- •1. The old Germanic languages, their classification and principal features
- •2. The chronological division of the History of English. General characteristics of the oe language
- •3. Oe dialects. The role of the Wessex dialect
- •4. The Scandinavian Invasion and its effect on English
- •5. The Norman Conquest and its effect on English
- •6. Me dialects. Me major written records. G. Chaucer and his Canterbury Tales
- •7. The formation of the national English language
- •8. The Germanic languages in the modern world, their classification. Their common ancestor
- •9. The Old English alphabets. Oe major written records
- •10. Major spelling changes in me
- •11. The oe vowel system. Major changes during the oe period
- •12. The development of monophthongs in me
- •13. Diphthongs in the History of English
- •14. Quantative changes of vowels in the History of English
- •15. Major vowel changes in ne. Great vowel shift. Vocalisation of [r]
- •16. The oe consonant system. Grimm’s and Verners Laws, treatment of fricatives
- •17. The general features of the oe noun declension system. The peculiarities of the a-, n, r–and root – stem declensions
- •18. Preterite-present verbs in oe and their further development
- •19. The anomalous verbs in oe and their further development
- •20. The sources of Modern English verb groups
- •21. Changes in the verb conjugation in me and ne
- •22. The history of the verbal grammatical categories in English
- •23. The rise of analytical forms in the verbal system in me
- •24. The infinitive in the history of English
- •25. The Participle in oe and its further development
- •26. The rise of the Gerund in English
- •27. Causes of changes in the morphological system in me and ne
- •28. Agreement in the History of English
16. The oe consonant system. Grimm’s and Verners Laws, treatment of fricatives
The changes of consonants in PG were first formulated in terms of a phonetic law by Jacob Grimm in the early 19th c. and are often called Grimm’s law. It is also known as the First or Proto-Germanic consonant shift. By the terms of grimm’s law voiceless plosives developed in PG into voiceless fricatives (Act 1) p-f, t – T, k-x, IE voiced plosives were shifted to voiceless plosives (Act 2) b – p, d – t, g – k and IE voiced aspirated plosives were reflected either as voiced fricatives or as pure voiced plosives (Act 3) bh – v, dh – D rudhira rauDs, gh – Y (or g) hostis – gasts. Verner’s law explains some correspondences of consonants which seemed to contradict Grimm; s law and were for a long time regarded as exceptions. According to verner’s law all the early PG voiceless fricatives [f, T, x] which arose under Grimm’s law, and also [s] inherited fromPIE, became voiced between vowels if the preceding vowel was unstressed; in the absence of these conditions they remained voiceless. F-v – heafod – huvud, T-D, d pater, fadar, x – Y, g socrus – swaihro, s-z auris-auso. /////// PG voiced fricatives tended to be hardened to corresponding plosives while voiceless fricatives, being contrasted to them primarily as fricatives to plosives, developed new voiced allophones. The PG voiced [D] was always harderned to [d] in OE wasida – werede, The two other fricatives, [v] and [$] were hardened to [b] and [g] initially and after nasals. 2. PG [z] underwent a phonetic modifications through the stage of [Z] into [r] and thus became a sonorant, which ultimately merged with the older IE [r]. This process, termed rhotacism, maize-mara-more. 3. Voiceless fricatives [f, T, x, s] and also those of the voiced fricatives which had not turned into plosives, that is, [v] and [$], 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 voiceless in other environments, namely, initially finally and next to other voiceless consonants. V – v, f hlaifs – loaves; f – v, f wulfos – wolves, T – T, D sauT – seeDd, $ – $, x dagos-daZs – days; s-s, z kaus – chose. Old English consonant system. The system consisted of several correlated sets of consonants. According to manner of articulation All the consonants fell into noise consonants and sonorants m, m:, w, n, n:, r, l, j, N. The noise consonants were subdivided into plosives and fricatives; plosives were further differenriated as voiced b, b:, d, d:, g’:, g, g: and voiceless p, p:, t, t:, k’, k’:, k, k:, the difference being phonemic. The fricative consonants were also subdivided into voiced v, z, D, $, $’, j and voiceless f, f:, x’, x’:, x, x:, h, s, s:, T, T: The most universal distinctive feature in the consonant system was the difference in length. Place of articulation: labial, labiodentals p, p:, b, b:, f, f:, v, m, m:, w/ forelingual (dental) t, t:, d, d:, s, s;, z, T, T:, D; n, n:, r, l/ mediolingual (palatal) k’, k’:, x’, x’:, j,$/ back lingual (velar) k, k:, g, g:, x, x: h.