West Germanic Gemination Of Consonants

Loss Of Consonants In Some Positions

Fricatives. Hardening. Rhotacism. Voicing and devoicing

CHANGES IN OE CONSONANT SYSTEM

Rhotacism is the appearance of [r] due to a phonetic modification through the stage of [õ] into [r]. Thus [s-z] became a sonorant, which ultimately merged with the older IE [r]. Cf. Gt. wasjan, O. Icel verja and OE werian (NE wear). This process, termed rhotacism, is characteristic not only of WG but also of NG.

In Early OE voiceless fricatives [f, T, x, s] 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.

E.g. OE cweðan – between vowels and cwæð [T] – at the end of the word (NE arch. quoth 'say').

The mutually exclusive phonetic conditions for voiced and voice­less fricatives prove that in OE they were not phonemes, but allophones.

Palatalisation and Splitting of Velar Consonants:

At a very early time the consonant c before a front vowel, as in cild “child”, and occasionally in other conditions as well, became palatalized and approached the affricate [C]. It may even have reached the stage of [C] in Late OE. In a similar way, the cluster sc, as in scip “ship”, became palatalized and approached [S] in Late OE.

An analogous development affected Z and cg before a front vowel and when final becoming palatalized, they approached and may have reached [ G ], as in senZean “singe”, brycg “bridge”, wecZ “wedge”.

OE cinn, birce, taecan (from takjan) > NE chin, birch, teach

sengan > sing

ecg, bryc > edge, bridge

gan, gretan > go, greet

The date of the palatalisation can be fixed with considerable precision in relation to other Early OE sound changes. It must have taken place after the appearance of [æ, æ:] (referred to the 5th c.) but prior to palatal mutation (late 6th or 7th c.)

Consonants [n, m, h] were regularly lost before fricative consonants [f, s, T]:

Gt. fimf, O. Icel. fim, OHG fimf, — OE fif (NE five)

Gt uns, OHG uns, — OE ūs (NE us);

OE bronhte > brohte (past tense from brinZan);

sonfte > softe (soft); munþ > muþ (mouth)

Fricative consonants could be dropped between vowels and before some plosive consosnants.

As a result there appeared a lengthened vowel, or a diphthong:

Gt saihwan — OE seon; Gt slahan — OE slean; OE sxZde–— sxde;

Combination fn often develops into mn, or mm: OE stefn — stemn,

wifman — wimman.——

Consonant h was dropped before l, n: hladan — load, hlaf — loaf; hnutu — nut.—

Metathesis of r

cons. + r + vowel cons+Vowel+R

brunnan burnan (burn)

hros hors (horse)

In all WG languages, at an early stage of their independent history, most consonants were lengthened after a short vowel before [j]. This process is known as WG "gemination" or "doubling" of con­sonants, as the resulting long consonants are indicated by means of doub­le letters, e. g.: fuljan > OE fyllan (NE fill); sætjan > OE settan (NE set), cf. Gt satjan.

During the process, or some time later, [j] was lost, so that the long consonants ceased to be phonetically conditioned. When the long and short consonants began to occur in identical phonetic conditions, namely between vowels, their distinction became phonemic.

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, - g. OE deman, metan (NE deem, meet) — the earlier forms of these words contained [j], which had caused palatal mutation but had not led to the lengthening of consonants (the reconstruction of pre-written forms motjan and domjan is confirmed by OS motian and Gt domjan).

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