OE SOUND SYSTEM

OE VOWELS (MONOPHTHONGS)
The OE vowel system shows 7 points of short and long vowels. ī ĭ y (short and long) ŭū ēĕ ōŏ æ (short
and l) ăā. THE PECULIARITY OF OE VOWELS: it showed full symmetry. Length of vowels was
phonological, that is to say it could distinguish different words: gōd (=good NE) and gŏd (god NE)
In ME the following changes occurred (14th c)
The number of short vowels decreased, instead of 7 we find 5 (y-i, æ – a) these vowels merged.
The main process that took place in long vowels was narrowing (ē → e: æ (long)→e: ŏ→o: ā→o:) . The
origin of a: it developed from short a in pen stressed syllables.
Changes of Unstressed Vowels in Early Old English
The development of vowels in unstressed syllables, final syllables in particular, was basically different
Whereas in stressed position the number of vowels had grown (as compared with the PG system), due to
the appearance of new Qualitative differences, the number of vowels distinguished in unstressed position
had been reduced. In unstressed syllables, especially final, long vowels were shortened, and thus the
opposition of vowels — long to short — was neutralised. It must also be mentioned that some short
vowels in final unstressed syllables were dropped.
At the end of OE and in the immediately succeeding centuries accented vowels underwent a number
of quantitative changes which affected the employment and the phonological status of short and long
vowels in the language. At that time vowel length was for the most part an inherited feature: ОE short
vowels had developed from PG short vowels, while long ones went back to long vowels or bi-
phonemic vowel sequences.
SHORTENING: (In early ME 12-13c) all long vowels became short if followed by 2 or more
consonants: fīfti- fifty
LENGTHENING: In the 12th or 13th c. Short vowels became long in open syllables. This
lengthening mainly affected the more open of the short vowels e,o,a before clusters [ld, nd, mb]; in 2-
syllable words, only to [e, o, a] in open stressed syllable (open- ōpen)
REDUCTION – weakening and disappearance of unstressed vowels. As far as the stress was
mainly on the root the vowels in prefixes and suffixes got weak and underwent reduction. Full vowels
began to change to neutral and then it was weakened to zero. In unstressed position only two vowels were
left – [Ə] and [i]. They had never been contrasted. E.g. ME tale [‘ta:lə], body [‘bodi]
In NE sound (Ə) was dropped at the end of the words but the letter e was left in spelling to show
the length of the preceding vowel. This change brought our many monosyllabic words and caused great
changes in grammar (loss of inflections-English became an analytical lang)
QUALITATIVE VOWEL CHANGES IN EARLY MIDDLE ENGLISH
As compared with quantitative changes, qualitative vowel changes in Early ME were less
important. They affected several monophthongs and displayed considerable dialectal diversity. On the
whole they were independent of phonetic environment.
The OE close labialised vowels [y] and [y:] disappeared in Early ME, merging with various sounds
in different dialectal areas. The vowels lyl and ly:l existed in OE dialects up to the 10th c, when they were
replaced by [i] and[i:]
The main process that took place in long vowels was NARROWING (ē → e: æ (long)→e: ŏ→o:
ā→o:) . The origin of a: it developed from short a in open stressed syllables.
In Early ME the long OE [a:] was narrowed to [o]. This was an early instance of the growing
tendency of all long monophthongs to become closer; the tendency was intensified in Late ME when
all long vowels changed in that direction, [a:] became (э:1
The short OE [æ] was replaced in ME by the back vowel [a] In OE [æ] was either a separate
phoneme or one of a group of allophones distinguished in writing [е, a, a, ea 1 All these sounds were
reflected in ME as [a] except the nasalised [a] which became [o]
LENGTHENING IN NE DUE TO THE VOCALIZATION OF R.
After short vowels: After long vowels:
ME: o+r=o: (NE): for-fo: i:+r=aie: fire-faie
ME: a+r=a: (NE): bar-ba: e:+r= ie: beer-bie
ME: I,e,u+r=e: (NE): fur-fe: a+r=ee: bear-bee
ME: Ə +r= Ə (NE): brother-brathe o:+r=o: floor -floor
THE GREAT VOWEL SHIFT
Early NE witnessed the greatest event in the history of English vowels — the Great Vowel Shift, —
which involved the change of all ME long monophthongs, and probably some of the diphthongs.
Great Vowel Shift – the change that happened in the 14th – 16th c. and affected all long
monophthongs + diphthong [au]. As a result these vowels were: 1.diphthongized; 2.narrowed (became
more closed); 3.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 [ou] stone [‘sto:nə] stone [stoun]

[u:] moon [mo:n] moon [mu:n]

[u:] à [au] mous [mu:s] mouse [maus]

[au] à [o:] cause [‘kauzə] cause [ko:z]

The spelling remained unchanged.
lt should be obvious from the chart and the table that the Great Vowel Shift did not add any new
sounds to the vowel system; in fact, every vowel which developed under the Shift can be found in Late
ME
And nevertheless the Great Vowel Shift was the most profound and comprehensive change in the
history of English vowels: every long vowel, as well as some diphthongs, were "shifted", and the
•pronunciation of all the words with these sounds was altered(изменилось)

DIPTHONGS
The PG diphthongs — ei ai iu eu au underwent regular independent changes in Early OE; they took
place in all phonetic conditions irrespective of environment. The diphthongs with the i-glide were
monophthongised into [i] and [a], respectively; the diphthongs in u were reflected as long diphthongs |
io:|, leo:l and lea: I
All Engl dipthongs were monophonized from OE to NE.
In PG there were no diphthongs. There was just a sequence of two separate vowels. Diphthongs
appeared in OE: some (usually long diphthongs) – as a result of merging of two vowels:
Sounds Diphth. Gothic OE

a+uà ea: auso eare (ear)

e+uà eo: þeudans þēoden (king)

