English stress development
by Khayrullina Gouliya, gr. 10.1-608A
 Tell how and why it changed from the Old
English Times up to modern days;
 Give examples;
I`m going to:
 Focus your attention on the accentual patterns
of OE, ME, NE words;
 Share with materials which I used.
 English is known as a stressed language.
Stressed languages are languages spoken with
differing degrees of emphasis on the words and
syllables in the sentences.
Introduction
 There are words with:
one stressed syllable (e.g. ˈmind),
one stressed syllable and one or more weak
syllables (e.g. reˈmind, reˈminder, reˈminding),
primary and secondary stresses (ˈmindˌblowing, ˈhiveˌmind).
The stress system in GLs
 The English language belongs to the
Germanic subdivision (West Gemanic)
of the Indo-European family of
languages.
How it all began
 One of the most important common
features of all Germanic languages is its
strong dynamic stress falling on the
first root syllable and sometimes the
prefix.
 The fixed stress is the source of the
latest changes of English grammatical
system:
PG fiskaz-Gt fisks-O Icel fiskr, OE fisc
Fixed
position
now. Examples:
 German: `Liebe, `lieben, `liebte, ge`liebt, `lieberhaft
 English: be`come, be`coming, over`come
The history of the English language begins in the fifth century AD, when the ruthless
Germanic tribes started their invasion of the British Isles.
 The word stress in OE was dynamic or force.
 In disyllabic and polysyllabic words stress fell on
the root morpheme or on the first syllable:
a`ჳane (gone); ჳe`hendan (catch); `laჳu (law),
`loppestre (lobster).
The stress system in
OE
 Fixed stress:
Nom. `hlaford, `cyninჳ, Dat. `hlaforde, `cyninჳe.
 Most prefixes are unstressed: ჳe`wrıten
(written), wiþ`sacan (contend), but `wıðer`saca
(enemy);
 Compound words had two stresses, and the
main stress fell on the first syllable:
 `Norð`monna, `mann-`hata (man-hater).
 Verbal and nominal stress:
Verbs: a`risan, mis`faran (go astray), but `ჳaderian
(gather);
Adjectives: `toweard, `oreald (very old);
Nouns: `misdæd, `uðჳenჳ (escape).
The stress system in
OE
 WS helped to distinguish the noun from the
verb:
`andswaru N – and`swarian V
 Word stress had a major impact on the
development of the vowel system. Given that
the unstressed vowels were weaker, they changed
differently from the stressed vowels.
Middle English, c.1150–1450
 Starting in the eleventh century, increasing
numbers of Romance and Graeco-Latin loanwords
began to enter English.
The stress system in
ME. Loan-words.
 the old Germanic pattern: (L can`dela > OE
`candel);
 the Romance type: li`cour, cha`pel; but
en`gendred, `Zephirus, `pardoner
(examples from the General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales).
The stress system in
ME. Native words
 Stress on the first syllable from the beginning
(unless they carried a stressless prefix):
 `bretherhed, `neighebor, bi`gynne, `prıketh
Doublets:
`controversy or con`troversy
BrE ro`tate vs AmE `rotate, etc
The stress system in
ME
But the seeds of 2-stress system were already
present in Middle English:
Chaucer: In `dıvers arts and in di`verse figures.
…and appeared later:
Shakespeare: The `Reuennew whereof shall furnish
vs My manors, Rents, Re`uenues, I forgoe
Two stress systems coexist, one old and one new.
Early Modern c.1450–1800 and Modern English
 English still, as in ME times, has two competing
stress systems.
The stress system in
Early NE
 In native words the stress is fixed and falls on the
first root syllable. Native English words are short
that is why it is a rhythmic tendency of the
language to have one stressed and one unstressed
syllables: `swimmers, `whence
 Some borrowed words were not fully assimilated
phonetically, that is why the stress falls on
another syllable:
The stress system in
Early NE
 (1570): pa`rent, pre`cept, (1687): col`league,
adver`tıse, (1784): ex`pert, recog`nıse
 those fully assimilated have the stress on the first
root syllable, like in native words:
(1570): `delectable, (1687): ´academy, ´accessory,
(1746): ´acceptable, ´accessory, (1784):
`phlegmatic, `vıbrate
 ModE stress looks ‘free’:
the first syllable (`kettle, `character),
the second (be`lıeve, di`vıde),
the third (vio`lın, anthro`pology).
The stress system in
Late NE
 Some suffixes do not affect word stress, while others
attract it (be`lıeve/be`lıev-er vs `photograph/
pho`tograph-y/photo`graph-ic).
 Sometimes the stress is used to differentiate the
words formed from the same root by the process
called conversion (to pro'duce— 'produce).
Conclusion
 Word stress is a singling out of one or more
syllables in a word, which is accompanied by the
change of the force of utterance, pitch of the
voice, qualitative and quantitative characteristics
of the sound which is usually a vowel.
Literature
Literature
 История английского
языка.
Староанглийский
период. The History of
the English Language.
Old English period
[Электронный
ресурс]: учеб.
пособие / сост. канд.
филол. наук, доц.
Е.В. Краснова ; науч.
ред. канд. филол.
наук, доц. В.В.
Панкова. - 2-е изд.,
стер. - М. : ФЛИНТА,
2017. - 88 с. - ISBN
978-5-9765-2851-2.
 Расторгуева ТА.
 История английского языка:
Учебник
 A History of the English
Language edited by
 RICHARD HOGG AND
DAVID DENISON
 The History of the
English Language from
OE to ME
 edited by Varlamova E.V
Thanks for your attention!