Lecture 1 Introduction

2-syllable words

OE	ME	OE	ME
cild	chīld (child)	mete	mēte (meat)
findan	fīnden (find)	open	ōpen (open)
climban	clīmben (climb)	talu	tāle (tale)

2. 
   Qualitative:
   

The system of vowels in ME were no longer symmetrical as it was in OE
Short Vowels

• 
  [y] changed to [i] e.g. OE hyll – ME hill (hill);
  
• 
  [æ] changed to [a] e.g. OE wæs – ME was (was).
  

As a result:

i

e

a

o

u

Long Vowels

• 
  [ỹ] changed to [ī];
  
• 
  [ǽ] fell together with [έ];
  
• 
  [ā] changed to [ō] e.g. OE stān – ME sto[o:]ne (stone).
  

As a result:

		close		open
ī	ū	ē	ō	έ	ǿ

New Diphthongs
OE diphthongs turned into monophthongs:

OE Diphth.	ME Sounds	OE	ME
ĭě/īē 	i	līehtan	lighten (lighten)
ĕŏ/ēō 	e	heorte	herte (heart)
ĕă/ēā 	æ	ēast	eest (east)

New diphthongs appeared due to vocalisation of [j], [γ] and [w]. These consonants turned into vowels ([i], [u] and [u] respectively) and became the glides of the new diphthongs:

i-glides	OE	ME	u-glides	OE	ME
[ei]	weζ[j]	wey[i] (way)	[iu]	-	-
[ai]	mæζ[j]	may[i] (may)	[au]	laζ[γ]u	law[u]e [‘lauə] (low)
[oi] (in French loan-words)		boy, toy	[ou]	cnāw[w]an	know[u]en [‘knouən] (know)

New English
Great Vowel Shift – the change that happened in the 14^th – 16^th c. and affected all long monophthongs + diphthong [au]. As a result these vowels were:

• 
  diphthongized;
  
• 
  narrowed (became more closed);
  
• 
  both diphthongized and narrowed.
  

ME Sounds	NE Sounds	ME	NE
[i:] 	[ai]	time [‘ti:mə]	time [teim]
[e:] 	[i:]	kepen [‘ke:pən]	keep [ki:p]
[a:] 	[ei]	maken [‘ma:kən]	make [meik]
[o:]  	[ou] [u:]	stone [‘sto:nə] moon [mo:n]	stone [stoun] moon [mu:n]
[u:] 	[au]	mous [mu:s]	mouse [maus]
[au] 	[o:]	cause [‘kauzə]	cause [ko:z]

This shift was not followed by spelling changes, i.e. it was not reflected in written form. Thus the Great Vowel Shift explains many modern rules of reading.

Short Vowels

ME Sounds	NE Sounds	ME	NE
[a]  	[æ] [o] after [w]!!	that [at] man [man] was [was] water [‘watə]	that [ðæt] man [mæn] was [woz] water [‘wotə]
[u] 	[Λ]	hut [hut] comen [cumen]	hut [hΛt] come [cΛm]

There were exceptions though, e.g. put, pull, etc.


Vocalisation of [r]
It occurred in the 16^th – 17^th c. Sound [r] became vocalised (changed to [ə] (schwa)) when stood after vowels at the end of the word.
Consequences:

• 
  new diphthongs appeared: [εə], [iə], [uə];
  
• 
  the vowels before [r] were lengthened (e.g. arm [a:m], for [fo:], etc.);
  
• 
  triphthongs appeared: [aiə], [auə] (e.g. shower [‘∫auə], shire [‘∫aiə]).
  

H/w:
1. Ex. 4-6 on p. 218 in “История английского языка” by Т.А. Расторгуева (copies).
Lecture 12
The Development of Consonant System in Middle English and New English

English consonants proved to be more stable than vowels. Nevertheless, new sets of consonants started to appear.

Sibilants and Affricates
Sibilants – a type of fricatives, narrower and sharper than all other fricatives ([f, v, , ð, h]) – [s, z, ∫, ζ].
Affricates – sounds consisting of a plosive immediately followed by a fricative – [t∫, dζ].
In OE there were only 2 sibilants – [s, z]. [∫] appeared in ME and [ζ] – in NE.
Affricates [t∫, dζ] appeared both in ME and in NE.


Middle English
New consonants developed from palatal plosives [k’], [g’] and the cluster [sk’]:

OE Sounds	ME Sounds	In Writing	OE	ME
[k’] 	[t∫]	tch, ch	cild [k’il’d]	child [t∫ild]
[g’] 	[dζ]	g, dg	ecge [‘egg’ə]	edge [‘edζə]
[sk’] 	[∫]	sh, ssh, sch	fisc [fisk’]	fish [fi∫]

New English
Palatalisation – as a result of reduction of unstressed vowels several consonants merged into one:

ME Sounds	NE Sounds	ME	NE
[sj] 	[∫]	commissioun [komi’sjon]	commission [kə’mi∫ən]
[zj] 	[ζ]	pleasure [plə’zjurə]	pleasure [‘pleζə]
[tj] 	[t∫]	nature [na’tjurə]	nature [‘neit∫ə]
[dj] 	[dζ]	procedure [,prosə’djurə]	procedure [prə’si dζə]

There were some exceptions though, e.g. mature, duty, due, suit, statue, tune, etc.

Fricatives
Voicing – occurred in the 16^th c. (NE) to fricatives:

• 
  in functional words and auxiliaries that are never stressed;
  
• 
  when preceded by an unstressed and followed by a stressed vowel.
  

ME Sounds	NE Sounds	ME	NE
[s] 	[z]	possess [pə’ses]	possess [pə’zes]
[] 	[ð]	this [is],the [ə], there [εə]	this [ðis],the [ðə], there [ðεə]
[f] 	[v]	of [of]	of [ov]
[ks] 	[gz]	anxiety [,ən’ksaiəti]	anxiety [,ən’gzaiəti]
[t∫] 	[dζ]	knowledge [‘kno:lət∫ə]	knowledge [‘no:lidζ]

Loss of Some Consonants
In NE some consonants were vocalised or gave birth to diphthongs and triphthongs.

• 
  [r] was vocalised at the end of the word in the 16^th -17^th c. (see Lecture 11);
  
• 
  [j] disappeared as a result of palatalisation (see palatalisation in Lecture 12); [j] remained only initially (e.g. year, yard, etc.);
  
• 
  [х, х’] were lost (e.g. ME taughte [‘tauхtə] – NE taught [to:t], ME night [niх’t] – NE night [neit]
  
• 
  [kn]  [n] (e.g. ME know [knou] – NE know [nou]);
  
• 
  [gn]  [n] (e.g. ME gnat [gnat] – NE gnat [næt]);
  

H/w: 1. Ex. 10-14, 17 on p. 219 in “История английского языка” by Т.А. Расторгуева (copies).
Lecture 13
Historical Background of Modern English Spelling


OE Spelling

• 
  based on phonetic principle;
  
• 
  employed Latin characters;
  
• 
  one letter = one sound;
  

Exceptions: ζ, f, s, ð (1 letter = 2 or more sounds).


ME Spelling

• 
  based on conventional principle;
  
• 
  more ambiguous and less stable (printing was not introduced yet and the manuscripts contained numerous variants of spelling – practically each scribe had its own way to spell the words);
  
• 
  digraphs (2 letters = 1 sound) appear + 1 letter = several sounds, several letters/combinations of letters = 1 sound (these were the deviations from phonetic principle):