Theme 4.

Old English Spelling. Old

English Phonology

Aims:
perceive phonetic
irregularities between spelling
and pronunciation;

be able to account for major

vowels and consonants changes
that occurred in Old English

Points for Discussion:

Introduction
1. Spelling Irregularities

4. Consonants Changes in
Old English

2. The Phonetic Alphabet

4.1. Voicing of fricatives in

intervocal position

3. Vowel changes in Old

English

4.2. Palatalization of the

Sounds (c,sc,c)

3.1. Breaking (Fracture)

4.3. Assimilation before t

3.2. Palatal Mutation (iumlaut)

4.4. Loss of consonants in

certain positions

3.3. Diphthongization after

Palatal Consonants

4.5. Metathesis of r

3.4. Back, or Velar Mutation

3.5. Mutation before h.
3.6. Contraction

4.6. West Germanic

gemination of consonants
Conclusion

Key Terms to Know

monophthongs

Back/Velar Mutation

diphthongs

Mutation before h

Assimilation

Contraction

Breaking (fracture)

Voicing of Fricatives

Palatalization

Palatalization of j

Assimilation before t

Palatal mutation (iumlaut)

Diphthongization

Gemination of
Consonants

Recommended Literature
Obligatory
David Crystal. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English
Language. Cambridge, 1994. PP. 16-19

Elly van Gelderen.A History of the English Language.- Amsterdam/

Philadelphia, 2006. -PP. 13-23

Valery V. Mykhailenko. Paradigmatics in the evolution of English. Chernivtsi, - 1999. PP. 22-25; 30-35

T.A. Rastorguyeva. A History of English. - Moscow, 1983. - PP. 7192

L.Verba. History of the English language. - Vinnitsa, 2004. - PP. 3038

Additional:
. . . - ., 1985. - C. 31-45

Introduction
The English have no respect for their
language, and will not teach their
children to speak it. They cannot spell it
because they had nothing to spell it with
but an old foreign alphabet of which only
the consonants and not all of them
have
any
agreed
speech
value.
Consequently no man can teach himself
what it should sound like from reading
it.
/G.B. Shaw, Pygmalion, Preface/

The Poem on Spelling Irregularities (sourceunknown)

I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Some many stumble but not you.
On hiccough, thorough, slough and through?
So now you are ready perhaps
to learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
that looks like beard and sounds like bird,
and dead is said like bed, not bead or deed.
Watch out for meat, great, and threat that
rhyme with suite, straight, and debt.
(Elly van Gelderen. A History of the English Language, p.14)

1. Spelling Irregularities. The

Phonetic Alphabet

The Old English Alphabet was created

with the help of Latin and Runic
writing:
a

b
c [k], [k']
d
e
f [f], [v]
[], ['], [j], []
h [x], [x'], [h]
j
y [y]

L
m
n
o
/
p
r
s [s], [z]
[] ,[]
u
w

Old English writing phonetic principle: every letter

indicated a separate sound.
But, some letters indicated two or more sounds:

2. Word Stress
Word stress was fixed. In disyllabic and
polysyllabic words the accent fell on the
root-morpheme or on the first syllable. Word
stress was fixed; it remained on the same
syllable in different grammatical forms of
the word.
e.g.

Dat. case

hlforde ['xla:vrd]
cynine ['kynig]

Nom. case

hlford ['xla:vord]
cynin ['kynig].

Polysyllabic words, especially compounds,

may have had two stresses, chief and
secondary. The was fixed on the first rootmorpheme. In words with prefixes the
position of the stress varied: verb prefixes
were unaccented, while in nouns and
adjectives the stress was commonly
thrown on to the prefix. Cf.:
-'risan, mis-'faran v (NE arise, 'go
astray');
'mis-dd, 'u-en n (NE misdeed,
'escape').

