ModE Spelling

NE Spelling

ME Spelling

OE Spelling

Historical Background of Modern English Spelling

Lecture 13

Loss of Some Consonants

Fricatives

New English

Palatalisation –as a result of reduction of unstressed vowels several consonants merged into one:

 

ME Sounds NE Sounds ME NE
[sj] à [∫] commissioun [komi’sjon] commission [kə’mi∫ən]
[zj] à [ζ] pleasure [plə’zjurə] pleasure [‘pleζə]
[tj] à [t∫] nature[na’tjurə] nature[‘neit∫ə]
[dj] à [dζ] procedure [,prosə’djurə] procedure [prə’sidζə]

 

There were some exceptions though, e.g. mature, duty, due, suit, statue, tune, etc.

 

Voicing –occurredin the 16th c. (NE) to fricatives:

· in functional words and auxiliaries that are never stressed;

· when preceded by an unstressed and followed by a stressed vowel.

 

ME Sounds NE Sounds ME NE
[s] à [z] possess [pə’ses] possess [pə’zes]
[q] à [ð] this [qis],the [qə], there [qεə] this [ðis],the [ðə], there [ðεə]
[f] à [v] of[of] of[ov]
[ks] à [gz] anxiety [,ən’ksaiəti] anxiety [,ən’gzaiəti]
[t∫] à [dζ] knowledge [‘kno:lət∫ə] knowledge [‘no:lidζ]

 

In NE some consonants were vocalised or gave birth to diphthongs and triphthongs.

· [r]was vocalised at the end of the word in the 16th -17th c. (see Lecture 11);

· [j]disappeared as a result of palatalisation (see palatalisation in Lecture 12); [j] remained only initially (e.g. year, yard, etc.);

· [х, х’] were lost (e.g. ME taughte [‘tauхtə] – NE taught [to:t], ME night [niх’t] – NE night [neit]

· [kn] à [n](e.g. ME know [knou] – NE know [nou]);

· [gn] à [n](e.g. ME gnat [gnat] – NE gnat [næt]);

H/w:1. Ex. 10-14, 17 on p. 219 in “История английского языка” by Т.А. Расторгуева (copies).


· based on phonetic principle;

· employed Latin characters;

· one letter = one sound;

Exceptions: ζ, f, s, ð(1 letter = 2 or more sounds).

 

· based on conventional principle;

· more ambiguous and less stable (printing was not introduced yet and the manuscripts contained numerous variants of spelling – practically each scribe had its own way to spell the words);

· digraphs (2 letters = 1 sound) appear + 1 letter = several sounds, several letters/combinations of letters = 1 sound (these were the deviations from phonetic principle):

 

1 letter = several sounds several letters/combinations of letters = 1 sound
letter sounds letters sound
o [o], [u], [o:], [ǿ] g, dg, j [dζ]
c [s], [k] k, c, q [k]
g [g], [dζ]    
u [u], [v]    

 

· based on conventional principle was preserved;

· new digraphs appeared (indicated borrowings from other languages) – ph, ps, ch;

· spelling became fixed.

 

There reasons for such stabilisation were as follows:

· Introduction of Printing (1475) (see Lecture 9) à one obligatory standard!

· Normalisation of the language (17th – 18th c.) (see Lecture 9)à one obligatory standard!

 

Modern English spelling reflects pronunciation of the 14th – 15th c.

See also Table 12 on p. 216-218 in “История английского языка” by Т.А. Расторгуева.