12. The development of monophthongs in me

The OE close labialized vowels [y] and [y:] disappeared in Early ME. In Early ME the dialectal differences grew. In some areas OE [y], [y:] developed into [e], [e:], in others they changed to [i], [i:], in the South-West and in the west Midlands the two vowels were for some time preserved as [y], [y:] but later were moved backward and merged with [u], [u:]. OE fyllan – ME Kentish fellen [], ME West Midland and South Western fullen [], ME east Midland and Northern fillen [] (NE fill). In early ME the long OE [a:] was narrowed to []. 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 [] in all the dialects except the Northern group. ME Northern stan(e) [], ME other dialects stoon, stone [], (NE stone). The resulting ME [] must have been a more open vowel than the long [o:] inherited from OE. The two phonemes [] and [o:] were well distinguished in ME, though no distinction was made in spelling: o, and double o were used for both sounds. The short OE [] was replaced in ME by the back vowel [a]. In OE [] was either a separate phoneme or one of a group of allophones distinguished in writing []. All these sounds were reflected in ME as [a], except the nasalized [a] which became [o] in the West Midlands. ME that [], NE that, ME blak [] NE black, ME West Midland lond [], ME other dialects land []. Most of the modern words going back to the OE prototypes with the vowel [a] have [a], e.g. NE man, sand, and, which means that they came from any dialect except west Midland; some words, however, especially those ending in [], should be traced to the West Midlands, e.g. long, song, strong, from, bond.

13. Diphthongs in the History of English

OE period. Under the influence of succeeding and preceeding consonants some Early OE monophthongs developed into diphthongs. The glide (if a front vowel stood before a velar (задненёбный) consonant), together with the original monophtong formed a dipthong. The front vowels [i], [e] and the newly developed [], changed into dipthongs with a back glide when they stood before [h], before long (double) [ll] or [l] plus another consonant. The changes is known as breaking or fracture. Breaking produced a new set of vowels in OE – the short dipthongs [ea] and [eo]. Diphthongisation of vowels could also be caused b preceding consonants: a glide arose after a palatal consonants as a sort of transition to the succeeding vowel. After the palatal [k’], [sk’] and [j] short and long [e] and [] turned into diphthongs with a more front close vowel as their first element. This process known as diphthongization after palatal consonants. ME period. One of the most important sound changes of the EaME was the loss of OE dipthongs and the growth of new dipthongs, with new qualitative and quantative distinctions. The vowel system lost two sets of diphogs, long and short. In Ea ME the sounds [j] and [] between and after vowels changed into [i] and [u] and formed diphthongs together with preceding vowels. These changes gave rise to two sets of diphthongs:with i-glide and u-glide. e+j= ei, e:+j=ei, +j=ai, a+ =au, o+ =ou, a:+w=ou, a:+x=au+x. NE period. The Great Vowel Shift: during this period all the long vowels became closer or were dipthongised.i: – ai (time) pr ME, a: – ei (maken), o: – ou (stone) – preserved from ME, u: – au (mous – mouse), but au – o: (cause). In Ea NE [r] was vocalized when it stood after vowels, either finally or followed by another consonant. It reduced to neutral sound, which was added to the preceding vowel as a glide thus forming diphthong. Formed э – glide diphthongs – iэ beer (бэр), eэ (there – зэрэ), uэ (moor o-+).