Middle English and Early New English vowel system.
In Early ME the pronunciation of unstressed syllables became increasingly indistinct. As compared to OE, which distinguishes five short vowels in unstressed position [e/i], [a] and [o/u], Late ME had only two vowels in unaccented syllables: [ə] and [i], e.g. ME tale [΄ta:lə] – NE tale, ME body [΄bodi] – NE body. The final [ə] disappeared in Late ME though it continued to be spelt as -e. When the ending –e survived only in spelling, e.g. ME stone, rode [´stone], [´rode] – NE stone, rode.
The shifting of word stress in ME and NE, vocalization of [r] in such endings as writer, actor, where [er] and [or] became [ə].
Quantitative vowel changes in Early ME
In Early ME vowel length began to depend on phonetic conditions. The earliest of positional quantitative changes was the readjustment of quantity before some consonant clusters:
1) Short vowels were lengthened before two consonants – a sonorant and a plosive; consequently, all vowels occurring in this position remained or became long, e.g. ME wild [wi:ld] – NE wild.
2) All other groups of two or more consonants produced the reverse effect: they made the preceding long vowels short, and all vowels in this position became or remained short, e.g. ME kepte [΄keptə] – NE kept.
3) Short vowels became long in open syllables, e.g. ME name [na:mə] – NE name.
Qualitative vowel changes.
Development of monophthongs
[y] and [y:] disappeared in Early ME, merging with various sounds in different dialectal areas.
In Early ME the dialectal differences grew.
In Early ME the long OE [a:] was narrowed to [o:]. This was and early instance of the growing tendency of all long monophthongs to become closer, so [a:] became [o:] in all the dialects except the Northern group, e.g. OE stān – ME (Northern) stan(e), (other dialects) stoon, stone – NE stone. The short OE [æ] was replaced in ME by the back vowel [a], e.g. OE þǽt > ME that [Өat] > NE that.
Development of diphthongs
In Early ME the diphthongs were contracted to monophthongs: the long [ea:] coalesced (united) with the reflex of OE [ǽ:] – ME [ε:]; the short [ea] ceased to be distinguished from OE [æ] and became [a] in ME; the diphthongs [eo:], [eo] – as well as their dialectal variants [io:], [io] – fell together with the monophthongs [e:], [e], [i:], [i]. As a result of these changes the vowel system lost two sets of diphthongs, long and short.
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In Early ME the sounds [j] and [γ] between and after vowels changed into [i] and [u] and formed diphthongs together with the preceding vowels, e.g. ME day [dai].
These changes gave rise to two sets of diphthongs: with i-glides and u-glides.
The same types of diphthongs appeared also from other sources: the glide -u developed from OE [w] as in OE snāw, which became ME snow [snou], and before [x] and [l] as in Late ME smaul and taughte.
Middle English and Early New English consonant system.
The most important developments in the history of English consonants were the growth of new sets of sounds, affricates and sibilants, and the new phonological treatment of fricatives. Both changes added a number of consonant phonemes to the system. some consonants were lost or vocalised, which affected both the consonant and the vowel system.
Growth of sibilants and affricates.
In OE there were no affricates and no sibilants, except [s, z]. The earliest distinct sets of these sounds appeared towards the end of OE or during the Early ME period. The new type of consonants developed from OE palatal plosives [k’, g'] (which had split from the corresponding velar plosives [k] and [g] in Early OE, and also from the consonant cluster [sk']. The three new phonemes which arose from these sources were [tʃ], [dʒ] and [ʃ]. The opposition of velar consonants to palatal - [k, k'; y, j]—had disappeared; instead, plosive consonants were contrasted to the new affricates and in the set of affricates [tʃ] was opposed to [dʒ] through sonority.
