OLD ENGLISH PHONETICS AND ORTHOGRAPHY.
WRITING AND BORROWINGS.
Contents
I. Phonetic Peculiarities of Germanic Languages. Grimm’s Law. Verner’s Law.
II. Writing in OE Anglo-Saxon . Chronical “Beowulf”.
III. OE Vowels.
IV. OE Consonants.
V. Phonetic Changes of OE Fracture, Palatalezation, Back- Mutation, I- Mutation.
VI. OE Borrowings.
I. Phonetic Peculiarities of Germanic Languages.
The English language belongs to the West Germanic group of Indo- European languages. The West Germanic tribes, Anglo-Saxons and Jutes, migrated on the British Isles in the middle of the 5-th century of A.D. The oldest written English monuments dates back to the 8th -10th centuries. The period till the 8th century is unwritten period. But the influence of Anglo- Saxon and Jutes resulted in great changes of the language of this country. To understand the development of English phonetic system it’s necessary to have some ideas about Germanic phonetic system.
A). The first consonant shift or Grimm’s Law.
An essential feature of Germanic languages is their consonantal system, namely the result of so- called first consonant shift.
The phenomena stated in the law of the first consonant shift were found out by comparative linguistics early in the 19th. Two famous names are mentioned in this connection: the Danish scholar Rasmus Christian Rask (1787-1832) and the great German linguist and fairy- tales collector Jacob Grimm (1785-1863). The earliest statement of the shift was given in the second edition of Grimm’s work German Grammar (Deutsche Grammatic) which was published in 1822. Accordingly the law is also often called Grimm’s law. It expresses regular correspondences between consonants of Germanic and those of the other Indo- European languages.
When we compare words of Germanic languages with the corresponding words of other Indo- European (IE) languages (mainly Latin, Greek, Sanskrit and Russian), we find such correspondences between them.
1. Indo-European voiceless (p, t, k ) correspond to Germanic voiceless fricative (f, þ, h).
2. Indo-European voiced stops (b, d, g) correspond to Germanic voiceless stops (p, t, k).
3. Indo-Eiropean voiced aspirated stops (bh, dh, gh) correspond to
Germanic voiced stops without aspiration (b, d, g).
The table of correspondences between Indo-European and Germanic consonants
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Sounds | Examples | ||
| IE | Germc | IE | Germc |
| P T K B D G Bh Dh Gh | F Б H P T K B D g | Lat. Pater ‘father’ Greek patēr Sanskr. pitár Lat. Plēnus ‘full’ Greek Pléōs Russ. Полный Lat. Trēs ‘three’ Greek treis Russ. Три Lat.Noctem‘night’(acc.) Greek nýkta Lat. Octo ‘eight’ Greek oktō Russ. Слабый ‘weak’ Russ. Болото ‘moor’ Lat. Duo ‘Two’ Greek dyo Russ. Два Lat. Decem ‘Ten’ Greek déka Russ. Десять Lat. Iugum ‘yoke’ Russ. Иго Lat. Grānum ‘grain’ Sanskr.Bhrātar ‘brother’ Lat. Frāter Greek bhrātor Russ. Брат Sanskr. Bharāmi ‘bear’ Lat. Ferō Greek phérō Russ. беру Sanskr. Madhu ‘honey’ Russ. Мед Sanskr.Mádhyas ‘middle’ Lat. Medius Lat. Hostis ‘enemy’ Russ. Гость ‘guest’ | Goth. Fadar E. father Germ. Vater Goth. Fulls E. full Germ. Voll Goth. Бreis[Өri:s] E. three Goth. Nahts Germ. Nacht Goth. Ahtau Germ. Acht Goth. Slēpan ‘sleep’ E. Sleep E. pool Goth. Twai E. two Goth. Taihun [‘tehun] E. ten Goth. Juk E. yoke Goth. Kaúrn [korn] E. corn Goth. Brōþar E. brother Germ. Bruder Goth. Bairan [‘beran] E. bear Germ. Ge- bären OE medu ‘mead’ Goth. Midjils Goth. Gasts ‘guest’ Germ. Gast |
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The correspondences found between Indo-European and Germanic consonants are interpreted in the following manner: the Germanic sounds are the result of the original Indo-European sounds; as they existed in the Indo-European ancestor language. According to this interpretation, the first consonant shift is formulated in the following manner: IE p becomes Germc. f, IE t becomes Germc. p, etc., or briefly:
IE Germanic IE Germanic IE Germanic
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p > f h > p bh > b
t > þ d > t dh > d
k > h g > k gh > g
In some cases the results of the Ist consonant shift differ from what we are to expect in according with the general formulas stated above. Let us consider some of these special cases.
IE Germanic
Lat. Nöctem ‘night’ (acc.) Goth. Nahts
Greek Nýkta (acc.) Ger. Nacht
Lat. Oktō ‘eight’ Goth. Ahtau
Greek Oktō Germ. Acht
Lat. Stare ‘stand’ Goth. Standan
Greek Histēmi ‘set’ E. Stand
It is apparent that here the IE t has not been affected by the consonant shift: it has not changed into p, but has been preserved as such in Germanic languages. This special development is accounted for by the phonetic environment of the sound in question. It is produced by a voiceless fricative (h or s, respectively). That t, according to the general law of the shift, had developed into p, a cluster consisting of two voiceless fricatives would have arisen. Now, such clusters are avoided in Germanic languages. Thus, in these cases the IE t has not undergone the shift in Germanic.
