Diphthongs

The OE diphthongs had a close nucleus and an opener glide; they were contrasted through quantity as long to short. All of them were strongly falling. That is to say they gave a much stronger prominence to the first part of the glide than the second. There were 2 sets of 4 short and 4 long diphthongs in Old English:

1. The short diphthongs ea, eo, io, ie: healf (half), steorra (star), siofun/siofon (seven), nieht (night).

2. The long diphthongs ēā, ēō, īō, īē: hēāh (high), dēōp (deep), stīōran (stir), hīēran (hear).

Consonants in Old English

OE letter	OE sound	OE word and its Mod E. meaning
b	[b]	betste	best
c	[k] [k’] > [ʧ]	cuman cild	come child
d	[d]	drincan	drink
f	[f] [v] (between vowels or between a vowel and a voiced consonant)	feoh, wulf ofer, selfa, wulfas	property, wolf over, self, wolves
g	[g] [j] (before i, ie, ea, eo, short or long, and after front vowels) [γ] (between back vowels) [g’] (when g preceded by c)	gōd, gyltig gear, dæg, dagas secgan	good, guilty year, day, days say
h	[x] [x’] (next to front vowels) [h]	dohtor niht hē, hām, hyll	daughter night he, home, hill
l	[l]	land	land
m	[m]	nama	name
n	[n] [ŋ] (before [k, g])	sunu sincan, lang	son sink, long
p	[p]	pīn	pine
r	[r]	caru	care
s	[s] [z] (see f)	his, standan rīsan, bōsm	his, stand rise, bosom
t	[t]	tūn	town
x	[ks]	oxa	ox
þ or ð	[] [ð] (see f)	þū/ðū, mūþ/mūð mūþas/mūðas furþor/furðor	thou mouth mouths further
w	[w]	wudu, snāw	wood, snow
sc	[sk] [sk’] > [ʃ]	scōl fisc, scip	school fish, ship

Unit 14 Some Phonetic Changes of the Old English Period

1. Stressed Vowels

1. Oe Fracture, or Breaking

Fracture, or an assimilative vowel change, accounts for many modifications of vowels in Early OE: under the influence of succeeding and preceding consonants some Early OE monophthongs developed into diphthongs.

a/æ > ea before the clusters l, r + consonant, and before h: * sælt > sealt (salt), *ærm > earm (arm), * æhta > eahta (eight), * sah/ sæh > seah (saw).

æ > ēā before h: næh > nēāh (near).

e > eo before the clusters r + consonant, lc, lh, and before h: *herte > heorte (heart), *cneht > cneoht (boy, servant), *feh > feoh (cattle, property, money), *melcan > meolcan (to milk), *selh > seolh (seal).

In the 9^th century the diphthong eo became ie before ht and hs: feohtan > fiehtan, cneoht > cnieht.

Fracture was unevenly spread among the OE dialects: it was more characteristic of West Saxon than of the Anglian dialects (Mercian and Northumbrian). Consequently, in many words, which contain a diphthong in West Saxon, the Anglian dialects have a monophthong: arm, ahta, sah.

B. Palatalization

Diphthongization of vowels could also be caused by preceding consonants: a glide arose after the palatal consonants [k’], [sk’] and [j]: * gefan > giefan (to give), * gæf > geaf (gave), Lat. castra > ceaster (camp), * sceld > scield (shield), *scūr > scēōr (shower).

C. Lengthening of Short Vowels before Certain Consonant Combinations

In the 9^th century vowels were lengthened before the clusters nd, mb, ld: bindan > bīndan (to bind), climban > clīmban (climb), cild > cīld (child).

If, however, the cluster was followed by another consonant, lengthening did not take place, e.g. cildru (children).

D. Palatal Mutation. See Unit 5.

E. Velar, or Back Mutation

Another kind of mutation was caused by the back (or velar) vowels [a], [o], [u]. It took place in the 7^th-8^th centuries and was of comparatively small importance for the further development of the English language. Under the influence of [a], [o], [u] the front vowels [i], [e], [æ] were usually diphthongized.

i > io:	hira > hiora (their), sifon > siofon (seven). This io often developed into eo: heora, seofon.
e > eo:	hefun/hefon > heofon (heaven)
æ/a > ea:	cæru/caru > cearu (care), saru > searu (armour)

F. Contraction

When a consonant was dropped and two vowels met inside a word, they were usually contracted into one long vowel:

* slahan >	* sleahan >	slēān (to slay)
* sehan >	* seohan >	sēōn(to see)
* fonhan >	* fōhan>	* fōān > fōn (to catch)