Lecture 6. Historical phonetics and phonology

Note 2

Note 2

Note 1: Celts

Celt also spelled Kelt, Latin Celta, plural Celtae a member of an early Indo-European people who from the 2nd millennium BC to the 1st century BC spread over much of Europe. Their tribes and groups eventually ranged from the British Isles and northern Spain to as far east as Transylvania, the Black Sea coasts, and Galatia in Anatolia and were in part absorbed into the Roman Empire as Britons, Gauls, Boii, Galatians, and Celtiberians. Linguistically they survive in the modern Celtic speakers of Ireland, Highland Scotland, the Isle of Man, Wales, and Brittany. The Celtic settlement of Britain and Ireland is deduced mainly from archaeological and linguistic considerations. The only direct historical source for the identification of an insular people with the Celts is Caesar's report of the migration of Belgic tribes to Britain, but the inhabitants of both islands were regarded by the Romans as closely related to the Gauls. Information on Celtic institutions is available from various classical authors and from the body of ancient Irish literature. The social system of the tribe, or “people,” was threefold: king, warrior aristocracy, and freemen farmers. The druids, who were occupied with magico-religious duties, were recruited from families of the warrior class but ranked higher. Thus Caesar's distinction between druides (man of religion and learning), eques (warrior), and plebs (commoner) is fairly apt. As in other Indo-European systems, the family was patriarchal. The basic economy of the Celts was mixed farming, and, except in times of unrest, single farmsteads were usual. Owing to the wide variations in terrain and climate, cattle raising was more important than cereal cultivation in some regions. Hill forts provided places of refuge, but warfare was generally open and consisted of single challenges and combat as much as of general fighting. La Tene art (archeological artifacts found in Switzerland) gives witness to the aesthetic qualities of the Celts, and they greatly prized music and many forms of oral literary composition.

The supremacy of Kent lasted until the early 7the c.; it is attributed to the cultural superiority of Kent and its close contact with the mainland. The 7^th and 8^th centuries witnessed the temporary rise of Northumbria, followed by a period of balance of power of the three main rivals (Northumbria, Mercia and Wessex) and the dominance of Mercia, large and prosperous kingdom in the rich Midland plains. Yes already in during Mercia’s supremacy Wessex had secured the control of Sussex and Kent, and was growing more influential. The conquest of Mercia by Wessex in the early 9^th c. reversed the position of two kingdoms: Wessex was brought to the fore and acquired the leadership unsurpassed till the end of the OE period 11^th c.) Wessex was a kingdom with good frontiers and vast area of fertile land in the valley of the Thames; the control of London and the lower Thames valley (formerly part of Essex) as well as the growing contacts with the Franconian Empire contributed to the rise of Wessex. Apart from internal reasons the unification of England under the leadership of Wessex was speeded up by a new factor; the pressure of common enemy.

Note 3 The "national" language embraces all the varieties of the language use; the nation including dialects; the "national literary language" applies only to recognized standard forms of the language, both written and spoken; for earlier periods of history the term "literary language" may indicate the language of writing in a wider sense, including chronicles, legal documents, religious text? A mature national literary language is characterised by codified norms or rules of usage and functional stylistic differentiation.

Many of the great classics, both ancient and modern, were translated Int. English: Plutarch and Ovid, Montaigne and Thomas More. Religious prose flourished not only in the translations of the Bible but also in collections of sermon! and other theological compositions. Secular prose grew in the philosophical workf of Francis Bacon (1561—1626), who wrote his chief work, NOVUM OROANUM i Latin, but proved his mastery of the mother tongue in essays and other compositions.

Diachronic changes in the system of vowels

I. Preliminary remarks

OE is so far removed from Mod English that one may take it for an entirely different language; this is largely due to the peculiarities of its pronunciation.

The survey of OE phonetics deals with word accentuation, the system of vowels and consonants and their origins. The OE sound system developed from the PG system. It underwent multiple changes in the pre-written periods of history, especially in Early OE. The diachronic description of phonetics in those early periods will show the specifically English tendencies of development and the immediate sources of the sounds in the age of writing.

II. Word Stress.

The system of word accentuation inherited from PG underwent no changes in Early OE.

In OE a syllable was made prominent by an increase in the force of articulation; in other words, a dynamic or a force stress was employed. In disyllabic and polysyllabic words the accent fell on the root-morpheme or on the first syllable. Word stress was fixed; it remained on the same syllable in different grammatical forms of the words, and, as a rule, did not shift in word-building either. For example, the Nom. hlāford, cynin9, Dat. hlāforde, cynin9e.