Somewhat more complicated phenomena have been formulated in Verner’s law.
B). Verner’s law
It was noted long ago that in some words we found consonants in Germanic languages which did not fit with Grimm’s law, as it had been formulated above. In some cases it is voiced stops, rather than voiceless fricatives, that correspond Germanic to IE voiceless stops. Compare, e.g. Lat. Pater, Sanskr. Pitar, and Goth. Fadar, OE Fedar. It is a Germanic d that corresponds to IE t. Similarly, compare Greek Dekas (a ten) and Goth. Tigus, where Germanic g corresponds to IE k. Exceptions to Grimm’s law was offered by the Danish scholar Karl Verner in 1877.
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The law, which has since been formed as Verner’s law, adds the following note to Grimm’s law. If an IE voiceless stop proceded by an unstressed vowel, the voiceless fricative which developed from it in accordance with Grimm’s law became voiced, and later this voiced fricative became a voiced stop. Thus, in Greek word pater ‘father’
the voiceless stop t was proceded by an unstressed vowel. Under these circumstances the voiceless fricative þ which developed from it in accordance with Grimm’s law became a voiced fricative ð, and eventually this voiced fricative developed into the stop d. Thus, these are not exceptions to Grimm’s law, but results of a further development of a consonant resulting from this law. The action of Verner’s law is especially evident if we compare two words differing by the position of stress. For instance:
Greek Déka Russ. Дéсять — Goth. taihun, but:
Greek Dekás Russ. Десяток — Goth. tigus
Besides the voiceless fricative consonant resulting from the consonant shift, one more voiceless fricative consonant is affected by Verner’s law, the preceding vowel in unstressed, s in Germanic languages voiced, i.e. changes into z. Eventually this z becomes r in Western Germanic and Nothern Germanic languages(but not Gothic).
II. Writings in Old English.
In OE two alphabets were used: the Runic and the Latin.
After the Anglo-Saxons came into the contact with Roman culture the Runic alphabet was superseded by the Latin. As the OE sound system differed materially from the Latin, the Latin alphabet proved insufficient to denote all OE sounds. To fill this gap Anglo-Saxon scribes borrowed some letters from the Runic alphabet. In other cases a Latin letter was used to denote some several sounds. For example, the letter (a modified from a Latin g) denoted several sounds, and so did the letter c. From the Runic alphabet the rune Б was taken to denote the sound [Ө], which was also denoted by ð and a special rune for the sound [w]. It’s rune “wynn”.
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The oldest English documents available belong to the end of the 7th century; our ideas of the language of the 5th and 6th centuries are based on comparing documents of a later time with data of other languages, mainly Gothic.
In the earliest time there were such main dialects in OE: (1) Northumbrian, spoken by Angles living in the north of the Humber, (2) Mercian, spoken by Angles living between the Humber and the Thames, (3) West-Saxon, the language of the Saxons (south of the Thames), (4) Kentish, the language of the Jutes. The rise of Wessex as a political power in the 9th century had its consequences for the West- Saxon dialect: in the course of that century it became the dominating literary language of the epoch.
The works of king Alfred (lived 849-900), were in the West-Saxon dialect, and so were both original compositions and translations of Latin texts, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (till 891), works of the abbot Elfric (10th century) and sermons of Wulfstan (begining of the 11 century).
The epic poems of the OE period: Beowulf, Genesis, Exodus, Judith, cannot be said to belong to any definite dialects. Alongside West-Saxon they contain a number of Anglian forms. It seems that they were originally written in an Anglian dialect, but in the period of West-Saxon hegemony scribes substituted many Anglian forms by West-Saxon ones.
III. OE Vowels.
The system of OE Vowels consisted of monophthongs and diphthongs. Each short vowel had a counterpart in the long vowel.
The diagram of OE Vowels:
Ī Ū
ē ō
Front row Back row
æ
ā
OE diphthongs ēā ēō īē īō
ea eo ie io
The short diphthongs ea, eo,ie, io and the long diphthong ie were the result of mutation, fracture and palatalization.
IV. OE Consonants.
The OE consonant system consists of the following sounds: the labial-p, b, m, f, v; dental-t, d, þ, ð, n, s, r, l; velar-c, , h.
The letter “x” is used instead of the group “cs”.
The reading of- f, s, þ- was voiceless but in intervocal position they became voiced- v, z, ð.
The letter “ ” (“yough”) - proncounced differently in different positions:
[g]- initially before consonants and back vowels and in the middle of a word after “n”
leo “yoy”, od “good”, sin an “sing”
[γ]- in the middle of a word, after back vowels and after l and r.
Da as “days”, sor “care”, fol ian “follow”
[j]- before front vowels and after back vowels
iefan “give”, ear “year”, dæ “day”.
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