OE vowels

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 503.

Negation

As distinct from Mod.E. the OE sentence can contain more than one negation.

Ne can ic nōht sin™an (Нічого не можу я співати)

Sentences may be one member and two member types. As distinct from Mod.E. one member sentences are much common in OE.

Nu þinc™ mē (one member sentence) (Now it seems to me)

The graphs or letters used in OE to represent vowel sounds were a, a, e, i, o, u, y. These seven letters were used for both short and long vowel sounds (a total of 14). Texts typically signal the long vowel quality by a line over the letter, as in ā (as opposed to a). OE speakers also appear to have made use of the unstressed vowel schwa, as well as of four diphthongs, spelt eo, eō, ea and eā (note again the distinctions of length).

The length of the vowel was a phonemic quality. The words having long and short vowels differed in meaning: god (god) - gōd (good), west (west) - wēst (waste), for (preposition for) - fōr (past tense of the verb faran - go).

1. Breaking (fracture). This is the process of formation of a short diphthong from a simple short vowel when it is followed by a specific consonant cluster. Thus, _

a + r+cons, 1+cons. => ea

hard > heard (hard)

talde > tealde (told)

æ + h+cons. => ea

hairto, herte > heorte (heart)

e + h final => eo

feh > feoh (cattle, originally fee)

Palatal mutalion (i-umlaut). The essence of this change is that a back sound, a or o, changes its quality if there is a front sound in the next syllable.

a > æ; a > e wakjan - wseccan (to observe, to be awake)

sandian — sendan (to send)

ā>ælārian – læran (to learn, to teach)

o>oe>edohter – dehter (dative case of daughter)

ō>oe>ēwōpian – wēpan (to weep)

u>yfullian – fyllan (to fill)

ū>ýmūs – mýs (mice)

2. Palatal mutation was found not only in monophthongs but in diphthongs too. The modified system of diphthongs looks like the following:

ea > ieeald – ieldra (elder)

eo>iefeor – fierra (futher)

ēa>īehēarian – hīeran (to hear)

ēo>īeƷetrēowi – Ʒetriewe (true)

3. Diphthongization after palatal consonants.

Diphthongs may have resulted from another process in Old English – diphthongization after palatal consonants 'sk', k' and j (in spelling sc, c, z):

a > ea, skal — sceal shall

a > ea skaggwon — sceawian (to show)

e > ie Ʒefan — Ʒiefan (give)

æ > ea jar - Ʒear (year)

o > eo scort- sceort (short)

4. Back, or Velar Mutation.

The formula of mutation here reminds very much that of palatal mutation, but the difference is that the syllable that influenced the preceding vowel contained a back vowel - o or u (sometimes even a might serve a background for back mutation). Not all the dialects had this mutation, and process was not universal (in West Saxon literary language it occurred only before the sounds r, l, p, b, f, m):

i> io hira - hiora (their);

e > eo hefon — heofon (heaven)

a > ea saru — searu (armour)

5. Mutation before h. Sounds a and e that preceded h underwent
several changes, mutating to diphthongs ea, ie and finally were reduced to
i/y: - naht - neaht - niht - nieht - nyht (night). The second may be quite
easily traced to breaking, but the origin of the other three is rather vague.
Probably, the very nature of the h sound was the reason for further
development of the sound.

The words with such mutation are not very numerous, still we cannot ignore them altogether. It is observed in the past tense of the verb majan (may) meahte - miehte - mihte - myhte and several other words.