Treatment of fricative consonants
Phonologisation of voiced and voiceless fricatives was a slow process which lasted several hundred years. The first pair of consonants to become phonemes were [f] and [v]. In Late ME texts they occurred in identical phonetic environment and could be used for differentiation between words, which means that they had turned into phonemes. The two other pairs, [θ, ð] and [s, z], so far functioned as allophones. A new, decisive alteration took place in the 16th c. The fricatives were once again subjected to voicing under certain phonetic conditions. Henceforth they were pronounced as voiced if they were preceded by an unstressed vowel and followed by a stressed one. the endings took no accent but could be followed by other words beginning with an accented syllable. This supposition is confirmed by the voicing of consonants in many form-words: articles, pronouns, auxiliaries, prepositions; they receive no stress in speech but may be surrounded by notional words which are logically accented.
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Loss of Consonants in certain positions and clusters.
In ME the length of the syllable was regulated by the lengthening and shortening of vowels; therefore the quantitative differences of the con-sonants became irrelevant.
The consonants [j ] and [ r ] were vocalised under certain phonetic conditions — finally and before consonants — during the ME and Early NE periods, though they continued to be used in other environments. Some consonants were lost in consonant clusters, which became simpler and easier to pronounce, e.g. the initial [x] survived in ME as an aspirate [h], when followed by a vowel, but was lost when followed by a sonorant. In Early NE the aspirate [h] was lost initially before vowels — though not in all the words.
Voicing and voiceless fricatives.
About the same time voiceless consonants were voiced in several types of words. One of the conditions for the change seems to have been the unstressed position of the preceding vowel. Voicing mainly affects the consonant [s] and the cluster [ks], which become [z] and [gz]. In a few words it also affects the consonants [f] and [tʃ], which accordingly become [v] and [dʒ].
1. [s > z]. The most well-known examples of this voicing are some words of French origin: dessert, resemble, possess, observe, dissolve.
2. [ks > gz]. The following pairs of words are illustrative of the change (in the second of each pair the vowel preceding the cluster has either primary or secondary stress: exhibit - exhibition; exhort - exhortation; executor – execute.
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3. The relation between [f] and [v] can only be illustrated by one example: of and off.
4. The change [tʃ > dʒ] occurred in ME knowleche > MnE knowledge.
The exact conditions of the change have yet to be studied.
Development of [x]
We must distinguish two variants of the development of [x]: 1 - before t and 2 in final position.
[x] before t is lost, and the preceding short vowel is lengthened. For example: light [lixt > li:t], night [nixt > ni:t].
Long [i:] arising from this change took part in the vowel shift: [li:t > lait]. Spelling did not reflect this change, and these words are spelt with gh up to the present time. After the digraph gh had become silent, it was introduced into the word delight, on the analogy of the word light. In forms like brought, fought the [ou] developed into [o:]. In Northern dialects the [x] before t has been preserved to our days.
[x] final mostly changes into [f], as in rough, enough, laugh, tough, slough, trough. In a few words final [x] was lost, as in though, through.
On the other hand, the word laughter is pronounced with [f], which is probably due to influence of the word laugh.
Loss of [1] before [k, m, f, v]
[l] was lost before [k] and the labial consonants [m, f, v]. Thus the words talk, walk, folk, palm, calm, half came to be pronounced [to:k, wo:k, fouk, pa:m, ka:m, ha:f,]. However [1] before [v]was preserved in words of Latin origin, as in dissolve, resolve. [1] was also lost before [d] in should and would, which were usually unstressed. At the time when [1] was in the process of dropping and a word could be pronounced both with [1] and without it, an [1] appeared in words which had not had it in ME. This often happened in words of French origin; introduction of [1] might be supported by influence of the Latin prototype of the word and by imitation of French latinizing spelling of the 14th and 15th centuries.
Appearance and loss of [w].
