the neighbouhood of [r], e. g.
ME fader > NE father, ME moder > NE mother, ME weder > NE weather, ME gadere > NE gather
A similar change of [t] > [θ] occurs in autour > author.
4.2.3.4. Development of Sibilants and Affricates in Early New English
In the XVII c. new sibilants and affricates developed from the combinations sj, zj, tj, dj in French loanwords after the stress from the ultimate or penultimate syllable moved closer to the beginning of the word. This change took place mostly after stressed vowels, e.g.
sj > ʃME description [des΄kripsjen] > NE [dis΄kripən]
zj > ʒ ME pleasure [΄plezjer] > NE [΄pleʒə], ME decision [də΄sizjen] > NE [di΄siʒən]
tj > ʧME nature [΄neitjər] > NE [΄neitə], ME picture [΄piktjer] > NE [΄piktə]
dj > dʒ ME soldier [΄souldjer] > NE [΄souldʒə], procedure [prose΄dju:rə] > NE [prə΄si:dʒə]
Three of these sounds [, t, dʒ] merged with phonemes already existing in English, while the fourth, [z], made a new phoneme. Now the four sounds formed a well-balanced system of two correlated pairs: - ʒ, t - dʒ.
The same consonant clusters remained in stressed syllables, e.g. mature [mə΄tjuə], duty [΄dju:ti].
In some ModE words, we still find the clusters with [j] in unstressed position. Usually they are secondary variants in British or American English, e.g. issue [′isju:].
According to A.C.Gimson, in the case of t, d + u both variants may be heard, e.g. actual [΄æktuəl] - [΄æktjuəl], educate [΄edʒukeit] – [΄edjukeit].
4.3. Changes in Spelling
The introduction of printing at the beginning of the New English period greatly contributed to the unification and fixation of English spelling. Begun by Caxton in the last quarter of the XV c. this process practically ended in the first half of XVIII century, after which the orthography altered but little.
In general, the spelling changes during the New English period were less radical than the ones of the Middle English period. Very many words in ModE are spellt in the same way as they were by Caxton, nearly five centuries ago.
In fact, most phonetic changes of the NE period did not reflect on spelling, which accounts a good deal for the present discrepancy between spoken and written English.
The phonetic change, which had the most disturbing effect upon the spelling of that period, was the loss of ME [ə] (written e).
In many cases the letter e disappeared as well as the sound, e.g. ME sone > NE son, ME nute > NE nut
In many other cases the letter remained, though the sound disappeared, e.g. name, write, love.
The letter e in a final position came to be regarded as a sign indicating the length of a preceding vowel, e.g. hat – hate, bit – bite.
It was added in such capacity to many a word which had never before had the letter, e.g.
ME stoon (< OE stān) > NE stone, ME mis (< OE mӯs) > NE mice, ME to (< OE tā) > NE toe.
The addition or retention of the so-called silent e was often quite superfluous or even misleading. Thus, the ME hous showed quite plainly that the vowel was long and the addition of e in NE house was unnecessary. The retention of e after v in such words as live, give, have is misleading as it conceals the difference in the vowels of live [liv] and alive [ə΄laiv], have [hæv] and behave [bi΄heiv], etc.
In the XVI c.new digraphs oa and ea were introduced to represent the long open [ǭ] and [ ], e.g.
ME rood > NE road, ME boot > NE boat, ME se > NE sea, ME deel > NE deal.
It was an improvement on ME spelling which had mostly made no difference in representing [ ] and [ǭ], [ ] and [ ].
Most double consonants preceding the final weak [ə] were simplified after the loss of the latter, e.g.
ME lette >NE let, ME stoppe > NE stop, ME dogge > NE dog, ME sunne > NE sun.
The combinations of ss, ff, ll, ck (kk) were, however, retained, e.g.
ME kisse > NE kiss, ME stuffe > NE stuff, ME pulle > NE pull, ME locke > NE lock.
Moreover, these combinations were transferred to other words with originally a single final letter, e.g.
ME glas > NE glass, ME staf > NE staff, ME small > NE small, ME sik > NE sick.
Medially, all consonants were usually doubled after a short vowel, just as a sign that the vowel was short, e.g.
ME super > NE supper, felow > NE fellow, ME sumer > NE summer, ME bery > NE berry, ME matere > NE matter.
The written forms of many a word, especially those borrowed from French, were altered to make their Latin or Greek origin more obvious to the eye. Thus, the letter b was inserted in ME dette (> debt), doute (> doubt), under the influence of Latin «debitum and dubitare». French «rhithme» changed to rhythm under the influence of Latin «rhythmus». The spelling school replaced scool to conform to Latin schola.
Not infrequently, the supposed connection with Latin was false. The s in island, e.g., is due to false association with Latin insula, whereas it is a native English word, ME īland < OE īʒland, īʒ denoting «island».