Polysyllabic words, especially compounds, may have had 2 stresses, chief and secondary, the chief stress being fixed on the first root-morpheme, and the secondary stress on the second. For example, Norðmonna, here the chief stress fall on the first component, while the second component gets the secondary stress; the Gen. plural ending – a is unstressed.

In words with prefixes the position of the stress varied: verb prefixes were unaccented, while in nouns and adjectives the stress was commonly fixed on the prefix:

ā-` risan, `mis-dæd

3. Old English Vowel System

The system of OE vowels in the 9^th and 10^th centuries is shown in the table below

Monophthongs

Short vowles

Long vowels

Front vowels

[i] fisc, scip [y] fyllan, pytt [e] sprecan, helpan

[i:] wīn, tīd [y:] brÿd, wÿscan [e:] fēt, tēθ

Back vowels

[u] sunu, cumin [o] folc, cos [a] faran, caru [a] – positional variants: [æ] glæd, hwæt [o] mann,(monn) cann (conn)

[u:] hūs, tūn [o:] fōt, bōk, 9ōd [a:] ān, wrāte

Diphthongs

[ea]healf wearm (before 1, r + cons., and before h instead of [a]	[ea:] hēah, ēare
[eo] steora, feohtan	[eo:] deop, leoht
[io] siofun (f pronounced v in intervocal pos.)	[io:] stīoran
[ie] scield, nieht	[[ie:] cīese, hīeran

OE vowels underwent different kinds of alterations: qualitative and quantitative, dependent and independent. In accented syllables the oppositions between vowels were clearly maintained. In unaccented positions the original contrasts between vowels was weakened or lost; the distinction of short and long vowels was neutralised so that by the age of writing the long vowels in unstressed syllables had been shortened. As for originally short vowels, they tended to be reduced to a neutral sound, losing their qualitative distinctions and were often dropped in unstressed final syllables.

- Changes in the system of vowels:

- Fracture/breaking (преломление) – diphthongization of short vowels ‘a’, ‘e’ before the clusters: ‘r+ con.’, ‘l + con.’, ‘ h+ con., final ‘ h’: ærm – earm, herte – heorte, selh – seolh;

- Gradatio n /ablaut: (alternation of vowels in different grammatical forms:

E.g. in strong verbs: Infinitive (9iban), Past sing. (9af), Past Pl. (9ebum), Second Part. (9ibans);

- Palatalisation: diphthongisation of vowels under the influence of the initial palatal consonants ‘g’, ‘c’ (before front vowels) and the cluster ‘sc’ (all vowels): gefan – giefan, scacan – sceacan;

- Mutation/Umlaut (перегласовка)- a change of vowel caused by partial assimilation to the following vowel:

i-mutation – caused by ‘i’, ‘j’ of the following syllable: namnian – nemnan, fullian- fyllan;

back/velar mutation – phonetic change caused by a back vowel (u,o,a) of the following syllable, which resulted in the diphthongisation of the preceding vowel: hefon – heofon;

Contraction: if after a consonant had dropped, two vowels met inside a word, they were usually contracted into one long vowel: slahan – sleahan – sle:an;

Lengthening of Vowels: before ‘nd’, ‘ld, ‘mb’: bindan – bīndan; climban - clīmban

ME: In the ME period a great change affected the entire system of vowel phonemes. OE had both short and long vowel phonemes, and each of these could occur in any phonetic environment, that is, they were absolutely independent phonemic units. As a result of important changes coming into the vowel system in the 10th-12^th centuries, the ME vowel system was basically different. While in OE quantity (length/shortness) was a distinctive phonemic feature, in ME (by the 13^th c.) quantity of vowels becomes dependent on their environment, exactly on what follows. In some phonetic environments only short vowels can appear, while in others only long vowels can appear. Thus quantity is no longer a phonemically relevant feature and becomes a merely phonetic peculiarity of a vowel sound. Let’s consider the changes that took place during the ME period.

Word Stress.

During the MdE period stress acquired greater positional freedom and began to play a more important role in word derivation. It was caused by phonetic assimilation of thousands of loan-words adopted during this period. New accentual patterns are found in numerous MdE loan-words from French. Probably, when they first entered the English language they retained their original stress on the ultimate or penultimate syllable. This kind of stress could not last long. Gradually, as loan-words were assimilated, the word stress was moved closer to the beginning of the word in line with the English (Germanic) system. This shift is accounted for by what is known as the ‘recessive tendency’ In disyllabic words the accent moved to the first syllable in conformity with the pattern of native words. In words of three and more syllables the shift of the stress could be caused by the recessive tendency and also by ‘ the rhythmic tendency’, which required a regular alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables. Under the rhythmic tendency, a secondary stress could arise at a distance of one syllable from the original stress: reco`mmendan – recommend. In many polysyllabic words both tendencies, the recessive and the rhythmic operated together and brought about several changes. For example, in MnE consolation we find the results of the shift from the final to the preceding syllable [lei] due to the recessive tendency and a secondary stress on the first syllable. Sometimes the shifting of the word stress should be attributed to certain morphological factors. Thus prefixes of many verbs were not stressed in accordance with the OE tradition while corresponding nouns received the stress on the first syllable: present –pre-sent. This example shows that the role of word accentuation has grown; word stress performs a phonological function as it distinguishes a verb from a noun. The position of word stress became relatively free and its phonological application has widened: it can be shifted in word derivation, though it is never moved in building grammatical forms.

