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Lecture 2
OLD ENGLISH PERIOD. SOUND SYSTEM
Nearly all OE changes were due to the common principle of assimilation.
Plan
1. The historic peculiarities of the period.
2. The system of vowels. Its changes.
3. The system of consonants. Its changes.
4. Stress
Illustrations – Canterbury, Vikings
Main notions: mutation, fracture, palatalization, contraction, metathesis, voicing
Main dates: 597, 700, 828, 878, 1066
Main names: Alfred the Great, William the Conqueror, Pope Gregory the Great
1. The historic peculiarities of the period.
The OE period is characterized by the existence of the language in the forms of
several dialects according to the 7 kingdoms that existed on the island. The vocabulary of
each of them is comparatively homogeneous (IE, Germanic, native). The connection of
words was performed through the system of endings; word order was free; double
negation was possible etc. There were long years of pre-written functioning of the
language. 7 kingdoms (Kent – jutes; Essex, Wessex, Sussex – Saxons; East Anglia,
Northumbria, Mercia – Angles). The general name – Heptarchy. There was struggle for
supremacy. What we have more or less represented in writings is the Wessex dialect (828
– the victory of Wessex, king Ecgberht, Winchester – capital). The first documents – from
700, but the great bulk – 900 – 1050. It was the Mercian dialect that eventually dominated
and evolved into Middle and Modern English. West Saxon literature is the ancestor of
nearly all English literature, but the West-Saxon language is not.
An event of paramount importance – the introduction of Christianity. Pope Gregory
the Great sent the mission in 597. Christianity came into the life of the islanders (not the
first time – Romans and Celts).
Christianity came to England from Kent; so Canterbury remains the religious centre
of the country. England received the Latin alphabet and educated people. The very
personality of Alfred, grandson of Egbert, seems to be one of the most prominent in the
nation (compare with Vladimir), began fighting since 18. . The only English King called
the Great. Born 849, died 899, 26 Oct. He is renowned both for his ability as a war leader
(against Danes) and for his love of learning. His rule was marked by the implementation of
literacy among the free well-to-do people (organized by monasteries and bishops). The
first libraries in GB were founded under his rule. Latin was introduced in England as the
language of the church. He let the country be torn into 2 parts. The Wedmore peace treaty
of 878 let the Danes control a danelaw part. But this treaty allowed a relatively stable
period in the development of the rest of the country. The Vikings first just made short
raids, but then became bolder, began to settle in the country. Alfred fought them during all
his life and there were 2 parts. After Alfred’s death there were 6 great kings – heros. But
then the history changed. In 978 the young king Edward was treacherously murdered by
his stepmother and her son Ethelred the Unready, selfish, idle and weak became the king.
Danes began their raids afresh. Ethelred’s friend betrayed him and offered the English
throne to a Danish king. In despair after the death of Edmund, Ethelred’s son, the nation
chose the Dane Canute as their king. The Alfreds work was overthrown. But he was a
stern and fair king and married Ethelred’s widow, thus joined the royal family. After his
death Ethelred’s son Edward the confessor became the king in 1042. He was tightly
connected with Normandy and promised his throne to his nephew William. An earl Harold
became the king by Witan after his death. William defeated him and invaded the Isles.
2. The system of vowels. Its changes.
First some words about writing. The first English used the runes (24 in German, 30
in England). The Latin alphabet was carried by the Roman Catholic church to the AngloSaxons in the 7th c. The letters:
23: a, æ, b, c (sound k), d, e, f, ‫( ک‬sound g, y, ۷), h, I, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, ð, u, w, x, y.
(absent j, g, k, q, v, z).
The stress was dynamic, shifted to the first syllable, the first root syllable after prefixes.
Vowels:
7-8 short – a, æ, å (before nasal consonants m, n mann,, monn, nam, nom (took)., e, i, o, u,
y.
6-7long – ā, æ, ē, ī, ō, ū.
They differed the meaning: west – we:st (long) – waste. god – good..
Thwere were 4 diphthongs (short and long): ea, eo, ie, io
The most common changes that mutilated the Germanic words into Anglo-Saxon variety
1. Breaking (fracture).
:
This is the process of formation of a short diphthong from a simple short vowel
when it is followed by a specific consonant cluster (r+cons; l+cons; h+cons);
A + r+cons; l+cons = ea; - hard – heard; arm – earm; half – healf; ahta – eahta; nah – neah;
æ + h+cons = ea; - uyj
e + h final = eo – erl – eorl; melcan – meolcan (milk), feh – feoh (fee).
2. Palatal mutation (i-mutation)
A back sound O or A changes its quality if there is a front sound in the next syllable.
A = æ; A = e; sandian – sendan; salian – sell; satian – sætan - settan
O = oe = e; dohter – dehter; wo_pian – we_pan (weep);
u = y kuning – cyning; mu_s – mY_s.
All this is true for long and short.