In a few words with an initial labialized vowel there appeared an [w]. The most well-known example is the word one. The later development is not quite clear. Already in the 16th century the word was occasionally spelt wone, which points to appearance of initial [w]. The development seems to have been this: [o:n > wo:n > wu:n > wun > w^n]. Even in the late 17th century the pronunciation [w^n] was considered vulgar; in the 18th it was accepted by the literary language. A similar development took place in the adverb once [wAns < ME ones. [w] was lost in an unstressed syllable after a consonant in the words answer, Southwark, Greenwich, Norwich and so on.
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In the word whole [houl] the letter w was introduced in spelling on the analogy of who, whom, whose.
Merger of [j] with preceding consonant.
The last essential phonetic change in the sphere of consonants was merger of [j] with the preceding consonant. This happened after a stressed vowel. The change affected the clusters [sj, zj, tj, dj], and a few others.
The change [sj > ʃ] occurred, for example Asia, Russia. In many words the spelling is -ti-. This spelling, borrowed from French, denoted in French the cluster [sj] and was taken over into English. nation, revolution. In a few words we find the spellings -xi- and -xu-; in these cases the changing cluster is preceded by [k]: connexion (connection, luxury. In issue and tissue both pronunciations can be heard. When the cluster [sj] preceded the stressed vowel, it usually remained unchanged: suit [sju:t], assume [a'sju:m]. However, in two words [sj] preceding the stressed vowel changed into [ʃ ]: sure and sugar.
Loss of consonants in initial clusters.
In certain cases the initial consonant of a cluster is Inst Thus, [k] and [g] are lost before[n] in knight, know, knit also in word of Greek origin: gnosis,gnomic.
When [kn] or [gn] was preceded by a vowel, it was preserved as in acknowledge, diagnosis.
Initial [w] is lost before [r]: write, wrong. The cluster [hw] or the voiceless [w] changed into [w] In present-day English pronunciation there is usually no difference between which and witch and between whether and weather. However, the pronunciation [hw] or [w] for written wh- can also be heard.
The consonant [h] was dropped in many unstressed syllables, as in forehead [ferid].
31. Middle English nouns. Unification of the ways of expressing plural number.
In ME, when the Southern traits were replaced by Central and Northern traits in the dialect of London, this pattern of noun declensions prevailed in literary English.
The declension of nouns in the age of Chaucer, in its main features, was the same as in Mod E. The simplification of noun morphology was on the whole completed. Most nouns distinguished two forms: the basic form (with the "zero" ending) and the form in -(e)s. The nouns originally descending from other types of declensions for the most part had joined this major type, which had developed from Masc. a-stems
The process of eliminating survival plural forms went on in the 15th and 16th centuries. Forms like eyen, fon, which were still used by Chaucer, were now superseded by the regular forms eyes, foes.
In several substantives with final [f] or [0] alteration of the voiceless fricative with its voiced counterpart was eliminated. This is the case with roof (plural roofs) and other words in -oof; also with belief (beliefs), death (deaths), hearth (hearths).
However, with other substantives the alternation has been preserved, as in wife (wives), life (lives), half (halves), calf (calves), wolf (wolves); bath (baths), path (paths), youth (youths). With a few words two variants are possible: scarf (scarves, scarfs), truth (truths -6z, -0s). The substantive staff (OE staef, pl. stafas, ME staf, pl. staves) split into two separate words: staff, pl. staffs, and stave, pl. staves.
The alternation [f — v] begins to extend to the word handkerchief, whose second part is of French origin; alongside the plural form handkerchiefs a new form handkerchieves is occasionally used.
A few substantives have preserved their plural forms due to the weak declension or to mutation: ox (oxen), child (children), man (men), woman (women), foot (feet), goose (geese), tooth (teeth), mouse (mice), louse (lice), dormouse (dormice); here also belong the forms brethren (alongside brothers) and kine (alongside cows). Another type of plural has been preserved in the forms of the words sheep (sheep), deer (deer), swine (swine); compare fruit (fruit), also fish (fish), and names of several kinds of fish: trout, salmon, cod, etc., which usually take no -s in the plural.