If the words were derived from the

same root, word stress, together
with other means, served to
distinguish the noun from the verb,
cf.:
'and-swaru n and-'swarian v (NE answer,
to answer)
'on-in n on-'inna v (NE beginning, to
begin)

3.1.Breaking(fracture)
Formation of a short diphthong from a simple short
vowel when it is followed by a specific consonant
cluster.
e.g. a+r+cons,l+cons(beforeh)
+h+cons
e+hfinal

ea

ea
eo

(Germanicmonophthongizationsweresubstitutedinto
OldEnglishdiphthongs)

a > ea

Gothic arms > OE earm > NE arm

OHG fallan > OE eahta (Kent, Wes.) > NE eight

> ea

OHGSaltz>*slt > OE sealt > NE salt

OHE haltan > *hldan > OE healdan > NE hold
OHG sah > sh > OE seah > NE saw
OHG nah > *nh > OE nah > NE near

e > eo

OHG fehtan > OE feohtan > NE fight

OHG fehu (fihu) > OE feoh > NE fee
Gothic sterra > OE steorra > NE star
OG herza > OE heorte > NE heart

3.2. Palatal Mutation (i-umlaut)

narrowing of the vowel in the stressed

position syllable under the influence of i or j
of the following syllable

a > ; a>e

Goth. sandjan > OE sendan > NE send

OE framian > OE fremman > NE frame

>

OE hlian > OE hlan > NE heal

OE n > OE ni > NE any, one

o > oe, e (Dat., singular)

OE dohtor > OE dehter < L. *dohtri > NE daughter

OE ofstian > OE efstian > NE to hurry

>

OE s > OE s < L. osiz > NE goose

OE t > OE t < G. *toiz > NE tooth-teeth

u>y

OE full > OE fyllan < *fullian> NE full

OE hnutu > OE hnyte >< *hnutiz > NE nut

>

OE ms > OE ms <* msiz > NE mouse mice

OE cian > OE can > NE to announce
Palatal mutation

diphthongs

ea > ie

OE eald > OE ieldra > NE elder

OE hleahian > OE hliehhan > NE laugh

eo > ie

OE feor > OE fierra > NE further

OE eon > OE ienra > NE younger

> e

OE harian>OEheran>NEhear
OEelafa>OEelefan>NEbelieve

Ancient Mutations
Some English word pairs
showing the effects of a
phonological change which
took place over 1,200 years ago.

goose geese
tooth teeth
man men
mouse mice
hale health

doom deem
full file
whole heal
fall fell (vb.)
blood bleed
foul filth

3.3. Back, or Velar Mutation

Back vowels o/u (sometimes a) influencing
the preceding syllable caused the formation
of diphthongs.
The process was not universal (in west
saxon literary language it occurred only
before the sounds r, l, p, b, f, m)

e.g.

i > io

e > eo

OE hira > OE hiora >

NE their

OE hefon > OE heofon

> NE heaven

OE silufr > OE siolufr >

NE silver

OE efor > OE eofor >

NE boar

OE sifon > OE siofon >

NE seven
OE limu > OE liomu >
NE limbs

a > ea

OE saru > OE searu >

NE armour

3.4. Diphthongization after Palatal

Consonants
Diphthongs resulted
diphthongization after palatal consonants sk',
k' and j (in spelling c, sc, )

a > ea

Lat. castra > OE ceaster > NE town

OE scacan > OE sceacan > NE shake
OE scamu > OE sceamu > NE shame

e > ie

OE efan > OE iefan > NE give

OE etan > OE ietan > NE get

> ea (the sound was actually

derived from a).

OE f > OE eaf > NE gave

OE t > OE eat > NE year

o > eo

OE scort > OE sceort > NE short

OE yong > OE eon > NE young

3.5. Mutation before h

Sounds a and e that preceded h underwent several
changes:
- mutating to diphthongs ea, ie and finally were reduced
to i/y:
e.g.
OE naht > neaht > niht > nieht > nyht > NE night
The words with such mutation are not very numerous. It
is observed in the past tense of the verb maan (may)
meahte > miehte > mihte > myhte and several other
words.