Vowel Changes in MdE and Early MnE.

Unstressed vowels

Levelling of unstressed vowels: all unstressed vowels were as a rule weakened and reduced to a neutral vowel, which was denoted by the letter –e. Thus, the infinitive suffix – an was reduced to – en: tellan – tellen, in a similar way: sunu – sune, sone. This weakening of unstressed vowels is closely connected with developments in declension and conjugation. From the 13^th c. onwards, some dialects showed certain vacillation in spelling unstressed vowels, which probably reflected peculiarities of pronunciation: askid, stonus.

Stressed Vowels

One of the most important sound changes of the Early MDE period of the loss of OE diphthongs and the growth of new diphthongs, with new qualitative and quantitative distinctions.

Monophthongization of OE Diphthongs: all OE diphthongs were monophthongized in ME.: eald – ald, healf-half, earm –arm (poor). But before ‘ld’ ‘ea’ yielded different results in different dialects. OE short ‘eo’ changed first into the vowel ‘ö’ spelt ‘eo’. In other dialects it changed into ‘e’ heorte – hörte-herte. (heart). OE long eo: changed into long closed e:, often spelt ‘ee’: deo:p – de:p, deep.

At the same time a new set of diphthongs developed from some sequences of vowels and consonants due to the vocalization of OE [j] and [γ], that is to their change into vowels: these sounds between after vowels changed into [i] and [u] and formed diphthongs together with the preceding vowel: OE dæ9 developed into day[dai]. These changes gave rise to two sets of diphthongs: with i-glides and u-glides {ei, ai, au, ou). In addition to the diphthongs developed from native sources, similar diphthongs – with i-and u-glides are found in some MdE loan words: boy, joy, pause, cause. The formation of new diphthongs was an important event in the history of the language. By that time the OE diphthongs had been contracted into monophthongs; the newly formed MdE diphthongs differed from the OE in structure: they had an open nucleus and a closer glide; they were arranged into a system consisting of two sets o (with i-glides and u-glides) but were not contrasted through quantity as long to short.

Quantitative vowel changes

Shortening and Lengthening of Vowels: a long vowel before two consonants is shortened: OE – ce:pan (infinitive), ME ke:pen, but Past tense – kepte; but it remains long in other environments. But long vowels remain long before ‘ the lengthening’ consonant groups: ld, nd, mb: we:nen (think), but we:nde (past simple). Long consonants also remain long before – st: lae:sta (least) – le:st. In the 13^th c. short vowels were lengthened in open syllables. Lengthening affected the short vowels a, e, o.: talu (tale)- ta:le, macian – ma:ken, etc. The narrow vowels i and u remained as a rule unaffected by this change, and thus the difference between short i and long and also between short u and long retained its quality as a phonemically relevant feature.

Changes of individual vowels:

Short and long ‘a’: OE short ‘a’ usually remained unchanged in ME. OE a/o before a nasal developed differently in different dialects. In West Midland ‘o’ was preserved: mon, con; in other dialects (Northern, East Midland and Southern) there is ‘a’ man, can. OE long ‘a’ also developed in different ways in different dialects. In N. it remained unchanged, while in Midland and Southern it changed into long ‘o’: fa:- fo: (foe); ha:m - - ho:m, etc.

Short ‘ae’ and long ‘ae’. OE short ‘ae’ in most dialects developed into short ‘a’: glaed – glad, aeppel – appel. But in the West Midland and Kentish it developed into ‘e’: gled, eppal. OE West Saxon long ‘ae’ changed into long open ‘e:’: slae:pan – sle:pen (sleep); in other dialects this ‘ae:’ had changed into closed ‘e:’. This closed ‘e:’ is preserved in ME.

Short Y and long Y: OE short ‘y’ developed differently in different dialects. In N. And E..Midland it changed into short ‘i’. In Kentish it became ‘e’ in the remaining dialects it was unchanged. Hence three dialectal variants: ‘first’, ferst’, ‘fyrst’. For example, the word ‘ bury ‘- here the pronunciation is Kentish, but the spelling is South-Western. OE long’y’ developed in the same way as the short ‘y’.

