III. Changes in Consonants.

1. The spelling ђ and ð for the sounds [Ө] and [ð] were gradually super­- seded by the digraph th: thus for OE ђis, three for OE ђreo.

2.For the consonant [v], which had been a mere positional variant of the [f] phoneme in OE and which in ME became a separate phoneme, the let­ ter v was considered to be merely as allograph of u, both allographs could be used indiscriminately: over, ouer (OE ofer), love, loue (OE lufu ); in French words: very, avengen.

3. The affricate [tf] was denoted by the digraph ch : from such French loan words as chair, chambre it penetrated into native English words: techen ’teach' child, etc. The corresponding voiced affricate [dj] was spelt in the French way either j, g_, or dg: courage, joy, bridge,

4. The consonant [f] was spelt sh and sometimes sch: ship, schip, shal schaL

5. The consonant [h] was first spelt z, and later ^‘gh: lizt, light nzit, пight,t , brozute, broughte.

6. The letter с when denoting the consonant [k] was replaced by the let­ ter k before e,I, and also before n: drinken (OE drincan) king (OE cyninz), knowen (OE cnawan}. This was due to the fact that the letter с before e or i would suggest the pronunciation [s]: It should be noted that the letter was widely used in Old French, for example in the pronoun ki 'who' (Modern French spelling qui),

7. The cluster [kw] was spelt qu instead of Old English cw, as in quellen ‘kill’ (OE cwellan), quethen ^‘say^’ (OE cwepan).

8. The consonant [j]_, which in Old English was spelt z now саmе to be spelt у : yer ‘year’(OE zear), yet(OE ziet), ye’you (OE ze).

Besides these features, due to French influence, ME spelling has some more peculiarities, which have partly been preserved down to the present day.

It became a habit in ME to replace final -i by -y. The motive was purely graphic, у being more ornamental than i_? and eventually this became one of the most characteristic features of English spelling. In MnE there are only a few words ending in -i: rabbi taxi_, and a few plural forms of Latin words, such as bacilli and genii. The letter у was also often used instead of i in medium po­sition; ryden (OE ridan), wryten (OE writan). This habit did not survive.

Similarly, the letter u when final was replaced by w, which was more or­namental. Again, words ending in -u in MnE are very few: you, thou, gnu, emu.

The use of ou and ow to denote long [u:] resulted in ambiguity, which is still felt in English spelling. The digraph ow could also denote the diphthong [ou], When it came to be used for [u:], the result was two series of words: one with [ou]: slow, snow,crow, low, the other with [u:]:cow, now, down.

On the whole ME spelling is far from uniform. Purely phonetic spellings mix French spelling habits and also with traditions inherited from OE. Besides, there are differences between dialects in this respect, too.

IV. Phonetic Changes. Vowels.

In the ME period a great change affected the entire system of vowel phonemes. To fully understand the importance of the change, we must briefly summarize the essential characteristics of OE vowel system.

OE had both short and long vowel phonemes, and each of these were absolutely independent phonemic unit. As a result of important changes coming into the vowel system in 10-12th centuries, the ME vowel system was basically different. While, in OE, quantity (that is length /shortness) was a distinctive phonemic feature, in ME (by the 13th century) this is no longer so. Quantify of vowels becomes dependent on their environment - to be exact, on what follows.

A long vowel occurring before two consonants is shortened.

	OE		ME
cēpan	(infinitive)	^“ keep”	kepen
cēpte	(Past Tense)	^“ kept”	kepte
fēdan	(infinitive)	" feed"	fldlen
fēdde	(Past Tense)	fed	fedde

However, long vowels remain long before the 'lengthening" consonant groups kl nd, md

wēnan think wēnen

wēnde wēnde

hērde hērde

But if the cluster was followed by another consonant there were no lengthening. The substantive "cild" (child) had its vowel lengthened and has yielded MnE [t∫aild], but its plural form “cildru^” preserved its [i] short and yielded MnE [t∫ildrən].

OE short "a" remains unchanged in ME. But before a nasal developed different by in differently dialects. In West Midland "o" was preserved: mon (man) con (can). In other dialects we find "a" - man, can. OE short "æ" de­veloped into short "a"

æрреl > appel; wæs > was:

But in the West Midland and Kentish dialect OE "æ" changed into "e", hence the variants " gled ","ерраl ".

OE short "y" developed differently in different dialects. In Northern and East Midland it changed into short "i", but in West Midland and South­western short y"" remained unchanged. In Kentish it became "e"

All OE diphthongs were monophtongized in the direction of first ele-

ment eo→e

OE deop → ME deep.

Generally modern orthography was established in the 12th, 13th cen­turies and didn't change dramatically. But the pronunciation has changed dramatically and the English spelling is called historical.

In the unstressed position all the vowels became neutral because in the Germanic languages the stress falls on the first root vowel. A number of grammatical endings became homonimous. ME is called the English of reduced or leveled endings. OE is the English of full endings. As a result of ending be­coming neutral the rhythm of the English speech has changed . it resulted in the changing of the quantity of vowels in stressed position.