Old English consonants

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 565.

Contraction.

Somehow or other the consonant h proved to have interfered with the development of many sounds. When h was placed between two vowels the following changes occurred:

a + h +vowel > ēa slahan - slēan (slay)

e + h + vowel >ēo sehen — sēon (see)

i + h + vowel > ēo tihan - tēon (accuse)

o + h + vowel > ō fohan - fōn (catch)

1. Voicing of fricatives in intervocal position:

f > v ofer (over)

wif - wife, wifa (wife - wives)

θ > ð oðer (other)

s > z>r

Voiced sibilant z was very unstable in Old English (and other west-Germanic languages), and very soon changed into r. This process is called rhotacism:

wesun - weren ( now were, but was)

2. Palatalization of the sounds k", sk' and kg' (marked as c, sc and cƷ) developed in assibilation, that is formation of a sibilant in places before front vowels.

k'>t∫ cild (child)

sk'> ∫ sceal (shall)

kg' > dƷ brycƷ (bridge)

Back y sound before palatal consonants turned into Ʒ - Ʒear (year). This process seems to have occurred in Late Old English. So, the words that started with scor Ʒ acquired a sibilant or Ʒ; if we find that a word still has g or sc/sk at the beginning there is a strong probability that it was borrowed from Scandinavian and replaced the Old English form (e.g. give, skin) or together with the old word formed a pair of etymological doublets (shatter/scatter, shirt/skirt). Some words of Greek origin (school, scheme etc) will also have sk.

3. Assimilation before t. The sound t when it was preceded by a number of consonants changed the quality of a preceding sound.

velar + t > ht brinƷan —> brohte (bring - brought)

labial +1 > ft Ʒesceapan —> Ʒeaseaft (creature);

dental + t > ss witan —> wisse (instead of witte - knew);

fn > mn stefn —> stemn (voice);

fm > mm wifman —> wimman (woman);

dð > t bindð —> bint (binds).

4. Loss of consonants in certain positions. Besides h that was lost in intervocal position, the sounds n and m were lost before h, entailing the lenghthening of the preceding vowel:

bronhte - brohte (brought)

The nasals were not lost in German, so the corresponding German words are fünf, ander and Mund.

Other examples of similar loss was the loss of z before d and n; the vowel was lengthened, too :mæƷden - mæden (maiden)

5. Metathesis of r. In several Old English words the following change of the position of consonants takes place:

cons+ r + vowel > cons + vowel + r

ðridda - ðirda (third)

Metathesis of sounds is observed also with other sounds:

ascian - axian (ask)

6. West Germanic gemination of consonants.

In the process of palatal mutation, when j was lost and the preceding vowel was short, the consonant after it was doubled (geminated):

fulian – fyllan (fill)