| Change illustrated | Examples | ||||
| Rhotacism Voicing or Devoicing Hardening | Late PG | ОE | Other OG languages | OE | NE |
| ð | d | O Icel rauðr | rēad | red | |
| Gt wasida [ð] | werede | wore, past of war | |||
| v | b | Gt broþar | brōþor | brother | |
| γ | g | Gt guma | 3uma | 'man* | |
| v | { | v | Gt sibun (v] | seofon [v] | seven |
| Gt hlaifs | hlafas {v] | loaves | |||
| f | (Cf. R хлеб) | hlāf [fl | loaf | ||
| f | { | v | Gt wulfos | wulfas [vl | wolves |
| f | Gt wulfs | wulf [f] | wolf | ||
| θ | { | ð | Gt siupan [θ] | seopan [ð] | seethe |
| θ | Gt sauþ [θ] | sead [θ] | seethed | ||
| γ | { | γ | Gt dagos | daзas | days |
| x | Gt baurgs | buruh, burh | borough | ||
| s | { | z | Gt kiusan [s] | ceosan [z] | choose |
| s | Gt kaus [s] | ceas [s] | chose | ||
| z | r | Gt maiza [z] | māra | more | |
| Gt huzd | hord | hoard |
Hardening. The PG voiced [ð] (due to Verner’s law) was always hardened to [d] in OE and other WG languages. The two other fricatives, [v] and [γ] were hardened to [b] and [g] initially and after nasals, otherwise they remained nasals.
Rhotacism. PG [z] underwent a phonetic modification through the stage of [з] into[r]. This process, termed rhotacism, is characteristic not only og WG but also of NG.
Voicing and devoicing of fricatives.The PG set of fricatives [f, θ, x, s] and also those of the voiced fricatives which had not turned onto plosives, that is [v] and [γ], were subjected to a new process of voicing and devoicing. In Early OE they became or remained voiced intervocally and between vowels, sonorants and voiced consonants; they remained or became voiced in ither environments.
West Germanic gemination of consonants. In all WG languages most consonants werer lengthened after a short vowel before [j], e.g. * fuljan>OE fyllan (NE fill). During the process, or some time later, [j] was lost, so that the long consonants ceased to be phonetically conditioned. The change did not affect the sonorant [r].
Palatalisation of velar consonants in Old English.
The velar consonants were palatalised before a front vowel, or sometimes also after a front vowel, unless followed by back vowel.
Palatalisation and Splitting of Velar Consonants
| Change illustrated | Examples | ||
| Before and after front vowels | In other positions | OE | NE |
| k к’ | сinn, birce, tǽcan | chin, birch, teach | |
| (from *tākjan), | |||
| k | can, macian (from | can, make | |
| *makōjan) | |||
| g g’ | sеnзаn (from *sangjan) | singe | |
| g: g’: | есз, bгусз | edge, bridge | |
| g | заn, зrētаn | go, greet | |
| x x’ | neaht, niht | night | |
| x, h | hors, hlāf | horse, loaf | |
| γ j | dæ3, 3eard | day, yard | |
| γ | da3as | days |
Loss of consonants in some positions.
Nasal sonorants were regularly lost before fricative consonants, in the process the preceding vowel was probably nasalised and lengthened. Cf. Gt fimf, OIcel. Fim, OHG fimf> OE fīf (NE five).
Old English consonant system.
Old English Consonants
| Place of articulation Manner of articulation | Labial, labiodental | Forelinguar (dental) | Mediolin- gual (palatal) | Back lingual (velar) | |
| Noise consonants | plosive voiceless voiced | p p: b b: | t t: d d: | k’ k’: g’: | k k: g g: |
| fricative voiceless voiced | f f: v | θ θ: s s: ð z | x’ x’: γ’ (j) | x x: (h) γ | |
| Sonorants | m m: w | n n: r 1 | j | (ŋ) |
Lecture 5
Old English Grammar
Hours
Plan
1. The Noun. Morphological classifications of Nouns in OE. Declensions of Nouns.
2. The Pronoun. Personal pronouns, their declension. Demonstrative pronouns.Other classes of pronouns.
3. Adjectives. Declensions of Adjectives. Degrees of comparison.
4. Numerals.
5. The verb. Strong and weak verbs. Preterite-present verbs. Anomalous verbs.
Literature
Rastorgueva T.A. A History of English. M.,1983; M.,2005. - p.92-129.
Ilyish B. History of the English language. Л. 1972. – p 63-132.
Reznik R.V., Sorokina T.S., Reznik I.V. A History of the English Language. M., 2001. – p. 89-126.
Аракин В.Д. История английского языка. М., 1985. – c. 45-91.
Бруннер К. История английского языка. М., 2003. – Т.2, с.3-354.
Иванова И.П., Чахоян Л.П., Беляева Т.М. История английского языка. СПб., 1998. с. 98-108, 112-116, 124-128, 131, 132-133, 133-154, 191-204, 216-224, 239-251,292-295.
Смирницкий А.И. Древнеанглийский язык. М., 1998. – с. 207-301.
Morphology
Form-building. Parts of speech and grammatical categories.
1.The Noun. Its grammatical categories. The use of cases. Morphological classification of nouns. Declensions. Weak and strong declensions. Root stems. Types of plural forms.
The OE noun had two grammatical or morphological categories: number and case. In addition it istinguished three genders.
The Noun had four cases: Nominative, Genitive, Dative and Accusative.
Historically, the Oe system of declensions was based on a number of distinctions: the stem-suffix, the gender of nouns, the phonetic structure of the word, phonetic changes in final syllables.
Morphological Classification of Nouns in Old English