- •Subject and Aims of the History of English. Its Ties with Other Disciplines. Germanic Language in the System of Indo-European Family of Languages
- •1. History of English in the systemic conception of English
- •1.1. The aims and the purpose of the study of the subject
- •1.2. Connection of the subject with other disciplines
- •2. Sources of Language History
- •2.1. Writings in early English
- •3.3 The structure of the language
- •3.4 The language classification principles
- •3. General notes on the language study
- •3.1 The definition of the language
- •3.2 The functions of the language
- •3.5 Synchrony and diachrony in the language study
- •4. The comparative-historical method
- •4.1 The stages of the comparative-historical method
- •4.2 The principles of the comparative-historical method
- •4.3 The drawbacks of the comparative-historical method
- •5. The Germanic group of languages
- •The Formation of the English National Language. Periods in the History of the English Language
- •1. Territorial dialects of the period of the Anglo-Saxon invasion
- •2. The dialects of the period of the Norman Conquest
- •3. The development of the dialect of London into a national language
- •Periods in the History of the English Language
- •1. Henry Sweet and his division of the history of English
- •2. Historical periodization as offered by b. Khaimovich
- •3. T. Rastorguyeva’s periodization of the English language
- •4. The division of the history of English as suggested by V. Arakin
- •5. The periods of the development of English as offered by a. Markman and e. Steinberg
- •6. David Burnley’s periodization of the history of English
- •Common Linguistic Features of Germanic Languages
- •1. Phonetic peculiarities of the Germanic languages
- •1.1. The First Consonant Shift
- •1.2. Vowels
- •1.3. The doubling of consonants
- •1.4. Rhotacism
- •1.5. Germanic fracture (or breaking)
- •1.6. The second consonant shift
- •2. Some common grammatical features of Germanic languages
- •2.1. Form-building Means
- •2.1.1. Ablaut
- •2.1.2. Word-structure
- •2.1.3. Types of Stems
- •2.1.4. Strong and Weak Verbs
- •3. Germanic Vocabulary
- •Phonetic Changes in the Old English Period
- •The Main Features of Old, Middle, and Modern English
- •2. Old English Phonetics
- •2.1. Oe Consonants
- •2.2. Vowels
- •2.2.1. Changes of stressed vowels
- •2.2.2. Changes of unstressed vowels
- •Changes in the Middle English Orthography and Phonology
- •1. Changes in the Orthographic System
- •2. Major Changes in the Sound System
- •2.1. The Consonants
- •2.2. Consonant Changes from Old to Middle English
- •2.3. Vowels in Stressed Syllables
- •2.4. Vowels in Unstressed Syllables
- •2.5. The Formation of Middle English Diphthongs
- •The Old English Morphology
- •1. The Old English Noun.
- •2. The Old English Pronoun
- •3. The Old English Adjective
- •4. The Old English Adverb
- •5. The Numeral in Old English
- •6. The Old English Verb.
- •The Middle English Morphology
- •1. Middle English as a Period of Great Change.
- •2. The Middle English Noun.
- •3. Articles.
- •4. The me Adjective.
- •5. The me Adverb
- •6. The me Pronoun
- •7. The me Verb
- •7.1. Strong and weak verbs
- •The New English Morphology and Changes in the System of English Syntax
- •1. New English Morphology
- •2. Old English Syntax.
- •3. Middle English Syntax
- •4. New English Syntax
2. Old English Phonetics
OE is so far removed from Modern English that one may take it for an entirely different language; this is largely due to the peculiarities of its pronunciation.
The survey of OE phonetics deals with word accentuation, the systems of vowels and consonants and their origins. The OE sound system developed from the PG system. It underwent multiple changes in the pre-written periods of history, especially in Early OE.
2.1. Oe Consonants
From the following chart we see that the consonants of Old English were very similar to those of Modern English:
|
Bilabial |
Labio-dental |
Inter-dental |
Alveolar |
Alveo-palatal |
Velar |
Voiceless stop |
p |
|
|
t |
|
k |
Voiced stop |
b |
|
|
d |
|
g |
Voiceless affricate |
|
|
|
|
t |
|
Voiced affricate |
|
|
|
|
d |
|
Fricative |
|
f |
θ |
s |
|
h |
Nasal |
m |
|
|
n |
|
|
Lateral |
|
|
|
l |
|
|
Retroflex |
|
|
|
r |
|
|
Semivowel |
w |
|
|
|
j |
|
The differences between this set of consonants and that of modern English are essentially orthorgraphic in nature, as some graphemes can represent a variety of sounds:
The consonants w, b, d, m, l, t and p were all similar to their counterparts in Modern English.
OE r was not like retroflex /r/ of British or American English, but was trilled.
sc and cg were pronounced [ ] and [ ] respectively: disc ‘dish’ was pronounced [ ] and ecg ‘edge’ was pronounced [ ]. Since /sk/ becomes [ ] in OE, all OE words that pronounce sc as [sk] are clearly loans from Scandinavian.
The fricatives f, þ, ð and s each represented two separate sounds:
f þ,ð s
f v θ ð s z
Voicing was predictable by context; that is to say whenever the sound in question was between voiced sounds it was itself voiced: ceosan – [ ] ‘choose’. Elsewhere it was unvoiced.
5) The sound spelled with the letter <n> was either [n] or, before [g] and [k], the velarized nasal [ ]: singan – [ ] ‘to sing’.
6) The sounds represented by the letter <h> were: [h] initially, including the clusters /hl-/, /hr-/, /hw-/, [x] after back vowels, and [x’] after front vowels: ham –
[ ] ‘home’; leoht – [ ] ‘light’; hlaf – [ ] ‘loaf’; miht – [ ] ‘might, could’.
7) The sound spelled with the letter <c> was either [k] before a consonant or back vowel or [ ] next to a front vowel: ceosan – [ ]; clæne [ ] ‘clean’.
8) Similarly, <g> was either [j] before or between front vowels and finally after a front vowel: ; or [g] before consonants, back vowels and front vowels resulting from umlaut.
9) <cg> was pronounced as [ ] in medial or final position: brycg ‘bridge’.
10) OE had phonemically long consonants so that bed ‘prayer’ contrasts with bedd ‘bed’.
11) OE had a number of consonant clusters that are no longer in the language. As well as /h/ clusters discussed above, there were /kn/ and /gn/, which are no longer pronounced as [kn] and [gn], but whose origin remains visible in the modern spellings knee and gnaw.