Chapter 8 Phonological Changes (contin.)

 

Breaking: Short Vowels

8.1. Rule: In PrehOE the vowels æ (which had developed ˂ a -̶ see 5.4 above), e and i, when they occur before r + consonant, l + consonant, or h, are "broken" into short diphthongs, becoming respectively ea, eo, io.1
Examples:

  1. æ ˃ ea ̶ *hærd ˃ heard, hard; *hælf ˃ healf, half; *fællen ˃ feallan, to fall; *æhta ˃ eahta, eight.
  2. e ˃ eo ̶̶ *werðan ˃ weorðan, become; *herte ˃ heorte, heart. Before l this breaking occurs only if the following consonant is c ([k]) or h: *melcan ˃ meolcan, to milk; *selh ˃ seolh, seal; but helpan, to help, swelgan, to swallow, sweltan, to die, remain unbroken. Before h breaking is regular: *fehtan ˃ feohtan, to fight, etc.
  3. i ˃ io ̶̶̶ *Piht ˃ *Pioht (later Peoht), Pict; *hirdi- ˃ *hiordi-,2 herdsman; *tihhian ˃ tiohhian, to arrange.

Breaking: Long Vowels

8.2. Rule: Long vowels break before h. (Examples with i are the most numerous.)
Exmples: *līht ˃ līoht (frequently lēoht, light; *betwīh ˃ betwīoh (frequently betwēoh), betwixt; *nǣh ˃ nēah, nigh.

Exercise 1. Write out the EWS forms which would result from the breaking (when possible) of the following PrehOE forms: *bergan, *belgan, *tīhð, *wærþ, *rehhe, *hæll, *welc, *weltan, *cwern.

Diphthongization after initial Palatal g, c, sc,

8.3. Rule: When the palatals g, c, and sc occur initially in a stressed morpheme, certain vowels following them are diphthongized: æ ˃ ea, ǣ ˃ ēa, and e ˃ ie.3
Exmples: æ ˃ ea ̶ gæf ˃ geaf, gave; *cæf ˃ ceaf, chaff; Lat. castra ˃ *cæster ˃ ceaster, town; *scæl ˃ sceal, shall.
ǣ ˃ ēa ̶ *gǣfon ˃ gēafon, gave; Lat. cāseus ˃ *cǣsi ˃ *cēasi ˃ cīese (by i-Umlaut, see Chap. 11), cheese; *scǣp ˃ scēap, sheep.
e ˃ ie ̶ *gefan ˃ giefan, give; *getan ˃ gietan, get; *sceran ˃ scieran, to shear.

Exercise 2. Write out the EWS forms which would result from the diphthongization after initial palatals of the following PrehOEforms: *scær, *sceld, *gæt, *scǣron, *gestran, *gǣton, *scæft, *geman, *cæp, *cælf.

Final Double Consonants

8.4. Double consonants at the end of a word are usually simplified.
Exmples: monn, mon, man; menn, men, men; eall, eal, all; cynn, cyn, kin; bedd, bed, bed; sibb, sib, peace.
But cg, though it historocally represents a doubled consonant (see 4.12, 5.2 above), had changed phonetically ([ɣɣ ˃ dʒ]) and was not simplified.

FOOTNOTES

1In broad phonetic terms: [æ ˃ ǽə, ɛ ˃ ́ɛə, ı ˃ íə]. In each case an unstressed glide-vowel has crept in as the tongue moved from a front vowel position to that of a consonant somewhat farther back - in the first eamples, [r, l, x].

2Later > hierde. See Chap. 11.

3Phonetically: [æ > æə, æ: > æ:ə, ɛ > ɪə]. Here the diphthong is due to movement of the tongue from palatal position, which is high, to that of the mid and low front vowels. This produces a glide-sound after æ and ǣ, making them phonetically [ǽə] and [ǽ;ə], spelled ea and ēa But the glide-sound developed before e, and later the stress was moved back and placed on it; thus: [ɛ > ɪ́ɛ > íɛ > íə], spelled ie.

32

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