(i + u)à (io:) (dialectal variant) diups dīop (deep)

others (usually short diphthongs) – as a result of the influence of the succeeding and preceding consonants
(breaking of [æ, e])
Monoph. Diphth. Influence Gothic OE

æà ea before l alls eall (all)

æà ea before h ahtau eahta (eight)

BREAKING Under the
eà eo before r herza heorte (heart) influence of succeeding and
preceding consonants
æà ea after sk’/k’ skadus sceadu (shade) monophthongs turned into

æ: à ea: after j jâr ζēar (year)

diphthongs. The front vowels [i],[e],[æ] àdiphthongs, WHEN they stood before [h], [ll] or [l]+cons,[r]
+cons, e.g.: OE deorc, NE dark. Breaking is dated in Early OE.
Breaking produced a new set of vowels in OE — the short diphthongs [ea] and [eo]. OE
diphthongs turned into monophthongs in ME

OE Diphth. ME Sounds OE ME
New diphthongs appeared due to
vocalisation of [j], [γ] and [w]. These ĭě/īē à i līehtan lighten (lighten)
consonants turned into vowels ([i], [u] and
[u] respectively) and became the glides of ĕŏ/ēō à e heorte herte (heart)
the new diphthongs:
ĕă/ēā à æ ēast eest (east)
The diphthong oi was of French origin.

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 Fr. boy, toy [ou] cnāw[w]an know[u]en [‘knouən]

loan-words) (know)

Lengthening and diphthongization in NE (17c) due to the vocalization of r. а также The Great
Vowel Shift

CONSONANT CHANGES IN THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH.

Some consonants remained almost unchanged through historical periods, for ex. sonorants [m,n,l],
the plosives [p,b,t,d] and also [k, g] in most positions have not been changed. The most important
developments were the growth of new sets of sounds, — affricates and sibilants (свистячие), — and the
new phonological treatment of fricatives, some consonants were lost or vocalized.
GROWTH OF SIBILANTS AND AFFRICATES In OE there were no affricates and no sibilants,
except [s, z]
The earliest traces of these sounds appeared in the end of OE or in Early ME. These
consonants developed from OE palatal plosives [k', g'] In Early ME they began to be indicated by special
letters and digraphs, which came into use under the influence of the French scribal tradition — ch, tch, g,
dg, sh, ssh, sch.For ex.: [k’] à[t∫]: cild [k’il’d]- child [t∫ild], [g’] à[dζ]: ecge [‘egg’] edge [‘edζ],
[sk’] à[∫]: fisc [fisk’]- fish [fi∫].
Another development accounting for the APPEARANCE of sibilants and affricates in the English
language is dated in Early NE and is connected with the phonetic assimilation of lexical borrowings.

ME NE ME NE

[sj] à [∫] commissioun [komi’sjon] commission [kə’mi∫ən]

[zj] à [ζ] pleasure [ple’zjur] pleasure [‘pleζə]

[tj] à [t∫] nature [na’tjur] nature [‘neit∫ə]

[dj] à [dζ] procedure [,pros’djur] procedure [prə’si dζə]

In the numerous loan-words of Romance origin adopted in ME and Early NE the stress fell on the
final or last but one syllabic. In accordance with the phonetic tendencies the stress was moved closer to
the beginning of the word. The final syllables which thus became unstressed, or weakly stressed,
underwent phonetic alterations: the vowels were reduced and sometimes dropped; the sounds
making up the syllable became less distinct. As a result some sequences of consonants fused into single
consonants.
↑ PALATALISATION – as a result of reduction of unstressed vowels several consonants merged into
one. There were some exceptions though, e.g. mature, duty, due, suit, statue, tune, etc
TREATMENT OF FRICATIVE CONSONANTS IN ME AND EARLY NE

ME NE ME NE

[s] à [z] possess [pə’ses] possess [pə’zes]

[q] à [ð] this [qis],the [qə], there [qεə] this [ðis],the [ðə], there [ðεə]

[f] à [v] of [of] of [ov]

[ks] à [gz] anxiety [,ən’ksaiəti] anxiety [,ən’gzaiəti]

[t∫] à [dζ] knowledge [‘kno:lət∫ə] knowledge [‘no:lidζ]

16th c. The fricatives were voiced under certain phonetic conditions. They were voiced: in functional
words and auxiliaries that are never stressed; when preceded by an unstressed and followed by a stressed
vowel. For ex.(tabl)
LOSS OF CONSONANTS: the system of consonants underwent important changes in ME and Early
NE.
A number of consonants disappeared: they were vocalized and gave rise to diphthongal
glides' or made the preceding short vowels long.
With the disappearance of [x'] the system lost one more opposition — through palatalisation, as
"hard" to "soft". (The soft [k'] and [g'l turned into affricates some time earlier).
Another important event was the loss of quantitative distinctions in the consonant system.In Late
ME long consonants were shortened and the phonemic opposition through quantity was lost.
THE REASONS OF LOSS OF LONG CONSONANT PHONEMES:
1.because their functional load was very low
2.because length was becoming a prosodic feature, that is a property of the syllable rather than of the
sound. Some consonants underwent positional changes which restricted their use in the language.
The consonants [∫] and [r] were vocalized under certain phonetic conditions — finally and
before consonants. [r] was vocalised at the end of the word in the 16th -17th c.; [j] disappeared as a result of
palatalisation); [j] remained only initially (e.g. year, yard, etc.); [h, h’] were lost (e.g. ME taughte [‘tauhtə]
– NE taught [to:t], ME night [nih’t] – NE night [neit] [kn] à [n] (e.g. ME know [knou] – NE know
[nou]); [gn] à [n] (e.g. ME gnat [gnat] – NE gnat [næt]);