This peculiarity appears to be due to the meaning of these words. Most of them are names of animals (ox, goose, mouse, louse, dormouse, sheep, deer, trout, salmon). The plural of these nouns is used to denote a mass (a flock of sheep, a herd of swine, a shoal of fish, etc.), rather than a multitude of individuals. This semantic peculiarity appears to have influenced the plural forms of these words.
As to the other words belonging here (man, woman, tooth, etc.) there must have been some other causes which determined their peculiar fate. Isolated plural forms have also been preserved in a few phrases which coalesced into compound words: twelvemonth (ОE twelf monap, fortnight (OE feowertyne niht), sennight (obsolete) (OE seofon niht).
Middle English weak verbs.
The evolution of the weak verbs in ME and in Early NE reveals a strong tendency towards greater regularity and order. ME verbs of Class I took the ending -de in the past without an intermediate vowel before the dental suffix — and the ending -ed in the past Participle. They had descended from OE verbs of Class I with a long root syllable. The verbs of Class II, which were marked by -ode, -od in OE, had weakened these endings to -ede, -ed in ME. Since a few verbs of OE Class 1 had -ede, -ed , they are included in ME Class II. Consequently, the only difference between the two classes of weak verbs in ME was the presence or absence of the element -e- before the dental suffix in the Past tense stem. In Late ME the vowel [e] in unstressed medial and final syllables became very unstable and was lost. This change eliminated the differences between the two classes and also the distinctions between the 2nd and 3rd principal forms, thus reducing the number of stems in the weak verbs from three to two, Late ME weak verbs are the immediate source of modern standard verbs. The marker of the Past tense and Participle II employed by the weak verbs — the dental suffix -d/-t — proved to be very productive in all historical periods. This simple and regular way of form-building, employed by the majority of OE verbs, attracted hundreds of new verbs in ME and NE. Many former strong verbs began to build weak forms alongside strong ones, the strong forms ultimately falling into disuse. The productivity of this device is borne out by the fact that practically all the borrowed verbs and all the newly-formed verbs in ME and NE built their Past tense and Participle II on the model of weak verbs.
Middle English strong verbs.
The seven classes of OE strong verbs underwent multiple grammatical and phonetic changes.In ME the final syllables of the stems, like all final syllables, were weakened, in Early NE most of them were lost. Thus the OE endings –an., -on, -en were all reduced to ME –en; consequently in Classes 6 and 7, where the infinitive and the participle had the same gradation vowel, these forms fell together. In the ensuing period, the final -n was lost in the infinitive and the past tense plural, but was sometimes preserved in Participle II, probably to distinguish the participle from other forms. Thus, despite phonetic reduction, -n was sometimes retained to show an essential grammatical distinction. In ME and Early NE the root-vowels in the principal forms of all the classes of strong verbs underwent the regular changes of stressed vowels
Due to phonetic changes vowel gradation in Early ME was considerably modified for example lengthening of vowels before some consonant sequences. At the same time there was a strong tendency to make the system of forms more regular. The strong verbs were easily influenced by analogy. It was due to analogy that they lost practically all consonant interchanges in ME and Early NE. The most important change in the system of strong verbs was the reduction in the number of stems from four to three, by removing the distinction between the two past tense stems. The tendency to reduce the number of stems continued in Early NE. At this stage it affected the distinction between the new past tense stem and Participle II. Identical forms of these stems are found not only in the literary texts and private letters but even in books on English grammar. One of the most important events in the history of the strong verbs was their transition into weak. In ME and Early NE many strong verbs began to form their Past and Participle II with the help of the dental suffix instead of vowel gradation. Therefore the number of strong verbs decreased.
In OE there were about three hundred strong verbs. Some of them dropped out of use owing to changes in the vocabulary, while most of the remaining verbs became weak. Out of 195 OE strong verbs, preserved in the language, only 67 have retained strong forms with root-vowel interchanges roughly corresponding to the OE gradation series.
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