Old / Middle English Phonology

Contrastive voicing

Did not exist in OE fricatives, introduced in ME

How was contrastive voicing first introduced to English

by [v] and [z] sounds in French loan words

What did Grimm’s law say?

voiceless stops > fricatives

voiced stops > voiceless stops

Example of a sound change from Grimm’s law

p > f

g > k

When does breaking in OE happen?

Broke before h. h+, r+, l+ consonant(s)

Breaking in OE

• æ > ea

• e > eo

• ī > īo or ēo

When does palatal breaking happen in OE?

after /j ʃ tʃ ʤ/ (written <g,sc,c,cg>) 

Palatal breaking

• e > ie

• ē > īe

• æ > ea

• ǣ > ēa

When does palatalisation occur in OE?

near front vowels

Palatalisation in OE

• <sc> = /ʃ/

• <c> = /tʃ/ 

• <cg> = /dʒ/

• <g> = /j/

Nasal change

Occurs before nasals

o > u

æ > a

e > i

How to differentiate long / short vowels in OE?

e is short, ē is long

How to differentiate long / short consonants in OE?

Double consonant is long

How to differentiate long / short vowels in ME?

A following double consonant = short

A following single consonant = long

<ʒ> in ME

/j/

<g> in ME

/ʤ/

<ḡ> in ME

/g/

<ʒ^h > in ME

/ɣ/

<ʒh> in ME

/hj/

<ch> in ME

/ʧ/

What does /æ/ and /ɑ/ merge to become in ME?

OE short /æ/ and /ɑ/ aka <æ> and <a> merge in ME as /ɑ/ written as <a>

this merger does NOT happen to long /ǣ/ and /ɑ/

Loss of h-clusters in ME

First /hn/ > /n/ (hnutu > nute ‘nut’) and later /hr hl/ > /r l/ (hring > ring ‘ring’)

ME smoothing

• ea > æ (> a)

• eo > e

• ēa > ǣ

• ēo > ē

• sometimes irregular ea > e

What does /æ:/ raise to in ME?

/ē:/

Homorganic lengthening

Short vowels lengthen before /ld/ lnd/ /mb/ This fails if there are more than 3 in a cluster

ME Breaking

ME developed new diphthongs by inserting a high vowel between a non-high vowel and a velar or palatal consonant

Pre-cluster shortening in ME

Long vowels become short preceding all consonant clusters except /ld nd mb/

Trisyllabic shortening in ME

Long vowels shorten in the antepenultimate syllable of trisyllabic words:

Loss of /sw/ clusters in ME

/sw/ becomes /s/ in front of back vowel (this can have lots of exceptions)

What does /y/ level to in ME in different dialects?

• Kentish (very early) /y/ > /e/ 

• Anglian /y/ > /i/ 

• West Saxon (very late) /y/ > /u/ 

How is /x/ lost in ME?

/x/ is lost in LATE ME

either deletes + lengthens vowel

OE niht ‘night’> LME/EMoE [ni:t]

or becomes /f/

OE dwearh ‘dwarf’ > LME/EMoE [dwarf]

Loss of final -e in ME

Final -e is lost (not pronounced by tends to stay in orthography)

What is the great vowel shift

During ME, EMoE, long vowels raised and became diphthongs e.g. i: becomes ai