Lecture 3. Old English Phonology. Reconstruction of Old English vocalic and consonant systems. Phonetic changes
Contents:
1. Word stress.
2. OE vocalic system.
3. OE consonant system.
4. OE phonetic changes.
Word stress (the accent) in OE
In disyllabic and polysyllabic words the stress usually fell on the first syllable of a word. But when the first syllable was a prefix, usage varied: nouns and adjectives stressed the prefix, verbs – didn’t, they stressed the first – root - syllable of the uncompounded word. The prefixes ge- and be- were never stressed, for – rarely. Word stress was fixed. It remained on the same syllable in different grammatical forms of the word, and didn’t shift in word-building. E.g. nom. cyning – dat. cyninge (cmp. дуб - дубы). In polysyllabic compound words there are 2 stresses – primary and secondary: the primary stress falls on the 1st component and the secondary stress – on the 2nd component: norđeastlang.
If the words were derived from the same root, word stress served to distinguish the noun from the verb: on-gin beginning, on-ginnan begin. The same – with MnE – increase / increase.
ā-
and- (ond-)
æt-
be-
ge-
ofer-
for-
of-
on-
to-
un-
under-
up-
OE vocalic system
OE vowels are arranged in opposition in accordance with a chief phonemic feature – quantity. They are contrasted as long to short. Within this opposition they differ as monophthongs and diphthongs, open and close, front and back, labialised and non-labialised. OE monophthongs are short and long i, e, œ, æ, å, a, o, u, y, diphthongs long and short ie, ea, eo. The vowels y and ie were unstable and soon fused with resembling sounds: ie with y, y – with i.
OE consonant system
The OE consonant system consists of the following sounds: labial p, b, f, v, m, dental t, d, þ, đ, n, s, r, l, velar – c, g, h. The letter x is used instead of the group cs. The letters representing consonants were pronounced wherever they were written. So w in wrītan to write was sounded. Double consonants were pronounced double, or long, sunne son.
Some consonant letters denoted different sounds in different positions. The letter g has a back (guttural) and a front (palatal) pronunciation: 1. Initially before consonants and before back vowels and before n it denoted the velar stop [g] gōd good. 2. After back vowels and after l, r it denoted the velar voiced fricative [γ] halga happy, saint. 3. Initially before and after front vowels it denoted the palatal voiced fricative [j] as in giefan, dæg. After n it sometimes had a sound dge like in modern fringe - sprengan to scatter.
The letter c in OE denoted different phonemes in different environments: [k] – before back vowels and y (cyning king), after back vowels and y when final (bōc book), initially before consonants cnāwan know. C had a ch-like sound when it came before or between the front vowels i and e cild child, and in some words after n, l þencan think, ælc each. Cg represents the sound dg: ecg edge, secgan say.
H initially has the sound as now hūs house, after back vowels and afrer consonants it has the sound [x] hēah high, after front vowels it sounds like [x’] riht right.
Both letters þ and đ are used indifferently for voiced and unvoiced sounds [θ] and [đ]. Both were voiced between vowels, sonorants and voiced consonants and intervocally, and they were unvoiced initially, finally and next to the other voiceless consonants cweđ [θ], māþm [māđm] treasure. The same with the consonants f, s.
R initially was probably trilled. Finally and before a consonant it was made with the tip of the tongue curved back: ār mercy, feorh life.
Sc usually had the sound of MnE sh: scip ship, fisc fish. But sc had the sound of sk in some words where back vowels prevailed: āscian to ask (pret. āscode), and in foreign words as scōl school, Scottas Scots.
OE phonetic changes
In OE neighbouring sounds influenced each other to an extent unknown in MnE. Phonetic changes of OE vowels are: fracture (breaking), palatalisation, mutation (Umlaut), contraction, lengthening of vowels, loss of consonants, metathesis. Nearly all of them appear to be due to one commom principle, that of assimilation. This points to a general tendency in OE – various parts of a word coalescing into a closer unit.
1. Breaking. The front vowels æ, e become respectively the diphthongs ea, eo before h, or the groups h, r, l + consonant, OHG fechtan to fight, OE feohtan. But æ is affected more than e, which is not changed by l + consonant: infinitive helpan, pret. sing. would be hælp - healp.
2. Palatalisation. The front vowels æ, e become respectively the diphthongs ea, ie after initial c, g, sc: OS geban, OE giefan to give – pret. sing. geaf (we would have here normally gæf).
3. Palatalisation affecting consonants. The consonant c before a front vowel cild became palatalised and approached the affricate as in MnE speech. The cluster sc became palatalised too and approached the sound as in MnE ship (OE scip). The same development affected g and cg before a front vowel and when final becoming palatalized, they approached and may have reached the sound like MnE dge brycg bridge.
4. I-mutation (front mutation) is the most important sound-change in OE. The back vowels, the diphthongs ea and eo and the front vowels æ and e were modified by the vowel i, or the related consonant j in the following syllable. The i / j was mostly lost : a > e Goth sandian > sendan to send, æ > e *tælian > tellan, o > e *dōmian > dēman to judge. We find the examples of the change in the declension of certain nouns, the comparison of certain adj and adverbs, in derivatives: hāl whole – hælan heal, fōda food – fēdan to feed, tēam progeny – tīeman teem, heord herd – hierde herdsman.
5. Contraction. Between vowels, and between l, r and a vowel, h is lost. The vowels which thus fall together contract into a long diphtong, and the vowel preceding the l or r, if short, is lengthened: feoh money, gen. sg fēos, OHG slahan, OE slēan to slay; OHG sehan, OE sēon to see.
6. Lengthening of vowels in certain conditions. In the 9th c. vowels were lengthened before the clusters nd, ld, mb: bindan > bīndan, cild > cīld. If, however, the cluster was followed by another consonant, lengthening did not take place, as in cildru children. Both consonants were articulated by the same organ and they are both voiced (so called homorganic clusters).
7. Some vowels in unstressed syllables were lost or preserved according to the length of the preceding syllable. a) In a word of three syllables, of which the first is long and the second contains a short vowel followed by a single consonant, the vowel of the second syllable is generally lost. hēafod head, gen. ing. hāafdes.
8. Loss of consonants. The cluster fn often becomes mn by assimilation: stefn > stemn voice.
9. Metathesis. Two sounds exchange their places. It affects r and the vowel: rinnan > irnan to run.