būde... þā fōr he зiet norþyhte
[′bu:de θa: fo:r he: jiet ′norθ,ryx’te]
Lived (had lived). Then sailed he yet (farther) northwards
swā feor swā hē meahte on þǽm
[swa: feor swa: he: ′meaxte on θæ:m]
As far as he migtit (could) in the
ōþrum þtīm daзum зesiзlan.
[′о:ðrum dayum θri:m ′daγum je′siγlan]
other three days sail".
Lecture 4
Old English Phonetics
Hours
Plan
1. Word stress.
2. Origin of OE vowels.
3. Origin of OE consonants.
Literature
Rastorgueva T.A. A History of English. M.,1983; M.,2005. - p.74-92.
Ilyish B. History of the English language. Л. 1972. – p 44-56.
Reznik R.V., Sorokina T.S., Reznik I.V. A History of the English Language. M., 2001. – p. 77-89.
Аракин В.Д. История английского языка. М., 1985. – c. 31-45.
Бруннер К. История английского языка. М., 2003. – Т.1, с. 176-200, 259-261,277-285.
Иванова И.П., Чахоян Л.П., Беляева Т.М. История английского языка. СПб., 1998. с. 46-68.
Смирницкий А.И. Древнеанглийский язык. М., 1998. – с. 60-154.
Word stress.
A dynamic or forced stress was imployed. Word stress was fixed: it remained on the same syllable in form – and wordbuilding. Polysyllabic words, especially compounds ay have two stresses, the chief being fixed on the first root morpheme. The position of stress in the words with prefixes varied: verb prefixes were unaccented, while in nouns and adjectives the stress was commonly thrown to the prefix..
Old English vowels. Changes of stressed vowels. Independent changes.
Fronting or palatalisation of [a] and [a:]. Positional deviations or restrictions to this rule: short [a] could change to [o] or [ã] and long [a:] became [o:] before a nasal. The preservation of the short [a] was caosed by a back vowel in the next syllable.
Splitting of [a] and [a:] in Early Old English
| Change illustrated | E x a m p l e s | ||||||
| PG OE | Other OG languages | OE | NE | ||||
| æ | Gt þata | þæt | that | ||||
| O Icel dagr | dæз | day | |||||
| a | o, ã | Gt mann(a) | mon | man | |||
| O Icel land | land | land | |||||
| a | Gt magan | mазаn | may | ||||
| Gt dagos, | daзas | days | |||||
| a: | æ: о: | OHG dâr OHG slâfen OHG mâno | þǽr slǽpan mōna | there sleep moon | |||
| O Icel mánaðr | mōnаþ | month | |||||
Old English reflections of PG diphthongs. The diphthongs with the i-glide were monophthongised into [i:] and [a:], respectively; with u-glides were reflected as long diphthongs [io:], [eo:], and [ea:].
Old English Reflexes of Proto-Germanic Diphthongs
(or Bi-Phonemic Sequences)
| Change illustrated | E x a m p l e s | ||
| PG OE | Other OG languages | OE | NE |
| a + i a: | Gt stains | stān | stone |
| Gt ains | ān | one | |
| e + i i: | Gt meins1 | mīn | mine, my |
| Gt reisan | rīsan | rise | |
| a + u ea: | 0 Icel austr | ēast | east |
| Gt auso | ēаге | ear | |
| Gt augo (cf.. G Auge) | ēазе | eye | |
| e + u eo: | Gt þiudans | þēoden | ‘king’ |
| Gt kiusan | cēosan | choose | |
| i + u io: _________ | Gt diups | dēop, dīop2 | deep |
| 1 The vowel in Gt is [i:], though the spelling resembles the PG [ei]. | |||
| 2In OE the diphthongs [eo:] and [io:] occur as dialectal variants. |
Assimilative vowel changes.
The front vowels [i], [e], and [æ] changed into dophthongs with a back glide when they stood before [h], [ll], or [l]. The change is known as breaking.
Diphthongisation of vowels could also be caused by preceding consonants. After the palatal consonants [k’] and [sk’] and [j] short and long [e] and [æ] turned into diphthongs with a more front vowel as their first element.
Breaking and Diphthongisation
| Conditions | Change illustrated | Examples | |||||
| Early OE | OE | Other 0G languages and OE dialects | WS | NE | |||
| Breaking | before l+l or l + other consonants | æ | ea | Gt Merc North | alls all ald | eall eald | all old |
| h h + other consonants | æ: æ e | ea: ea eo | OHG Gt OHG | nâh ahtau fehtan | nēah eahta feohtan | near eight fight | |
| r + other consonants | e æ | eo ea | OHG OHG Gt | herza arm hardus | heorte earm heard | heart arm hard |
| Diphthongisation | e | ie | OHG | skild | scield, | shield | ||
| after | sk’ | scyld | ||||||
| OHG | scal | aceal | shall | |||||
| æ | ea | Gt | skadus | sceadu | shade | |||
| k’ | e æ | ie ea | loan- words | cerasus (L) castra (L) | deres, cyrs ceaster | cherries chester (‘camp’) | ||
| j | æ: e | ea: ie | OHG Gt | jâr giban | зēаr зiefan | year give |
Palatal Mutation
Mutation is the change of one vowel to another through the influence of a vowel in a succeding syllable. Mutation under the influence of [i] or [j] is known as “i-Umlaut” or “palatal mutation”. Palatal mutation is the fronting and raising of vowels under the influence of [i] or [j] ao as to approach the articulatuin of [i].
| Change illustrated | Examples | |||
| Vowels prior to Mutated palatal vowels mutation | Gt or OE (without palatal mutation) | OE (palatal mutation) | NE | |
| æ а ﺭ | }е | Gt mats OE sala, Gt saljan Gt sandjan | mete sellan sendan | meat sale, sell send |
| a: æ: | OE lār, Gt laisjan | lǽran | ‘teaching’, ‘teach’ | |
| OE ān | ǽni3 | one, any | ||
| o e | OE dohtor | dehter | daughter (Nom. and Dat. sg) | |
| o: e: | OE bōc | bēc | book, books | |
| OE dōm | doom | |||
| Gt gadōmjan | dēman | deem | ||
| u y | OE full | full | ||
| Gt fulljan | fyllan | fill | ||
| u: y: | OE mūs | mўs | mouse, mice | |
| ea eo | } ie | OE eald OE feor | ieldra fierra | old, elder far, farther |
| ea: eo: | } ie: | OE 3elēafa Gt galaubjan | 3elīefan | belief, believe |
| OE þēod | elþīedi3 adj | ‘tribe’, ‘of a tribe’ |
Due to thereduction of final syllables the conditions which caused palatal mutation had disappeared in most words by the age of writing.
Old English Vowels
| Monophthongs | Diphthongs | |||||||||||
| Short Long | i i: | e e: | (œ) (œ:) | æ æ: | (ã) a: | a | о о: | u u: | y y: | (ie) (ie:) | ea ea: | eo eo: |
Old English consonants.
Treatment of Fricatives.