A. OE Fracture, or Breaking

Fracture, or an assimilative vowel change, accounts for many modifications of vowels in Early OE: under the influence of succeeding and preceding consonants some Early OE monophthongs developed into diphthongs.

a/æ > eabefore the clusters l, r + consonant,and before h: * sælt > sealt (salt), *ærm > earm (arm), * æhta > eahta (eight), * sah/ sæh > seah (saw).

æ > ēā before h: næh > nēāh (near).

e > eobefore the clusters r + consonant, lc, lh, and before h: *herte > heorte (heart), *cneht > cneoht (boy, servant), *feh > feoh (cattle, property, money), *melcan > meolcan (to milk), *selh > seolh (seal).

In the 9^th century the diphthong eo became ie before ht and hs: feohtan > fiehtan, cneoht > cnieht.

Fracture was unevenly spread among the OE dialects: it was more characteristic of West Saxon than of the Anglian dialects (Mercian and Northumbrian). Consequently, in many words, which contain a diphthong in West Saxon, the Anglian dialects have a monophthong: arm, ahta, sah.

B. Palatalization

Diphthongization of vowels could also be caused by preceding consonants: a glide arose after the palatal consonants [k’], [sk’] and [j]: * gefan > giefan (to give), * gæf > geaf (gave), Lat. castra > ceaster (camp), * sceld > scield (shield), *scūr > scēōr (shower).

C. Lengthening of Short Vowels before Certain Consonant Combinations

In the 9^th century vowels were lengthened before the clusters nd, mb, ld: bindan > bīndan (to bind), climban > clīmban (climb), cild > cīld (child).

If, however, the cluster was followed by another consonant, lengthening did not take place, e.g. cildru (children).

D. Palatal Mutation. See Unit 5.

E. Velar, or Back Mutation

Another kind of mutation was caused by the back (or velar) vowels [a], [o], [u]. It took place in the 7^th-8^th centuries and was of comparatively small importance for the further development of the English language. Under the influence of [a], [o], [u] the front vowels [i], [e], [æ] were usually diphthongized.

F. Contraction

When a consonant was dropped and two vowels met inside a word, they were usually contracted into one long vowel:

Date: 2014-12-22; view: 1571