Conclusion: The ME sound system differs from the OE system: 1) OE dipthongs or ‘ea’ and ‘eo’ type disappeared 2) diphthongs of the ‘ei’ ‘ ai’ type arose 3) vowel quantity became dependent on phonetic environment 4) the affricates [ch], [dg] arose. From the phonemic point of view the following points should me stated: 1) vowel quantity lost its phonemic significance, that is two vowel phonemes can no longer be distinguished by quantity”:length versus shortness. Thus the number of vowel phonemes was reduced. 2) on the other hand, the appearance of new diphthongs [ai], [ei] [ au], [ou] marks the rise of four new vowel phonemes. In this way the reduction in the number of vowel phonemes due to changes in quantity is partly counteracted. 3) the number of consonant phonemes increased; the sounds [f, v] which had been allophones of one phoneme, became separate phonemes, no longer dependent on their environment, the same is true with [s,z].

MnE:

Vowels: 1) loss of the neutral sound of unstressed endings (in the 15^th c.2) 2) loss of vowels in intermediate syllables: chapiter = chapter, medicine 3) change of [er] into [ar] with some exceptions: ferre = far, sterre – star, but occasionally this change did not take place: certain, prefect, etc. when it didn’t change into [ar], it eventually developed into [e:], but ‘clerk, ‘Derby’.

The Great Vowel Shift: began in the 15^th century: all long vowels were narrowed and the narrowest were diphthongized:

Take [ta:ka] – [teik]; beat [be:t] [ bi:t]; meet [me:t] [mi;t]; like [li:ka] [laik]; boat [bo:t] [ bout]; tool [to:l] [ tu:l]; house [hu:s] [haus]. All those changes show one general tendency: narrowing of long vowels and diphthongization of the narrowest of them. All these changes occurred gradually, without being noticed by the speakers. Reasons (?)

Influence of [r]: when a long vowel was followed by ‘r’, new phonemes came into being: (ia], [ea], [ua]: fare [fa;r] – [fea]; tire [ti:r] [taia], [power [pu;ar] [ paua].

Some words have sounds which do not correspond to the general law of the shift.

Long [u:] remained unchanged when followed by a labial consonant: droop, room; [i:] remained unchanged in words borrowed from French: machine, police, etc.; long open [e:] did not always change into [i:], it was shortened in some words head, death, etc.

Other changes:

- short ‘a’ into ‘ae’: hat, cat; but when it was preceded by [w] it it developed into [o]: what, was, ec.

- In the 16^th c. 2 new long vowels arose [a:], [o:]

- [a:] – before: bath, father, brass, cast, ask, clasp, calm

- [o:] – before: cork, port, autumn, dawn

- long [u:] was shortened before [k]: book, cook; also in good, foot, etc.

- rise of long [e:] – fir, sir, fur, curtain, worm, word, heard, learn

- short [u] changed into [^]: cut, but, love, son, rough, enough; blood, flood; remained unchanged before labial consonants: pull, full, bull, etc.

- unstressed vowels were reduced either to [i] or [a]: begin, wishes, mountain, etc.

- development of [x]: 1) before [t] it is lost: bright [brixt] – [bri:t} – [brait], brought [brouxt] [ bro:t]2) final [x] changes into [f]: enough, cough, laugh, etc. In a few words it was lost:though, through.

- Loss of consonants: in clusters: lamb, climb, damn, hymn, castle, whistle, muscle, grandmother, landscape

- Loss of consonants in initial clusters: kn, gn, pn, wh: knight, gnat, pneumonia, psyche, etc. [h] in unstressed syllables: shepherd, forehead, Nottingham, etc.

The system of OE vowels in the 9^th and 10^th centuries is shown in the table below

Monophthongs

Short vowles

Long vowels

Front vowels

[i] fisc, scip [y] fyllan, pytt [e] sprecan, helpan

[i:] wīn, tīd [y:] brÿd, wÿscan [e:] fēt, tēθ

Back vowels

[u] sunu, cumin [o] folc, cos [a] faran, caru [a] – positional variants: [æ] glæd, hwæt [o] mann,(monn) cann (conn)

[u:] hūs, tūn [o:] fōt, bōk, 9ōd [a:] ān, wrāte

Diphthongs

[ea]healf wearm (before 1, r + cons., and before h instead of [a]	[ea:] hēah, ēare
[eo] steora, feohtan	[eo:] deop, leoht
[io] siofun (f pronounced v in intervocal pos.)	[io:] stīoran
[ie] scield, nieht	[[ie:] cīese, hīeran

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