The evolution of phonetic system in the Middle English and the New English (changes in the system of vowels, the Great Vowel Shift, changes in the system of consonant).

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 1056.

During the ME (1066-1475) period the language undergoes considerable phonetic changes. As a result of important changes in vowel system the ME sound system became basically different from OE one. In ME a new principle of phonetic structure of the words appears when the sounds become more dependent on their phonetic environment. One of the most important changes is the reduction of vowels in the unstressed position. In OE the stress usually fell on the 1^st syllable; the prefix and root were usually stressed, it never moved in inflection and word derivations. This way of word-accentuation was open. The word-accent acquired a great opposition and began to play a more important role in word derivation. These changes were connected with phonetic assimilation of the borrowed words adopted during ME period. The stress was moved closer to the beginning. The changes of unaccented vowels. By the end of the OE period the pronunciation of unstressed vowels become increasingly indistinct and they are reduced to the neutral sound. e.g.: OE mona – mone; stan – ston, stone. Some new unstressed vowels appeared as a result of various changes. e.g.: actor [‘aekt#]. The quantitative changes of unstressed vowels. 1) Shortening of unstressed vowels took place before 2 or more consonants. e.g.: wisdom – wisdom. 2) Lengthening of stressed vowels took place in case of cluster [ld, nd, mb] + plosive. e.g.: cild – child. 3) Lengthening of the root vowel in the open syllable. Mostly it took place with the sounds [e, e, o] sometimes [i, u] were also affected. e.g.: caru -/ care [a:]. The qualitative changes of stressed vowels. Monophthongs. 1) OE [a:] in ME was narrowed to [o:]. e.g.: ham – home. 2) The sort OE [ae] changed into ME [a]. e.g.: thaet – that. 3) [ae:] changed into [e]. e.g.: slaepan – sleepen. [y, y:] were replaced by some other vowels [e, e:, ie, i]. 4) Such sounds as [e, e:, i, i:, o, o:, u, u:] were practically unchanged. But in some northern dialects they were changed [o:] into [u:]. e.g.: boc – buk. Diphthongs. 1) At the beginning of ME period all OE diphthongs became monophthongs, but the diphthongs as a class of sounds was reduced as there appeared some new sounds. In late OE some diphthongs merged with monophthongs. They changed into monophthongs before [x, x't]. [ea] turned into [e]/[a].[ie] turned into [u:]. [ie] turned into [u]. In some dialects they were replaced by [i:]/[i]. e.g.: 3ietan – yuten/yiten. [eo] to [e]. e.g.: heorte – herte. [eo] to [e:]. e.g.: deo – deep. As a result of these changes the vowels system lost 2 sets of diphthongs but diphthongs as the type were preserved. In ME new diphthongs appeared as the result of combined vowels and consonants. [j, g, w]. [j] and [g] between or after a vowel turn into [i] and [u]. So they form a diphthong with the preceding vowel. [ae]+[j]=[ai]; [e:]+[j]+[ei]; [a:]+[w]=[ow]-/[ou]; [a:]+[x]=[au]. By the and of the ME period there existed such sounds: Short monophthongs ([i, a, e, u, o]); Long monophthongs ([i:, e:, o:, a:, u:]); Diphthongs ([ai, ei, oi, au, ou]). The changes in the system of consonants. 1) The growth of affricates and sibilants. OE palatal ‘k' which occurred initially before [k'] turned into [tsh]. e.g.: cild – child. OE [sk'] turned into ME [sh]. e.g.: scip – ship. OE [g'] – ME [dgh]. e.g.: OE bryc3 – ME brdge. 2) The development of fricatives [f, v]. 