The stabilization of spelling
By the mid-seventeenth century printers followed general principles of spelling much like the present ones. Notably the modern distinctions between I and J and U and V were established by about 1630. The spelling of nearly all individual words was also identical with present-day forms in printed books. In ordinary handwritten documents, however, even those of well-educated people, spelling continued to vary noticeably until well into the eighteenth century.
I saw walking hard by me the appearancys of six men carrying a corps, uppon which, being somewhat frighted, I held my horse fast, and set forward, but saw it following of me yet as oft as I look’d back. Then, having got pretty far, I look’d behind me once more, and instead of the corps and men following of me I saw a bear with a great huge uggly thing sitting thereon, which thing I saw as oft as I look’d. Then of a suddain it disappear’d in a flash of fire, which made my horse leap out of the way and through me just when I had got to town end.
Abraham Pryme, Diary, 20 March 1696, published 1870.
Old English vowel system
All English vowels including diphthongs can be either short or long. The system of vowel phonemes consisted of the following:
i-ī
e-ē
a-ā
o-ō
u-ū
y-ֿ y
å
å an open or nasalized o[ο], [ֿ õ]
ea, eo, io, ie, ea, eo, io, ie are diphthongs
So we see, the system of vowels was not symmetrical on the phonetic level and the long phonemes in OE outnumbered the short ones.
Consonants in OE consisted of the following: labial p b m, labia-dental f, v, dental t, d, p, ð, n, s, r, l, velar c, z, h. The letter ‘x’ was used instead of the group ‘cs’.
Vowels
Among the most outstanding processes in the OE sound system, the process of assimilation has perhaps had the most important consequences almost all the English diphthongs were originated by various assimilative processes such as fracture, mutation and palatalization. Each of these processes requires fuller explanation.
Old English Fractures (Breaking) преломление.
Fracture occurred most regularly in the Wessex dialect. It consisted in diphthongization of front vowels before certain consonants. As a result a glide- sound appeared as a transitional element from a front vowel to a consonant. It is the vowels ‘a’ [æ] and ‘e’ that undergo fracture.
1) a[æ]>ea before the elucters r+cons, l+cons, h+cons and before h final.
|
|
|
Eg. ærm>earm; æld>eald; æhto>eahta; sæh>seah.
2) e>eo before r, lc, h+a consonant, h final
Eg. melcan>meolcan
herte>heorte
selk>seolk (seal)
feh>feoh (cattle)
The phonetic essence of fracture is that the front vowel is partially assimilated to the following hard consonant by forming a glide, which combines with the vowel to form a diphthong. So, fracture took place in the 6th century, in some dialects, such as Mercian, it did not occur, and the vowel [æ] became ‘a’
Eg. ærm>arm, old, ahta, sah.
Mutation or Umlaut (перегласовка)
Mutation is a change of vowel caused by partial assimilation to the following vowel. Mutation brings about a complete change in vowel quality: one phoneme is replaced by another. The process of mutation began in the 5th or 6th century. The most important type of mutation is that caused by an “i” or “j” of the following syllable, that is i-mutation. The OE mutation affects 7 vowels and 4 diphthongs, only short “e” and “i” were not submitted to it.
[І] i or [j] umlaut
Under the influence of i or semivowel [j] the root vowel is rendered more front and
close. Having caused umlaut the i or j either disappears or turns into an unstressed
vowel “e” or “i”
Ex. a>e sandian>sendan (to send)
æ>e tælian>tellan
ā>æ lārian>læran (teach)
o>e ofstian>efstan (hurry)
ō>ē dōmian>dēman (think)
u>y fulian>fyllan (fill)
ū>yֿ cūþian>cyֿ þan (to make known)
Umlauted diphthong
ea>ie hleahian>hliehhan (laugh)
eֿa>ie hֿ earian>hieran (hear)
eo>ie afeorrian>afierran (remove)
eֿo>ֿ ie cֿ eosan>ciesþ (chooses)
The i-mutation was significant for the phonemic structure of OE. This mutation accounts for the appearance of the new vowels “y” and “ֿ y” from “u” and “ū” respectively. I-umlaut or palatal mutation was certainly the most comprehensive process as it could affect most OE vowels. It has led to the appearance of new phonemes and numerous instances of vowel-variations in the root morpheme.
|
|
|
Дата добавления: 2018-05-12; просмотров: 538; Мы поможем в написании вашей работы! |
Мы поможем в написании ваших работ!