3.6. Contraction
The consonant h proved to have interfered with the
development of many sounds. When h was placed
betweentwovowelsthefollowingchangesoccurred:
ethtvowel>OEsehen>seon>NEsee

ithtvowel>OEtihan>tn>NEaccuse

othtvowel>OEfohan>fn>NEcatch

3.7. Lengthening of vowels before the

clusters nd, ld, mb

Explainstheexceptionintherulesofreading
thesoundsintheclosedsyllablesinthe
presentdayEnglish:
e.g.climb,find,bold,told,comb.

4. Consonants Changes in Old English

TheOEsystemofconsonantsphonemeshavechanged
but little in comparison with other Germanic
languages. The system of consonants of the Old
English period is presented in the following table
(everyshortconsonantinOEhadacorrespondinglong
one):

4.1. Voicing of fricatives in intervocal

position

f>v

OE ofer [over] NE over

OE hlf hlfas ['hlvas]
NE leaf leaves
OE wif wfe, wfa [wv,
wva] NE wife wives

>

OE er [er] NE
other
OE rae [ra] NE
quickly

Voiced sibilant z was very unstable in OE (and other westGermanic languages) and very soon changed into r
(rhotacism)
wesun weren (now were, but was)
maiza mra (now more, but most)
It is due to rhotacism that common Indo-European suffix
-iza (Ukr. -i) used to form the degrees of comparison is so
different now in Ukrainian. and English, but comparing
such words as:
Goth. softiza Ukr.
OE softra NE softer.
We may easily find that the suffix is essentially the same.

4.2. Palatalization of the sounds k', sk' and kg'

(marked as c, sc and c) developed in assibilation, that is
formation of a sibilant in places before front vowels.

c > [k] > [] > ch

cild > child

ceosan > choose
hwilc > which

sc [sk] > [] > sh

sceap > sheep

scip > ship
sceotan > shoot
sceort > short

c ['] > [d] > d

bryc > bridge
hryc > ridge
wec > wedge

4.3. Assimilation before t

Thesoundtwhenitwasprecededbyanumberofconsonants
changedthequalityofaprecedingsound.

velar + t > ht

scan (scte) > shte

NE seek sought
brinan > brhte NE
bring brought

labial + t > ft

esceapan > easeaft

NE creature

fn > mn

stefn > stemn (voice)

dental + t > ss

witan > wisse (instead of

witte-knew)

fm > mm

wifman > wimman

(woman)

d > t

bind > bint (binds)

4.4. Loss of consonants in certain positions

Besides h that was lost in intervocal position,
the sounds n and m were lost before h, entailing the
lengthening of the preceding vowel:
bronhte brhte NE brought
fimf fif NE fire
oner - er NE other
mun m NE mouth
Other examples of similar loss was the loss of before d
and n; the vowel was lengthened, too:
mden mden NE maiden
sde sde NE said

4.5. Metathesis of r
InseveralOEwordsthefollowingchange
ofthepositionofconsonantstakesplace:
cons + r + vowel > cons + vowel + r
OE ridda irda NE third
OE brunnan burnan NE burn
OE hros hors NE horse
Metathesis of sounds is observed also with other
sounds:
ascian axian NE ask
wascan waxan NE wash

4.6. West Germanic gemination of

consonants
Intheprocessofpalatalmutation,
whenjwaslostandtheprecedingvowelwasshort,
theconsonantafteritwasdoubled(geminated):
OE
OE
OE
OE

fullian fyllan > NE fill

stjan settan > NE set
salian sellan > NE sell, origionall give
talian tellan > NE tell

Questions for Self- Control

What was the main tendency of the changes of

stressed long vowels?

What was the main tendency of the changes of

stressed short vowels?

What
What
What
What
What

vowel change is called breaking?

vowel change is called diphthongization?
vowel change is called palatal mutation?
vowel change is called velar mutation?
are the principal features of the OE vowels?

Questions for Self-Control (continued)

What peculiar features did the

consonants have in OE?
What change is called hardening?
What change is called rhotacism?
What change is called gemination?
What caused splitting of velar consonants
in OE?
What vowels could be used in the
unstressed position in OE?