The same about diphthongs:
ea = ie eald – ieldra (elder)
eo – ie – feor – fierra (further)
Most frequent was the influence of the ending _ian, so it differed verbs from nouns.
fyllian – fyllan – The vowel U is articulated by raising the back of the tongue and
rounding the lips; the sound I requires raising the front of the tongue. When the speaker
begins to articulate the U he at the same time anticipates the articulation needed for I, and
raises the front of the tongue instead of its back. The lip-rounding is preserved. The result
is the vowel Y.
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.staoiohpot hithp h iet ahahiha ihpDhphpiD .3
s .s‫ ک‬C , hpl e stp Daeaatpo S, S
-Dohaahh –Dieha –hleh sDaha
ot –ote hp oeihp –e l te oe hp
a-ea
e = ie
ae = ea – gaef – geaf (gave);
o = eo scort – sceort (short); yong – geong (young)
4. Back, or Velar Mutation
The syllable that influenced the preceding vowel contained a back vowel – O or U
(sometimes A).
I = io hira – hiora (their), sifon – siofon
e = eo ( hefon – heofon (heavens)
a = ea saru – searu – armour.
5. Mutation before H.
Sounds A and E that precede H underwent several changes, mutating to diphthongs
EA, IE and finally were reduced to I/Y
naht – neaht – niht – nieht – nyht;
magan – meahrte – mihte – myhte.
6. Contraction
When H was placed between 2 vowels the following changes occurred:
ah+vowel = e_ slahan – slean (slay)
eh+vowel – e-o – sehen – seon
IH+vowel – eo tihan – teon – accuee;
OH + vowel – O_ hohan – h_on.
7. Lengthening of Vowels.
Before the clusters – ND, LD, MB
bindan bi_ndan; cild – ci_ld; wild – wi_ld, climban. If the cluster was followed by another
consonant, lengthening did not take place cildru.
3. The system of consonants. Its changes.
The OE consonant system consists of the following sounds:
labial – p, b, m, f, v;
dental – t, d, s, n, r, l, ð, ǿ
velar – c, g, h. The letter X is used instead of the group CS.
Changes:
1. Voicing of fricatives in intervocal position.
f=v ofer, wi_f
ǿ = ð, o_ther, rathe
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s= z = R (rhotacism)wesun = weren; maiza – ma_ra.
2.
Palatalisation of the sounds K, SK, KG (in letters – c, sc, cg) developed in
assibilation, that is formation of a sibilant in places before front vowels.
k’ = tч cild; ceosan =choose; hwilc (which)
sk’ = ш sceal, sceotan – shoot; sceort – short
kg’ = dж brycg; hrycg (ridge); wecg (wedge)
Back γ sound before palatal consonants turned into j – gear. If these changes don’t take
place, it means the words were later bprrowed from Scandinavian (give, skin).
3. Assimilation before T.
The sound T when it was preceded by a number of consonants changed the quality
of a preceding sound.
velar + T = HT se_can = sohte (seek – sought); bringan – bro_hte
labial + T = FT gesceapan – geaseft (creature)
dental + T = ss – witan – wisse (know)
fn = mn stefn = stemn = voice;
fm = mm = wifman – wimman
dð = t bindð = bint (binds)
4. Loss of consonants in certain positions.
The sounds N and m were lost before H, entailing the lengthening of the preceding
vowel:
bronhte = bro_hte
fimf = fi_f;
G was lost before D and N:
maegden – mae_den
saegde sae_de
5. Metathesis of R.
In several words the following changes of the position of consonants take place:
cons + R = vowel = cons + vowel + R
ðridda – ðirda (third)
brunnan – burnan;
hros – hors.
Metathesis of sounds is observed also with other sounds:
ascian = axian; wascan = waxan (wash)
6. West Germanic germination of consonants.
In the process of palatal mutation when J was lost and the preceding vowel was short, the
consonant after it was doubled (geminated):
fullian – fylla (fill)
saetian – settan (set)
salian – sellan
talian – tellan.
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Thus all OE phonetic changes appear to be due to one common principle, that of
assimilation.
Stress
In linguistics, stress is the emphasis (shown by more forceful, louder, and higherpitched voice) given to some syllables (usually no more than one in each word). In many
languages, long words have a secondary stress a few syllables away from the primary
stress. Some languages have fixed stress, i. e. stress is placed always on a given syllable,
as in French (where words are always stressed in the last syllable), Finnish (stress always
on the first syllable) or Quechua (always on the penultima -- the syllable before the last
one). Other languages have stress placed on different syllables in a predictable way
(they're said to have a regular stress rule), such as Latin.
There are also languages like English or Spanish, where stress is unpredictable and
arbitrary, being lexical -- it comes as part of the word and must be learned with it. In this
kind of language two words can differ only by the position of the stress, and therefore it's
possible to use stress as a derivative or inflectional device.
There are languages that do not have a stress rule, instead possessing accentual
systems based on pitch or tone (i. e. paying attention to the relative height of the syllable,
instead of its loudness). In English, stressed syllables have higher pitch than unstressed
ones. In tone (musical) languages, the tone can rise or fall during articulation of the
syllable, rather than some syllables, the stressed one, having higher pitch than the others. It
is considered that in Indo-European the stress used to be dynamic (or musical as some
scientists consider) and free. But in Germanic it became fixed on the root syllable and
turned into the dynamic one.
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