Lecture 11
OE Consonant System
OE Consonants
OE consonants underwent the following changes:
1. Hardening (the process when a soft consonant becomes harder)– usually initially and after nasals ([m, n])
| [ð] à | [d] | rauðr (Icelandic) | rēad (OE) (red) |
| [v] à | [b] | - | - |
| [γ] à | [g] | guma (Gothic) | ζuma (OE) (man) |
2. Voicing(the process when a voiceless consonant becomes voiced in certain positions) – intervocally and between a vowel and a voiced consonant or sonorant
[f, q, h, s] à [v, ð, g, z] e.g. wulfos (Gothic) – wulf[v]as (OE) (wolves)
3. Rhotacism(a process when [z] turns into [r])
e.g. maiza (Gothic) – māra (OE) (more)
4. Gemination(a process of doubling a consonant) – after a short vowel, usually happened as a result of palatal mutation (e.g. fullan (OE) (fill), settan (OE) (set), etc.).
5. Palatalisation of Consonants(a process when hard vowels become soft) – before a front vowel and sometimes also after a front vowel
[g, γ, k, h] à [g’, γ’, k’, h’]e.g. c[k’]ild (OE) (child); ecζ[gg’] (OE) (edge), etc.
6. Loss of Consonants:
· sonorants before fricatives (e.g. fimf (Gothic) – fīf (OE) (five));
· fricatives between vowels and some plosives (e.g. sæζde (early OE) – sæde (late OE) (said));
· loss of [j] – as a result of palatal mutation (see examples above);
· loss of [w] (e.g. case-forms of nouns: sæ (Nominative) – sæwe (Dative) (OE) (sea).
See table 9 on p. 90 in “История английского языка” by Т.А. Расторгуева (copies).