Phonetic processes in Old English. The system of consonants

E. Changes of Unstressed vowels in Early OE

The development of vowels in unstressed syllables, final syllables in particular was basically different. Whereas in stressed position the number of vowels had grown (as compared with PG system), due to the appearance of new qualitative differences, the number of vowels distinguished in unstressed position had been reduced. In unaccented syllables, especially final, long vowels were shortened, and thus the opposition of vowels – long to short – was neutralized: OE nama ‘name’ to the earlier * namon.

It must also be mentioned that some short vowels in final unaccented syllables were dropped. After long syllables, that is syllables containing a long vowel, or a short vowel followed by more than one consonant, the vowels [i] and [u] were lost. Compare the following pairs, which illustrate the retention of [u] and [i] after a short syllable, and their loss after a long one: OE scipu and scēap (NE ships, sheep, pl form * skeapu); OE werian – dēman (NE wear, deem; cf. Gt dōmjan)

F. Old English Vowel System (9^th – 10^th c.)

Monophthongs	Diphthongs
Short i e (œ) æ (ɑ̃) a o u y Long i: e: (œ:) æ: a: o: u: y:	(ie) ea eo (ie:) ea: eo:

The vowels shown in parentheses were unstable and soon fused with resembling sounds [ɑ̃] with [a] or [o], [ie, ie:] with [y, y:].

The vowels are arranged in two lines in accordance with the chief phonemic opposition: they were distinguished within these sets through qualitative differences as monophthongs and diphthongs, open and close, front and back, labialised and non-labialised.

The OE vowel system displayed an obvious tendency towards a symmetrical, balanced arrangement since almost every long vowel had a corresponding short counterpart. However, it was not quite symmetrical: the existence of the nasalized [a] in the set of short vowels and the debatable phonemic status of short diphthongs appear to break the balance.

All the vowels listed in the table could occur in stressed position. In unstressed syllables we find only five monophthongs, and even these vowels could not be used for phonemic contrast: e/i, a, o/u.

On the whole, consonants were historically more stable than vowels, though certain changes took place in all historical periods. It may seem that being a typical OG language OE ought to contain all the consonants that arose in PG under Grimm’s Law and under Verner’s Law. Yet it appears that very few noise consonants in OE correspond to the same sounds in PG for in the intervening period most consonants underwent diverse changes: qualitative and quantitative, independent and positional.

Some of the consonant changes dated in pre-written periods are referred to as “West Germanic” as they are shared by all the languages of the WG subgroup; WG changes may have taken place at the transitional stage from PG to Early OE prior to the Germanic settlement of Britain; other changes are specifically English, they took place in Early OE.

Reflexes of Proto-Germanic Fricatives in Old English

Change illustrated	Examples
Hardening	Late PG	OE	Other OG languages	OE	NE
		OIcel rauðr	rēad	red
ð	d	Gt wasida [ð]	werede	wore, past of wear
v	b	Gt broþar	brōþor	brother
			dumbe	dumb
γ	g	Gt guma	ʒuma	‘man’
Voicing or devoicing		v	Gt sibun [v]	seofon [v]	seven
v	f	Gt hlaifs	hlāfas [v]	loaves
		(Cf. R хлеб)	hlāf [f]	loaf
	v	Gt wulfos	wulfas [v]	wolves
f	f	Gt wulfs	wulf [f]	wolf
	ð	Gt siuþan [θ]	seoþan [ð]	seethe
θ	θ	Gt sauþ [θ]	seað [θ]	seethed
γ	γ	Gt dagos	daʒas	days
	х	Gt baúrgs	buruh, burh	borough
s	z	Gt kiusan [s]	cēosan [z]	choose
	s	Gt kaus [s]	cēas [s]	chose
Rhotacism			Gt maiza [z]	mārа	more
z	r	Gt huzd	hord	hoard

The first change is connected with fricatives. After the changes under Grimm’s Law and Verner’s Law had PG had the following two sets of fricative consonants: voiceless [f, Ө, x, s] and voiced [v, ð, γ, z]. In WG and in Early OE the difference between two groups was supported by new features. The process of hardening of fricatives is the following: PG voiced fricatives tended to be hardened to corresponding plosives while voiceless fricatives, being contrasted to them primarily as fricatives to plosives, developed new voiced allophones.

