Phonetic Changes in Old English

Vowel changes

1. Breaking (fracture) – it is the process of short vowels becoming diphthongs before certain consonant clusters (vowels change their pronunciation under their influence). e.g. æ > ea before combinations of "r + consonant", "l + cons.", "h + cons.", and also before h final:

ærm  earm (arm), æld  eald (old).

2. Palatalization

This is the process when some vowel change under the influence of g, c, sc in the beginning of the word:

e.g. e > ie (gefan > giefan (give)).

3. i-mutation. Vowel mutation (umlaut) is the change of a vowel within a word brought about by the assimilating influence of a vowel or semivowel in a preceding or following syllable. This interesting feature changed many of Old English words on a very early stage of the language's history. It is caused by i (ot j) in the next syllable, it affects all vowels, except i and e. Vowels move from their back position to the new front one:

e.g. æ > e (tælian > tellan (tell)).

4. Back Mutation – a back vowel (u, o, a) influence the front vowel in the preceding syllable and becomes a diphthong.

Appears before liquids and labial consonants (i.e. r, l; p, b, f, m):

(e.g.)

e > eo (hevfon > heofon (heaven))

Consonants changes

1. Voicing of fricative sounds (h, f, s, þ) appears, if a fricative is surrounded by vowels:

wīf (a wife; unvoiced) – wīfes (wives; voiced).

2. Palatalization (pronouncing the sound with the blade of the tongue touching the palate) appears only in Late Old English, but significantly changes the pronunciation making it closer to today's English:

cild [kild] > [child].

3. Loss of some consonants, for example, n was lost before h, f, s, p; the preceding vowel became lengthened.

Nearly all OE phonetic changes – fracture, mutation, palatalization – appear to be due to one common principle, that is of assimilation.

In general, Old English phonetics suffered great changes during the whole period from the 5th to the 11th century. Anglo-Saxons did not live in isolation from the world – they contacted with Germanic tribes in France, with Vikings from Scandinavia, with Celtic tribes in Britain, and all these contacts could not but influence the language's pronunciation somehow. Besides, the internal development of the English language after languages of Angles, Saxons and Jutes were unified, was rather fast, and sometimes it took only half a century to change some form of the language or replace it with another one. That is why we cannot regard the Old English language as the state: it was the constant movement.

Old English Grammar The Old English Noun

Old English nouns were declined – that is, the ending of the noun changed to reflect its function in the sentence. There were five major cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, and instrumental.

The nominative case indicated the subject of the sentence, for example se cyning means 'the king'. It was also used for direct address. Adjectives in the predicate (qualifying a noun on the other side of 'to be') were also in the nominative.

The accusative indicated the direct object of the sentence, for example Æþelbald lufode þone cyning means "Æþelbald loved the king", where Æþelbald is the subject and the king is the object. Already the accusative had begun to merge with the nominative; it was never distinguished in the plural, or in a neuter noun.

The genitive case indicated possession, for example the þæs cyninges scip is "the ship of the king" or "the king's ship".

The dative case indicated the indirect object of the sentence, for example hringas þæm cyninge means "rings for the king" or "rings to the king". There were also several verbs which took direct objects in the dative.

The instrumental case indicated an instrument used to achieve something, for example lifde sweorde, "he lived by the sword", where sweorde is the instrumental form of sweord. During the Old English period, the instrumental was falling out of use, having largely merged with the dative. Only pronouns and strong adjectives retained separate forms for the instrumental.

There were different endings depending on whether the noun was in the singular (for example, hring 'one ring') or plural (for example, hringas 'many rings').

Nouns are also categorised by grammatical gender – masculine, feminine, or neuter. Masculine and neuter words generally share their endings. Feminine words have their own subset of endings. The plural does not distinguish between genders.

Furthermore, Old English nouns are divided as either strong or weak. Weak nouns have their own endings. In general, weak nouns are easier than strong nouns, since they had begun to lose their declensional system. However, there is a great deal of overlap between the various classes of noun: they are not totally distinct from one another.

The traditional approach of Historical linguistics treats OE as a stage in the historical development of Germanic languages. From this point of view, such types of nouns as ā – stems, ō-stems, i-stems, u-stems, n-stems etc. are distinguished, although there is little in the OE forms themselves to show any traces of these stems. As you remember, nouns in Proto-Indo-European had a special sound added to the root, perhaps to distinguish different classes of nouns. Later that sound disappeared merging with the grammatical ending and changing it, since the names of Germanic and Old English noun classes (ā – stems, ō-stems…) show which sound was added to the noun root in prehistoric times.

Strong Nouns

Strong Masculine Noun stān (stone) (a-stem)

stān	Singular	Plural
Nominative	(se) stān	(þā) stānas
Genitive	(þæs) stānes	(þāra) stāna
Dative	(þæm) stāne	(þæm) stānum
Accusative	(þone) stān	(þā) stānas

Strong Neuter Nouns

There are two basic patterns for strong neuter nouns.

