Phonetic Structure of the OE Vowels
The Three Periods in the History of the English Language
The name «English language» in its widest sense means the language of the English people from their first settlement in Britain to the present time. For the sake of convenience linguists distinguish 3 main stages (periods) in the history of the English language, namely OE, ME, MnE. The English scholar Henry Sweet (1854 - 1912) characterized those stages in his «New English Grammar». He proposed the following division of the history of English according to the state of unstressed endings:
1st period, Old English – the period of full endings. This means that any vowel may be found in an unstressed ending. For example, the word ‘sin3an’ «sing» has the vowel a in its unstressed ending, while the word sunu ‘son’ has the vowel u in a similar position.
2nd period, Middle English – the period of levelled endings. This means that vowels of unstressed endings have been levelled under a neutral vowel (something like [э], represented by the letter e. Thus, Old English sin3an yields Middle English singen, Old English sunu yields Middle English sune (also spelt sone) (все неударные гласные нивелизируются под слабый гласный звук типа [э], в написании «e», например: sune, singen).
3rd period, Modern English – the period of lost endings. This means that the ending is lost altogether. Thus, Middle English singen became Modern English ‘sing’. Middle English sone became Modern English ‘son’. According to Professor B. Illyish the dates of these periods are: OE – 700-1100, ME – 1100-1500, MnE – 1500 up to now. Henry Sweet distinguished Early MnE 1500-1660 and Late MnE – beginning with 1660. Each period of the English language has its own characteristics.
LECTURE 2
1. Short characteristic of OE vowels.
2. The ablaut (gradation).
3. Mutation (umlaut).
4. Fraction (fracture).
5. Lengthening of vowels.
6. Palatalization.
The OE vowels are divided into monophtongs and diphthongs both long and short: a æ e i o u y å ea eo ie io
ā ǣ ē ī ō ū ȳ ēā ēō īē īō
The OE vowels corresponded to the Old Germanic sounds which can be found in Gothic.
The sound [æ] was pronounced in OE as it is pronounced in MnE [æ] (a man, a hat). The sound [æ] was longer twice.
The sound [y] was pronounced as MnG [ü] in the word Mütter, [ȳ] was pronounced like the German [ü] in the word Gemüte.
[å] was found before the nasal consonants n and m and is sometimes denoted by the letter a, sometimes by o: mann, monn, ‘man’; nam, nom, ‘took’.
a corresponds to the Gothic a short. It usually stands in an open syllable followed by a back vowel:
da3as (days), caru (care), macian (to make). In closed syllables a occurs but very rare: habban ‘have’, wascan ‘wash’, asce ‘ash’.
ācan stand in any syllable and corresponds to the Gothic [ai]: stān‘stone’ (Gothic stains), hātan‘to hail, to call’ (Gothic haitan), cnāwan ‘to know’ (Gothic cnaiwan).
æ corresponds to the Gothic a. It is found in closed syllables, as in dæ3 ‘day’ contains a front vowel, as dæ3es‘of the day’, wæter ‘water’ (Gothic watō).
ǣhas a twofold origin.
(1) ǣ1corresponds to Gothic ē. It is found, for example, in the past plural of class IV and class V strong verbs: stǣlon ‘stole’ (Gothic stelum), bǣron ‘bore’ (Gothic berum), sprǣcon ‘poke’, «mǣton» ‘measured’, and also in other cases, as in dǣd ‘deed’ (Gothic deƥs). (2) ǣ is the result of i-umlaut of a, which corresponds to Gothik ai. It is found in a number of class I weak verbs: «hǣlan» ‘heal’ (Gothic hai ljam), «drǣfan» ‘drive’, «lǣfan» ‘leave’.
e also has a twofold origin: 1) it corresponds to Gothic i or e (pronounced [e] in the infinitive of class III, IV, and V strong verbs: helpan ‘help’ (Gothic hilpan), stelan ‘steal’ (Gothic stilan), beran ‘bear’ (Gothic bairan). 2) It results from i-mutation of a or æ, as in sen3ean ‘sing’, bendan ‘bend’.
ē is usually the result of i-mutation of o; it is often found in class I weak verbs: deman ‘judge’, cepan ‘keep’.
i may be of two qualities: stable and unstable. Stable i corresponds to the Gothic i. it is not confused with y. E.g.: bindan ‘bind’ (Gothic bindan), niman ‘take’ (Gothic niman).
Unstable i is the result of monophthongizing of the diphthong [ie] and is often substituted by [y], e.g. niht (nicht, nyht).
ī also has two qualities: stable and unstable. Stable ī corresponds to the Gothic ei (pronounced [ī]. It is found in class I strong verbs, as in wrītan ‘write’, bīdan ‘bide’, 3rīpan ‘catch’.
Unstable ī originated as the result of monophthongising of the diphthong ie and is sometimes substituted by ȳ, e.g. hī (hīe, hȳ) ‘they’;
o corresponds to the Gothic u or aú (pronounced [o], this vowel is met in Participle II of class II, III b, c, and IV strong verbs: coren ‘chosen’ (Gothic kusans), worden ‘become’ (Gothic wairƥans), stolen ‘stolen’ (Gothic stulans);
ō usually corresponds to the Gothic o 3ōd ‘good’ (Gothic gōƥs; it is found in the past tense of class VI strong verbs: scōc ‘shook, hlōh ‘laughed’.
u corresponds to the Gothic u or aú (pronounced [o]; it is found in the past plural of class II and III strong verbs, e. g. curon ‘chose’ (Gothic kusum), bindon ‘bound’ (Gothic bundum), hulpon ‘helped’ (Gothic hulpum)’ wurdon ‘became’ (Gothic waúrƥum);
ū corresponds to the Gothic ū e. g.: nū ‘now’, hūs (Gothic hūs) ‘house’ and occurs in the infinitive of a few class strong verbs: lūcan ‘lock’, bū3an ‘bend’;
å is originated from a before nasal consonants: monn ‘man’ (Gothic manna), hond ‘hand’ (Gothic handus);
ȳ may be of two qualities: stable and unstable. Stable ȳ is the result of i-mutation of ū as in mȳs ‘mice’, fyr ‘fire’.
Unstable ȳ is sometimes substituted by ī;
y can also be stable and unstable. Stable y results from i-mutation of u, as in 3ylden ‘golden’, wyllen ‘woollen’.
Unstable y alternates with i.
All the short diphthongs ea, eo, io, ie, and the long diphthong īē developed in OE as a result of some phonetic changes such as umlaut, fraction, palatalization.
The long diphthongs ēā and ēō correspond to Gothic diphthongs;
ēā usually corresponds to Gothic au. It is found in bēām ‘beam’, dēāƥ ‘death’ (Gothic dauƥus), and also in the past singular of class II strong verbs, as in cēās ‘chose’ (Gothic kaus), lēāc ‘locked’ (Gothic lauk);
ēō usually corresponds to Gothic iu. It is found in the infinitive of class II strong verbs: cēōsan ‘chose; (Gothic kiusan), bēōdan ‘offer’ (Gothic biudan);
īō is in most cases a variant of ēō.