The PG voiced [ð] (due to Verner’s Law) was always hardened to [d] in OE and other WG languages, e.g. Icel, gōðr andOE ʒōd. The two other fricatives, [v] and [γ] were hardened to [b] and [g] initially and after nasals, otherwise they remained fricatives.

PG [z] underwent a phonetic modification through the stage of [ʒ] into [r] and thus became a sonorant, which ultimately merged with the older IE [r]: Cf. Gt. maiza [z] and OE mārа (more). This process is termed rhotacism .

In the meantime or somewhat later the PG set of voiceless fricatives [f, Ө, x, s] and also those of the voiced fricatives which had not turned into plosives, that is, [v] and [γ], were subjected to a new process of voicing and devoicing which is another kind of assimilation of consonants. In Early OE they became or remained voiced intervocally and between vowels, sonorants and voiced consonants; they remained or became voiceless in other environments, namely, initially, finally and next to other voiceless consonants.

In all WG languages, at an early stage of their independent history, most consonants were lengthened after a short vowel before [l]. This process is known as “geminantion” or “doubling” of consonants, e.g. fuljan > fyllan (NE fill). The change did not affect the sonorant [r], e.g OE werian (NE wear); nor did it operate if the consonant was preceded by a long vowel, e.g. OE dēman, mētan (NE deem, meet).

The velar consonants [k, g, x, γ] were palatalized before a front vowel, and sometimes also after a front vowel, unless followed by a back vowel. Thus in OE cild (NE child) the velar consonant [k] was softened to [k’] as it stood before the front vowel [i] – [kild] > [k’ild]; similarly [k] became [k’] in OE sprǽc (NE speech) after a front vowel but not in OE sprecan (NE speak) where [k] was followed by the back vowel [a]. In the absence of these phonetic conditions the consonants did not change, with the result that lingual consonants split into two sets, palatal and velar. The difference between them became phonemic when, a short time later, velar and palatal consonants began to occur in similar phonetic conditions: cf. OE cild [k’ild], ciest [k’iest] ‘child, chest’ with palatal [k’] and ceald, cēpan ‘cold, keep’ with hard, velar [k] – both before front vowels.

Though the difference between velar and palatal consonants was not shown in the spelling of the OE period, the two sets were undoubtedly differentiated since a very early date. In the course of time the phonemic difference between them grew and towards the end of the period the palatal consonants developed into sibilants and affricates: [k’] > [ʧ], [g] > [ʤ]; in ME texts they were indicated by means of special digraphs and letter sequences.

Nasal sonorants were regularly lost before fricative consonants; in the process the preceding vowel was probably nasalized and lengthened, e.g. OHG fimf – OE fīf (NE five). The middle consonant of a group of three often disappeared in OE, as in el(n)boʒa ‘elbow’, fæs(t)nian ‘to fasten’. The loss of a consonant was especially common when the group of three consonants included a double consonant, as in sende (earlier sendde) present of sendan ‘to send’.

It should be also mentioned the loss of consonants in unstressed final syllables. [j] was regularly dropped in suffixes after producing various changes in the root: palatal mutation of vowels, lengthening of consonants after short vowels. The loss of [w] is seen in some case forms of nouns: Nominative trēo, Dative trēowe ‘tree’.

Metathesis is the transportation of two consecutive sounds, one or both of which may be consonantal. When one of the sounds undergoing metathesis is a vowel, the consonant is usually r. OE examples are hors ‘horse’ < * hros, berstan ‘to burst’ < * brestan. It is probable that double forms of some words remained in existence side by side, one with the other without metathesis, e.g., OE ʒærs (Cf. Gothic gras) but MoE grass has developed from a form without metathesis. There are several OE examples of the metathesis of s and a voiceless plosive, as āscian beside ācsian ‘to ask’, and wæsp beside wæps ‘wasp’.

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