- •II.Lectures Lecture 1
- •I. Origin of English
- •II. Problem of division into periods.
- •III. Early History of British Isles
- •IV. Traces of the Roman Rule in Britain
- •V. The Anglo-Saxon Conquest of Britain
- •VI. Scandinavian conquerors
- •VII. Norman conquest of England
- •Chronological List
- •1. Origin of English.
- •4. Traces of the Roman rule in Britain.
- •Middle English Dialects
- •Vocabulary of Middle English Period.
- •Rising of London dialect.
- •Book printing.
- •Forming national language (15-17 c.)
- •Spreading of English outside England. English in Scotland
- •Phonetic changes. Oe Fracture (Breaking),
- •Borrowings of oe period.
- •I. Middle English Alphabet.
- •II. Changes in Spelling Habits .
- •III. Changes in Consonants.
- •IV. Phonetic Changes. Vowels.
- •V. Types of me Literary Documents
- •I. Spreading of London dialect in the 15th century.
- •II. Phonetic changes
- •1. The Vowel Shift
- •2. Influence of "r"
- •3. Special cases
- •4. Other changes
- •III. Phonetic Changes. Consonants.
- •1. Development of [h]
- •2. Loss of [l] before [k,m,f,V]
- •3. [J] Merged with Preceding Consonant.
- •I. Old English period. Nouns.
- •1. Preliminary remarks
- •2. The categories of oe nouns
- •3. The category of declension
- •4. The System of Cases in oe period and types of Declension
- •II. Middle English Nouns
- •III. Case system in New English period
- •I.Strong Verbs.
- •II. Weak Verbs
- •IV. Categories of verbs in oe.
- •Conjugation of Verbs [kon’dzugei ∫ n]
- •VI. Me Verbs.
- •I. Oe Pronouns.
- •III. Oe Adjectives. Declension.
- •IV. Degrees of Comparison.
- •III. Seminars
- •Origin of English
- •1. Origin of English
- •Scandinavian Conquerors.
- •Additional information The Scandinavian Influence
- •IV. Oe Vocabulary oe vocabulary for
- •V. Tests
- •Variant II.
- •Variant III.
- •Variant IV.
- •VI. List of the examination questions in the English Language History
- •I. Theoretical problems.
- •Origin of English.
- •II. Practical problems.
- •Card № 1
- •Origin of English.
II. Phonetic changes
1. The Vowel Shift
The most significant phonetic change of this period was the Great Vowel Shift, beginning in the 15th century. It left its imprint on the entire vowel system of the ME period.
The essence of the shift was the narrowing of all ME long vowels, and diphthongization of the narrowest long ones: [i: → ai], [u: → au].
The shift can be represented by the following diagram:
ai ← i: i: i: u: u: → au
↑ ↑ ↑
e: e: ei ou o:
↑ ↑ ↑
ع: ǽ o:
↑
a:
In the 16th century the vowel [e:] from ME [E] differed from vowel [i:] from ME [e:], and the words "speak", "beat", "mean" did not rhyme with the words ''meek", "meet", "keen". In the late 17th century [e:] changed into [i:] and the difference between the two vowels disappeared.
Spelling Middle English Modern English
pronunciation pronunciation
1. take 'ta:kə 'teik
name 'na:mə 'neim
grave 'gravə greiv
sane 'sanə 'sein
2. beat 'be: t 'be:t → bi:t
clean 'kle: n 'kle:n→kli:n
speak [spe: k] [spi:k]
lead [le: d] [le:d] → [li:d]
3. meet [me: t] [mi:t]
sleep [sle: p] [sli:p]
keen [ke: n] [ki:n]
see [se :] [si:]
be [be :] [bi:]
field [fe: ld] [fi:ld]
chief [t∫e: f] [t∫i:f]
receive [re'se: v] [ri'si:v]
seize ['se: zə] [si:z]
4. like ['li: kə] [laik]
time ['ti: mə] [taim]
rise ['ri: zə] [raiz]
side [si: də] [said]
5. boat [bo: t] [bout]
load [lo: d] [loud]
moan [mo: n] [moun]
go [go :] [gou]
6. tool [to: l] [tu:l]
moon [mo: n] [mu: n]
food [fo: d] [fu: d]
do [do :] [du: ]
7. house [hu: s] [haus]
noun [nu: n] [naun]
how [hu: ] [hau]
down [du: n] [daun]
As will be seen, the ME long [e:] (from OE [æ] or [ea]) changed into long [e:]. To denote this vowel the spelling ea was introduced, in order to distinguish this sound from another vowel – the long [e:], which according to the vowel shift changed into [i:] and was denoted by the spelling ee. However, when in the 17th century the former vowel also changed into [i:], the difference between the two spellings lost its phonetic value (two phonemes were merged into one), and since then the spelling ea and ee became hieroglyphic, i.e. they serve to distinguish between two words pronounced in the same way, e.g. sea and heel, meat and meet, leak and leek, etc. In a few words [e:], which in the vowel shift became [i:], is denoted by the spelling ie, e.g. field, friend, chief; occasionaly also ei, as in deceive, receive, seize.
ME long [o:] became [ou] as a result of the vowel shift. This sound has been denoted by the spelling oa since the 16th century.
ME long [o:] became [u:] and is denoted by the spelling oo.
All these changes show one general tendency: narrowing of long vowels and diphthongization of the narrowest of them. Thus all items of the shift appear as elements of a single process affecting all ME long vowels.
If we compare the system of long vowels which existed before the shift with that which arose from the shift, we can state that there appeared no new sounds, that is, no sounds that had not existed in ME. This will be made clear by the following table:
Middle English Modern English
Sound Example Sound Example
[ei] wey [ei] make
i: time i: see
e: seen e: sea
ai sayde ai time
ou bowe ou go
u: hous u: moon
au drawen au house
However, the vowel shift is an important event in the history of the English sound system, as the distribution of long vowels was completely changed. Thus, for instant, long [i:] appears in ME in the word "see", which in ME had the vowel [e:] and it does not appear in the word "time" which was pronounced with an [i:] in ME.