Changes of vowels in OE and their traces in ME.

1.Breaking- formation of a short diphthong from a simple short vowel when it is followed by a specific consonant cluster: for example ?+h+cons=ea nah-n?h-neah-near/

2.Palatal mutation (i-mutation) – narrowing of the vowel in the stressed position syllable under the influence of “I” or J of the following syllable: a – ?, a-e sandjan-sendan-send.

3.Back or Velar mutation – back vowels o/u influencing the preceding syllable caused the formation of diphthongs: i-io, e-eo,a-eahira-hiora.

4.Diphthongization after Palatal consonants sk, k and j: a-eacastra-ceaster, ? –eag?f-geaf-gave

5.Mutation before h – sounds A and E that preceded H underwent several changes-mutation to diphthongs ea, ie and finally were reduced to i/y: naht-neaht-niht-nieht-nyht.

6.Contraction – when H was placed between 2 vowels the following changes occurred:sehen-seon, fohan-fon.21.Grimm’s Law

Grimm’s Law

Grimm's law named after Jacob Grimm, is a set of statements describing the inherited Proto-Indo-European (PIE)stop consonants as they developed in Proto-Germanic in the 1st millennium BC. As it is presently formulated, Grimm's law consists of three parts, which must be thought of as three consecutive phases in the sense of a chain shift:

1. Proto-Indo-European voiceless stops change into voiceless fricatives.

2. Proto-Indo-European voiced stops become voiceless stops.

3. Proto-Indo-European voiced aspirated stops become voiced stops or fricatives (as allophones).

4. The chain shift can be abstractly represented as:

5. bʰ → b → p → ɸ

6. dʰ → d → t → θ

7. gʰ → g → k → x

8. gʷʰ → gʷ → kʷ → xʷ

Grimm's law was the first non-trivial systematic sound change to be discovered in linguistics; its formulation was a turning point in the development of linguistics, enabling the introduction of a rigorous methodology to historical linguistic research.

22. Verner's Law

1. Karl Verner, 1875

Danish linguist wondered why not every I-E stop changed in the same way. His formulation established that Grimm's Law was consistent and could account for all known cognate evolution

All voiceless stops changed once:

ph --> f

th --> theta

kh --> h

sh --> s z

If the sound was in an initial position or immediately after a stressed verb, it changed no further.

Those in other positions changed to voiced spirants (b, d, g)

The law can be formulated thus:

The Proto-Germanic voiceless fricatives [f], [θ], [s] and [x] became voiced [β], [?], [z] and [ɣ] if they were immediately preceded by an unstressed syllable.

23. Chronological division in the history of English

OE

BC 55 Roman invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar.

436 Roman withdrawal from Britain complete.

449 Settlement of Britain by Germanic invaders begins

450-480 Earliest known Old English inscriptions.

1066 William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, invades and conquers England.

ME

1348 English replaces Latin as the language of instruction in most schools.

1362 English replaces French as the language of law. English is used in Parliament for the first time.

c1388 Chaucer starts writing The Canterbury Tales.

c1400 The Great Vowel Shift begins.

1475 William Caxton establishes the first English printing press.

1604 Table Alphabeticall, the first English dictionary, is published.

Early ModE 1500-1800

NE 1800 – present

Date: 2015-01-29; view: 1085