KYIV NATIONAL LINGUISTIC UNIVERSITY презентация

KYIV NATIONAL LINGUISTIC UNIVERSITY Subota S.V. LECTURE 7 MIDDLE ENGLISH PHONOLOGY.

Plan ME vowel system. General characteristics. Quantitative changes in ME. Qualitative changes in ME. Development of diphthongs. Levelling of final unstressed vowels. ME consonant system.

Literature Расторгуева Т.А. История английского языка. – М.: Астрель, 2005. – С. 190-200. Ильиш Б.А. История английского языка. – Л.: Просвещение, 1972. – С. 142-174. Иванова И.П., Чахоян Л.П. История английского языка. – М.: Высшая школа, 1976. – С.67-78. Студенець Г.І. Історія англійської мови в таблицях. - К.: КДЛУ, 1998. – Tables 65-74

OE and ME VOWEL SYSTEMS

Quantitative changes of vowels in Late OE and Early ME At the end of OE / at the beginning of ME stressed vowels underwent a number of quantitative changes, short vowels were phonemically opposed to long ones In late OE / early ME vowel length began to depend on phonetic conditions Lengthening Short vowels became long before two homorganic consonant (a sonorant + plosive) L+D OE ald, cild, wild – ME āld, cīld, wīld N+D OE wind, findan, blind – ME wīnd, fīndan, blīnd M+B OE climban – ME clīmben

Shortening before other clusters All other groups of 2 or more consonants produced the reverse effect: they made the preceding vowels short OE sōft, cēpte, blēdde – ME soft, cepte, bledde OE fīftig, wīsdom, wīfmann – ME fifty, wisdom The 3rd consonant [r] prevented the lengthening in cildru, bewildrian !!! Long vowels resisted shortening before st east, mǽst but in some words they didn’t dūst, fyst, rūst – dust, fist, rust

Lengthening Vowels became long + more open in open syllables mainly affected open vowels [e, a, o] seldom [i, u] OE open, wike, nama – ME open, weke, name Long vowels remained long in open syllables, short vowels – short in open syllables OE cū, winter – ME cow, winter In spite of some restrictions lengthening affected many words. Lengthening didn’t occur in polysyllabic words (lāferce →laferce →larke) and before some suffixes (OE bodig – ME body, OE sūðerne – ME southern, OE haligdæg – ME holiday)

Quantitative changes of vowels in Early ME As compared with quantitative vowel changes, qualitative vowel changes in Early ME were less important. They affected several monophthongs and displayed considerable dialectal diversity, the changes were independent of phonetic environment.

Levelling of unstressed vowels All unstressed vowels were weakened and reduced to a neutral vowel [ə] (OE sunu - ME sone). Beginning with the 13th c. some dialects showed certain variations in spelling of unstressed vowels, which probably reflected peculiarities of pronunciation: askid, fadur. The tendency to phonetic reduction began in OE, in Early ME the pronunciation of unstressed syllables became indistinct.

In OE 5 vowels were distinguished in unstressed position (representing 3 opposed phonemes [e/i], [o/u], [a]), Late ME had only 2 vowels in unstressed position [ə/ i], which were never directly contrasted – phonemic contrasts in unstressed vowels had been lost. The loss of [ə] started in the North, spread to the Midlands, reached the South areas by the 15th c. When the ending survived in spelling, it was understood as a means of showing the length of the vowel in the preceding syllable, it was added to the words that never had it before (OE rād, stān, hūs – ME rode, stone, house)

ME consonant system Assibilation OE palatal [k’] developed into the affricate [t∫] [k’] → [t∫] OE cild, ælc → ME child, each [sk’] → [∫] OE scip, scinan → ME ship, shinen [g’] → [dʒ] OE brycʒ, secʒan, lecʒan → ME bridge, seggen, leggen – due to the analogy with the past forms seide, saide (OE sæʒde), leide, laide (OE læʒde) In Northern dialects – kirk (church), birk (birch)

Loss of initial “h” before sonorants Loss of initial “h” before sonorants ([h] dropping) [hr] → [r] OE hrinʒ → ME ring [hl] → [l] OE hlūd → ME loud [hn] → [n] OE hnut → ME nut Loss of endings in weak final position OE gamen → ME game OE sittan → ME sitten → sit Shortening of long consonants full [ful]

In NE voiced and voiceless fricatives are used in all positions Foot-initial ferry-very, fan-van Foot-middle selfish- selvedge Foot-final calf – carve Veal, victory, zodiac OE lufu –ME love

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