Germanic Tendency of Vowels
Amirgazina Nagima
Aydarova Togzhan
Birliknur Zhuldyz
Saiynova Akzhan
Suleimanova Leyla
Throughout history, beginning with PG, vowels displayed
a strong tendency to change. They underwent different
kinds of alterations: qualitative and quantitative,
dependent and independent. Qualitative changes affect
the quality of the sound, e.g.: [o > a ] or [p > f];
quantitative changes make long sounds short or short
sounds long, e.g.: [i > i:], [ll > l]; dependent changes (also
positional or combinative) are restricted to certain
positions or phonetic conditions, for instance, a sound
may change under the influence of the neighbouring
sounds or in a certain type of a syllable; independent
changes — also spontaneous or regular — take place
irrespective of phonetic conditions, i.e. they affect a
certain sound in all positions.
Vowels
From an early date the treatment of vowels was determined by the
nature of word stress. In accented syllables the oppositions between
vowels were carefully maintained and new distinctive features were
introduced, so that the number of stressed vowels grew. In
unaccented positions the original contrasts between vowels were
weakened or lost; the distinction of short and long vowels was
neutralised so that by the age of writing the long vowels in
unstressed syllables had been shortened. As for originally short
vowels, they tended to be reduced to a neutral sound, losing their
qualitative distinctions and were often dropped in unstressed final
syllables
long and short vowels
Strict differentiation of long and short vowels is
commonly regarded as an important characteristic of the
Germanic group. The contrast of short and long vowels is
supported by the different directions of their changes. While
long vowels generally tended to become closer and to
diphthongise, short vowels, on the contrary, often changed
into more open sounds. These tendencies can be seen in the
earliest vowel changes which distinguished the PG vowel
system from its PIE source.
IE short [o] changed in Germanic into the more open vowel
[a] and thus ceased to be distinguished from the original IE [a]; in
other words in PG they merged into [o]. The merging of long
vowels proceeded in the opposite direction: IE long [a:] was
narrowed to [o:] and merged with [o:]. The examples in Table 1
illustrate the resulting correspondences of vowels in parallels from
Germanic and non-Germanic languages (more apparent in Old
Germanic languages than in modern words, for the sounds have
been modified in later history).
Independent Vowel Changes in Proto-Germanic
Change
illustrated
PIE
PG
Examples
Non-Germanic
Germanic
Old
o
a:
a
o:
Modern
L nox, Ir nochd, R ночь
Gt nahts,
О Icel natt,
OHG naht
Sw natt,
G Nacht
R могу; мочь
Gt magan,
OE maʒan, mæʒ
O Icel moðir,
OE modor
Sw ma,
NE may
Sw moder,
NE mother
Gt bropar,
O Icel broðir,
OE broðor
Sw broder,
NE brother
L mater, R мать
O Ind bhrata,
L frater,
R брат
In later PG and in separate Germanic languages the vowels
displayed a tendency to positional assimilative changes: the
pronunciation of a vowel was modified under the influence
of the following or preceding consonant; sometimes a vowel
was approximated more closely to the following vowel. The
resulting sounds were phonetically conditioned allophones
which could eventually coincide with another phoneme or
develop into a new phoneme.
The earliest instances of progressive
assimilation were common Germanic mutations; they occurred in Late PG before its
disintegration or a short time after. In
certain phonetic conditions, namely before
the nasal [n] and before [i] or [j] in the next
syllable the short [e], [j] and [u] remained
or became close (i.e. appeared as [i] and
[u]), while in the absence of these
conditions the more open allophones were
used; [e] and [o], respectively. Later, these
phonetic conditions became irrelevant and
the allophones were phonologised.
Mutation of Vowels in Late PG
Change
illustrated
PIE
Examples
Non-Germanic
G
L ventus,
R ветер
i
L edit, R ест
e
L edere, R есть
u
Lith sunus, R сын
o
Celt human
e
u
Germanic
Old
Gt winds,
O Icel vindr,
OE wind
OHG izit, OE
itep,
O Icel eta, OE
etan
O Icel sunr, OE
sunu
O Icel,
OE horn
Modern
Sw vind,
NE wind
G iβt,
NE eats,
G essen,
NE eat
Sw son,
NE son
NE horn,
Sw horn
After the changes, in Late PG, the vowel system
contained the following sounds:
After the changes, in Late PG, the vowel system contained the
following sounds:
SHORT VOWELS
u
LONG VOWELS
o:
i
e
a
o
i:
e:
a:
u:
It is believed that in addition to these monophthongs PG had a set
of diphthongs made up of more open nuclei and closer glides: [ei], [ai].
[eu], [au] and also [iu]; nowadays, however, many scholars interpret them
as sequences of two independent monophthongs.
As shown in § 54 IE [a:] became [o:]; the new [a:] developed from short [a] before
nasals and also from the open [e:] in West and North Cermanic.
Thank you for
attention!