Middle english phonetical system

1. Vocalism.

1. Quantitative changes.

2. Qualitative changes.

3. Monophthongisation of OE diphthongs.

4. Reduction of unstressed vowels.

2. Consonantism.

3. Formation of new diphthongs.

1. Vocalism.

In Middle English the phonetic system is subjected to various and important changes. A new principle is regarded responsible for some of them: the quantity (length or shortness) of the vowel becomes dependant on definite phonetic conditions (arrangement).

1. By the end of OE short vowels before homorganic groups ‘ld, nd, mb’ lengthened as it was mentioned above: e.g.

findan	fīnden
cild	chīld
feld	fēld

The vowel doesn’t lengthen if there is a third consonant: e.g.

child children

wild wilderness

2. The second change of quantity took place at the very beginning of middle English, the beginning of the 11 c. Some vowels followed by a group of consonants shortened: e.g. cēpte – kepte, but cēpan - kēpen, where shortening did not take place. The same goes for such words as NE – slept, but sleep; swept, but sweep; theft, but thief; wisdom, but wise (where the root-vowel did not shortened because it was accompanied by a single consonant). It is said that the shortening took place before any consonant group which was not homorganic. But “sand”, “land” retained short a.

3. In the 13 c. vowels lengthened in an open syllable. This lengthening concerned short a, e, o. E.g.

OE	ME	OE	ME	OE	ME
caru talu	cāre tāle	macian nama smocian	māken nāme smōken	stelan specan	stēlen spēcen

Qualitative changes – changes of the nature of vowels.

1. The phoneme ā changed into ō: e.g.

OE	ME
hām	home
stān	stone
bān	bone
cnāwan	knowen
rād	road
hāl	whole

Cf. NE raid and hail came into literary English from the Northern dialect, where ā had not changed into ō.

2. The phoneme x changed into R e.g.

   OE	glxd	ME	glad	OE	mxn	ME	man
   	þxt		that		wxs		was
   	xppel		apple		cxt		cat

3. The phoneme x changed into ē: e.g.

   OE	ME
   slxpan	slepen
   lxtan	leten

4. y changed into i in the East Midland and Northern dialect; delabialisation took place.

y changed into e in Kent; there was delabialisation combined with certain opening.

y changed into ū or u in the South West and West Midland; labialization was kept, e.g.

OE	ME
hwylc	which
brycZ	bridge
byrZean	bury
myriZ	merry
swylc	such
mycel	much

In the word ‘busy’ spelling is from West Midland, pronunciation is from East Midland. In the word ‘bury’ spelling is from West Midland, pronunciation is Kentish.

Monophthongisation of OE diphthongs. OE diphthongs became monophthongised in Middle English: ea – a. E.g.

OE	ME
eal	al
eald	ald - āld - ōld
teald	tald – tāld - tōld

(a  ā before homorganic groups, later ā ō)

ēa  e (open), e.g.

OE	ME
bēam	bēm “tree” (in spelling it is ‘ea’)
strēam	strēm
ēast	ēst
brēad	brēd
dēad	dēd

ēo  ē (closed), e.g.

dēop	dēp (in spelling it is often ‘ee’)
dēor	dēr
cēosan	chēsen

eo – e, e.g.

heorte	herte
seolfor	selver
heofon	heven

Reduction of unstressed vowels. Unstressed vowels in suffixes reduced: o/a → e [q]; e.g.

OE	ME
stānas	stōnes
bindan	binden
fodor	father

This change went side by side with the changes in ME flexional system. Middle English vowels were as follows:

	ī				ū
i				u
		ē				ō
	e				o
		ę				ō
			a

(long ā disappeared)

6 long vowels

5 short vowels.