Chapter 11 Phonological Changes

39

Chapter 11

Phonological Changes(contin.)

i-Umlaut

11.1. The most regular and widespread form of assimilation to occur in OE is that called i-umlaut1 (or i-mutation). It affects most of the stressed radical or base vowels, and, as the name implies, the change is due to a high-front vowel or semivowel [i:, i, j] in the following syllable, which, by anticipation, draws the base vowel upward and/or forward toward the high-front position. (It occurred during PrehOE but after Breaking.)

11.2. Rule: A stressed base vowel is moved toward high-front position (palatalized) by , i, or j occurring in the following syllable. Thus:

a(or o) before nasal˃e
æ(˂PrehOE a)˃e
ū˃ȳ
u˃y
ō˃ē
o˃e
ā(˂Gmc ai)˃ǣ
ēa
ēo
īo		}˃īe, later ī (in LWS often sp. ȳ
ea
eo
io		}˃ie, later i (in LWS often sp. y)
Diagram 5
High-Front Diagram 5

High-Front

i, ī, or j

Note 1: The vowels ī, i, being already high-front, are not affected by i-umlaut. The change of e ˃ i had already occurred in PrimGmc; its effects may be seen in the early stage of all Gmc languages.

Note 2: The ī, i, once they have caused umlaut, are later for the most part either changed to e, or lost (see examples following); the j retained only after r, is there spelled i. After a long syllable, final i was lost. (A syllable is long if it contains a long vowel or diphthong ̶ one marked with a macron: ¯, or if it contains a short vowel or diphthong followed by more than one consonant. All other syllables are short. See further p. 276, n. 23.)

Examples:

æ ˃ e:*hærjan˃herian, to raid;*mæti ˃ mete, meat
a/o ˃ e:*monni˃menn, dat.sg. to a man;*wandian ˃ wendan, to turn
ā ˃ ǣ:*dāli˃dǣl, share;*hāljan ˃ hǣlan, to heal
ō ˃ ē:*dōmian˃dēman, to deem;*tōði ˃ tēð, teeth
o ˃ e:*morgin˃mergen, morrow;*dohtri ˃ dehter, to a daughter
ū ˃ ȳ:*cūðian˃cȳðan, to inform;*mūsi ˃ mȳs, mice.
u ˃ y:*cuning˃cyning, king;*buggjan ˃ bycgan, to buy
ea, īo, etc. ˃ īe, ie:*ealdira˃ieldra;*frīondi ˃ frīend.

Exercise. Write out the EWS forms which would result from i-umlaut of the following PrehOE forms (including the changes mentioned in Note 2).

  1. *flāsci
  2. *slægi
  3. *huldi
  4. *līohtjan
  5. *sandjan
    		6.  _ _
  6. *hæti
  7. *brūdi
  8. *hwearfjan
  9. *sættjan
  10. *wurmi
    		11.  _ _
  11. *lārjan
  12. *bandjan
  13. *bōci
  14. *frammjan
  15. *hæfig
    		16.

u-o-a-Umlaut

11.3. Rule: The stressed base vowels æ, e, i, if followed by a single consonant, are diphthongized by (back vowels) coming in the following syllable. (This process operated uniformly in the Mercian and Kentish dialects, irregularly in WS.)

Examples:

*æfora ˃ eafora, heir; *ælu ˃ ealu, ale
*werold ˃ weorold, world; *gelu ˃ geolu, yellow
*wita ˃ wiota, wise man; *clipode ˃ cliopode (˃ cleopode), cried out.
But: WS hafoc ̶ Merc.heafoc, hawk
WSmedu ̶ Kent.meodu, mead
WSsinu ̶ Kent.sionu, sinew

Note 3: Phonetically, this change exactly parallels Breaking (8.1): the same vowels change into the same diphthongs. This time, however, the back sound which led to the intrusion of the glide was a vowel.