Strong Neuter Noun scip (ship) (a-stem)

scip	Singular	Plural
Accusative	(þæt) scip	(þā) scipu
Genitive	(þæs) scipes	(þāra) scipa
Dative	(þæm) scipe	(þæm) scipum
Nominative	(þæt) scip	(þā) scipu

Strong Neuter Noun word (word) (a-stem)

word	Singular	Plural
Nominative	(þæt) word	(þā) word
Genitive	(þæs) wordes	(þāra) worda
Dative	(þæm) worde	(þæm) wordum
Accusative	(þæt) word	(þā) word

Notice that they differ only in the Nominative and Accusative plural. Looking at the stems of the two words, you should notice that scip is short-stemmed (contains a short vowel followed by one consonant), and that word is long-stemmed (such stems either contain a long vowel, or, as in word, the vowel is followed by more than one consonant).

So we have a rule that long-stemmed neuter a-nouns drop the nominative and accusative plural "-u" endings.

Strong Feminine Noun giefu (gift) (ō – stem)

giefu	Singular	Plural
Nominative	(sēo) giefu	(þā) giefa
Genitive	(þære) giefe	(þāra) giefa
Dative	(þære) giefe	(þæm) giefum
Accusative	(þā) giefe	(þā) giefa

Irregular strong nouns:

• Nouns with the vowel æ in the singular change it into a in the plural. E.g.: dæg (day, Masc., Nom., sg) – dagas (Nom., pl).

• Nouns of ja- stems are a special type of a-stems. Their root vowel undergoes mutation under the influence of an original –j- in the stem. Their case endings do not differ very much from a-stem nouns; some masculine and neuter ja-nouns end in -e in their base form. These drop the -e and add normal endings.

• wa-stems are another special type of a-stems. The nominative and accusative singular of the masculine nouns and the nominative and accusative singular and plural of the neuter ones end in –u.

• jō- and wō-stems are special types of ō-stems (feminine strong nouns).

A few nouns follow the -u declension, with an entirely different set of endings. Among these are masculine and feminine substantives. Nouns with a short root syllable have in the nominative and accusative singular the ending –u; those with a long one have no ending at all.

Strong -u declension

sunu (son) (Masc.)

feld (field) (Fem.)

	Singular		Plural
Masculine	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine
Nominative	sunu	feld	suna	felda
Genitive	suna	felda	suna	felda
Dative	suna	feld	sunum	feldum
Accusative	sunu	feld	suna	felda

i-stems nounscomprise nouns of all three genders. The masculine and neuter i-stems donotmush differ in their declension from the a-stems, and the feminine ones do not much differ from theō-stems. The root vowel has undergone mutation.

sige (m., ‘victory’);

cwēn (f., woman).

	Singular		Plural
Masculine	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine
Nominative	sige	cwēn	sige(as)	cwēne, cwēna
Genitive	sige	cwēne	sigea	cwēna
Dative	siges	cwēne	sigum	cwēnum
Accusative	sige	cwēn	sige(as)	cwēne, cwēna

Weak Nouns

Weak nouns are so called because they have less variation in form than the so-called "strong nouns." They are not a very numerous group of nouns, but they are frequently encountered, and it helps to know the declension.

Weak Masculine Noun cnapa (boy)

cnapa	Singular	Plural
Nominative	cnapa	cnapan
Genitive	cnapan	cnapena
Dative	cnapan	cnapum
Accusative	cnapan	cnapan

Weak Feminine Noun sunne (sun)

sunne	Singular	Plural
Nominative	sunne	sunnan
Genitive	sunnan	sunnena
Dative	sunnan	sunnum
Accusative	sunnan	sunnan

Weak Neuter Noun ēage (eye)

ēage	Singular	Plural
Nominative	(þæt) ēage	(þā) ēagan
Genitive	(þæs) ēagan	(þāra) ēagena
Dative	(þæm) ēagan	(þæm) ēagum
Accusative	(þæt) ēage	(þā) ēagan

Root –stems nounare present in all Germanic languages, these noun never had any stem-forming suffix, so the the case endings were added on immediately to the root. These nouns represent the oldest type.

mann (m., man) mūs (f., mouse)	Singular		Plural
Masculine	Feminine	Masculine	Feminine
Nominative	mann	mūs	menn	ms
Accusative	mann	mūs, ms	menn	mūsa
Genitive	mannes	ms	manna	mūsum
Dative	menn	mūs	mannum	ms

r-stemsare represented by a few masculine and feminine nouns denoting relationship.

Masculine r-stem noun fæder (father)

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	fæder (father)	fæderas
Accusative	fæder, fæderes	fædera
Genitive	fæder	fæderum
Dative	fæder	fæderas