Middle English

Sibilants and Affricates

The Development of Consonant System in Middle English and New English

Lecture 12

Short Vowels

New English

New Diphthongs

Long Vowels

Short Vowels

· [y]changed to [i]e.g. OE hyll – ME hill (hill);

· [æ]changed to [a]e.g. OE wæs – ME was (was).

As a result:

i

e

a

o

u

 

· [ỹ]changed to [ī];

· [ǽ]fell together with [έ];

· [ā]changed to [ō]e.g. OE stān – ME sto[o:]ne(stone).

As a result:

	close	open
ī	ū	ē	ō	έ	ǿ

 

OE diphthongs turned into monophthongs:

 

OE Diphth.	ME Sounds	OE	ME
ĭě/īē à	i	līehtan	lighten (lighten)
ĕŏ/ēō à	e	heorte	herte (heart)
ĕă/ēā à	æ	ēast	eest (east)

 

New diphthongs appeared due to vocalisation of [j], [γ]and [w]. These consonants turned into vowels ([i], [u]and [u] respectively) and became the glides of the new diphthongs:

 

i-glides	OE	ME	u-glides	OE	ME
[ei]	weζ[j]	wey[i](way)	[iu]	-	-
[ai]	mæζ[j]	may[i](may)	[au]	laζ[γ]u	law[u]e [‘lauə] (low)
[oi](in French loan-words)		boy, toy	[ou]	cnāw[w]an	know[u]en [‘knouən] (know)

Great Vowel Shift – the change that happened in the 14^th – 16^th c.and affected all long monophthongs + diphthong [au]. As a result these vowels were:

· diphthongized;

· narrowed (became more closed);

· both diphthongized and narrowed.

 

ME Sounds	NE Sounds	ME	NE
[i:] à	[ai]	time [‘ti:mə]	time [taim]
[e:] à	[i:]	kepen [‘ke:pən]	keep [ki:p]
[a:] à	[ei]	maken [‘ma:kən]	make [meik]
[o:] à à	[ou] [u:]	stone [‘sto:nə] moon [mo:n]	stone [stoun] moon [mu:n]
[u:] à	[au]	mous [mu:s]	mouse [maus]
[au] à	[o:]	cause [‘kauzə]	cause [ko:z]

 

This shift was not followed by spelling changes, i.e. it was not reflected in written form. Thus the Great Vowel Shift explains many modern rules of reading.

ME Sounds	NE Sounds	ME	NE
[a] à à	[æ] [o]after [w]!!	that [qat] man [man] was [was] water [‘watə]	that [ðæt] man [mæn] was [woz] water [‘wotə]
[u] à	[Λ]	hut [hut] comen [cumen]	hut [hΛt] come [cΛm]

There were exceptions though, e.g. put, pull, etc.

 

Vocalisation of [r]

It occurred in the 16^th – 17^th c. Sound [r] became vocalised (changed to [ə] (schwa)) when stood after vowels at the end of the word.

Consequences:

· new diphthongs appeared: [εə], [iə], [uə];

· the vowels before [r] were lengthened (e.g. arm [a:m], for [fo:], etc.);

· triphthongs appeared: [aiə], [auə] (e.g. shower [‘∫auə], shire [‘∫aiə]).

H/w:

1. Ex. 4-6 on p. 218 in “История английского языка” by Т.А. Расторгуева (copies).

English consonants proved to be more stable than vowels. Nevertheless, new sets of consonants started to appear.

Sibilants – a type of fricatives, narrower and sharper than all other fricatives ([f, v, q, ð, h]) – [s, z, ∫, ζ].

Affricates – sounds consisting of a plosive immediately followed by a fricative – [t∫, dζ].

In OE there were only 2 sibilants – [s, z]. [∫] appeared in ME and [ζ] – in NE.

Affricates [t∫, dζ] appeared both in ME and in NE.

 

New consonants developed from palatal plosives [k’], [g’]and the cluster [sk’]:

 

OE Sounds	ME Sounds	In Writing	OE	ME
[k’] à	[t∫]	tch, ch	cild [k’il’d]	child [t∫ild]
[g’] à	[dζ]	g, dg	ecge [‘egg’ə]	edge [‘edζə]
[sk’] à	[∫]	sh, ssh, sch	fisc[fisk’]	fish[fi∫]