Translation: Luke VIII, 4-8

Sōþlīce þā micel menigu cōm and of þām ceastrum tō him efeston. Hē sǣde heom ān bīspell.
Sum mann his sǣd sēow. Ðā hē þæt sēow, sum fēoll wið þone weg and wearð fortreden. And heofenes fuglas hit frǣton.
And sum fēoll ofer þone stān and hit forscranc for þām þe hit wǣtan næfde.
And sum fēoll on þā þornas and þā þornas hit forþrysmodon.
And sum fēoll on gōde eorðan and worhte hundfealde wæstm.
Ðā clipode hē and cwæð, "Gehīere sē ðe ēaran hæbbe."

VOCABULARY
  1. bīspell, parable
  2. ceaster, city
  3. clipian, to call, speak
  4. ēare, ear
  5. efestan, to hasten
  6. fēoll, PastT of feallan, to fall
  7. forscrincan, to shrink up
  8. fortreadan, to tread down
  9. for þām (þe), because
  10. forþrysmian, to choke
  11. fugol, bird
  12. fretan, to devour
  13. gehīeran, to hear,listen

  14. hæbbe, Subjunc. of habban, to have
  15. hundfeald, hundredfold
  16. menigu, multitude
  17. micel, great, large
  18. of, from
  19. sēow, PastT of sāwan, to sow
  20. þā, then, when
  21. wæstm, increase, harvest
  22. wǣta, moisture
  23. wearð, pastT of weorðan, to become
  24. wið, against, beside
  25. worhte, PastT of wyrcan, to work, make, produce
FOOTNOTE

1German Umlaut = a sound which goes around (from one position of articulation to another).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

table of contents

Bright's Old English grammar & reader Third edition second corrected printing F.G. Casidy Richard N. Ringler copyright 1891, 1894, 1917, 1935, 1961, 1971 by Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, inc Library of Congress Catalog Card number: 76-179921 ISBN 0_03_084713_3 printed in the united states of america 1234567890 038 0987 Contents preface Abbreviations iii xi Grammar The Place of Old English 1 Speech Sounds 8 Vowels 11 OE spelling and pronunciation 16 Phonological Changes 21 Personal Pronouns 23 Anomalous Verbs 26 Phonological Changes (continued) 30 Demonstrative Pronouns 32 Adjectives; Analogy 35 Possessive pronouns Phonological Changes (continued) 39 Weak Adjectives 42 Participles Comparison Nouns: the a-Declension 46 Nouns: the o-Declension 49 Nouns: Minor Declensions 52 Later Sound Changes 56 Verb Classes 59 Weak Verbs Classes II, III ...
Read more

Chapter 4 OE Spelling and Pronunciation

  4.1.  The growth of literacy and literary culture among the Anglo-Saxons was a consequence of their conversion to Christianity. The Latin alphabet, introduced by missionaries, displaced the Germanic  ƒuþark  (runic alphabet), which in any event had only been used for brief inscriptions of a magical, monumental, or practical nature and never for the transcription of extended texts. It was in the  scriptoria  of the early monasteries that writing was done on a large scale for the first time in Anglo-Saxon England. The monks were concerned first and foremost with the creation and transmission of Latin texts, which they had been taught to write by Irish monks. When they started writing their own vernacular language they naturally maintained the same correspondence between sound and symbol to which they were accustomed in writing Latin. As a consequence, OE spelling before Ælfred's reign, and to some extent after it, approached a phonetic rendering of the actu...
Read more

Chapter 6 Personal Pronouns

  6.1.  The personal pronoun in  OE  like that of  MnE , has singular and plural forms. It also preserves the  IE   dual  forms. The dual is especially effective for showing close association between two people -- as two men fighting side by side, or or husband and wife, or lovers. (See, for example, Selection 22/21a - 3a.) The dual forms, however, disappeared early in the  ME  period. 6.2.  Like  MnE ,  OE  has forms for the three persons, with masculine, feminine, and neuter genders in the third person. As against the three case forms of  MnE , however,  OE  has four, since it distinguishes dative from accusative. (In  ME  these fell together under the dative form to produce the  MnE  "object case".) First Person Sg Dual Pl Nom ic , I wit , we two wē , we Gen mīn uncer ūser, ūre 1 Dat mē unc ūs Acc mec ,  mē uncit, unc ūsic, ūs Second Person thou you two you Nom ðū git gē Gen ...
Read more