3) The disappearance of OE consonants. In OE velar spirant disappeared from the system of consonants and the [j] was vocalized. [i:]+[3 (yoh)]=[i:]. [e]+[j]=[i:] 4) [k'], [g'] disappeared giving rise to [tsh], [dgh] and [x'] just disappeared. In ME consonants were not differentiated by it length. Changes in the system of vowels in NE. The unstressed vowel was lost even in the inflection. e.g.: tables ME [‘tabl#z] – NE [‘teiblz]. The neutral vowel was lost when it was final and also when it was followed by a consonant. The neutral vowel was preserved and later it changed into [i] in such groups as [s#z, z#z, t#d, #z, d#d]. The loss of the neutral vowel had special consequences for spelling. Mute ‘e' appeared; it was added to such words which has never has short vowels. The result: 1) A lot of words have simplified their morphological structure and they become monosyllabic. e.g.: ME risen [‘ri:z#n] – NE rise [raiz]. 2) The infinitive of many verbs has coincided in its phonetic form with nouns. e.g.: love – to love. 3) In some 3-4 syllable words the vowel in a middle syllable was lost. e.g.: colonel ME [‘k'ol#n#l] – NE [‘k3:n#l]. Quantitative changes of unstressed vowels in NE. 1) Vowels became long before clusters [nt, ft, ss, th, st]. e.g.: plant ME [a] – NE [a:]. 2) Some vowels became short before [th, d, t k]. e.g.: ME breeth – NE breath. Qualitative changes of stressed vowels in NE. The most important change – ‘The Great Vowel Shift'. It began in 15^th and ended only in the 18^th. It occurred in 2 stages: 1) The pronunciation of long vowels become tense and the vowel itself become closer. 2) The vowel turned into a diphthong. e.g.: [a:] to [ei] (name); [e:] to [i:] (speek); [i:] to [ai] (time); [o:] to [#u] (go); [o:] to [u:] (do); [u:] to [au] (hoos-house); [au] to [o:] (kause-cause). If we compare the system of long vowels which existed before the Great Vowel Shift with that one which arose from the shift we can state that there appeared no new vowel sounds. The Grate Vowel Shift was an important event. Its result was redistribution of long vowels. Some words have sounds which do not correspond to the general law of the Grate Vowel Shift. e.g.: [u:] remained unchanged when followed by a labial consonant (room). Some words which had been borrowed from French remained [u:] because they were borrowed after the change (group, rout, wound). [i:] and [a:] were preserved in French words also (police, machine). Other changes of vowels. 1) The development of the sound [ae]. This sound reappeared again. e.g.: that ME [a] – NE [ae]. When the sound was preceded by [w] it turned into [w'o]. e.g.: what ME [a] – NE [‘o]. 2) The rise of the sound [‘a]. This change in the system of short vowels was a case of delabolisation. ME [u] lost its labial character and became [‘a]. ME luve – NE love. 3) The vocalization of the [r]. A number of vowel sounds develop under the vocalization of [r] after long sound. In late ME the sound [r] made the preceding vowel more open and retracted/ the cluster [er] turned into [ar]. e.g.: ME clerk – NE clerk [a:]. 4) The development of [3:]. In the 16^th century developed in the combination of the short vowels [i, e, u] + [r]. At first [r] became partially vocalized but then – completely. The regular opposition of long and short vowel which had been destroyed in the ME period was partially restored in NE. The changes in the system of consonants in ME period. 1) In the 16^th century the fricatives [s, z] and [th, ‘th] became separate phonemes. They became voiced in the words in which these consonants were preceded by an unstressed vowel and followed by a stressed one. e.g.: dessert ME [d#'sert] – NE [di'z3:t]. The analogy with Verner's Law is quite evident. In the 16^th century fricatives became voiced even in unstressed positions (of, that). 2) In early NE sibilants and affricates developed from some clusters of consonants in the borrowed words of the Roman origin. The necessary condition was – shift of the stress closer to the beginning of the word. e.g.: ME [sj] – NE [sh]; ME [zj] – NE [gh]; ME [tj] – NE [tsh]; ME [dj] – NE [dgh]. 3) Vocalisation of [r]. 4) The simplification of groups of consonants. This simplification took place at the beginning in the middle and at the end of the words. [kn, gn, wr] were simplified to [n, n, r]. [lk, lm, lf, lv] became simplier to [k, m, f, v]. In the 16^th century the clusters of 3 consonants were simplified in the middle and at the end (castle, listen, soften).