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The influence of other dialects is felt.
In the word “busy” the spelling reflects the influence of the Western dialects. The same is true about the verb “to build”. The pronunciation of the verb “to bury” is due to the South-East dialects, while the spelling is of Western origin.
A) Old Diphthongs
All the Old English diphthongs were monophthongized as early as the 11th century, losing their second elements:
| OE | ME | ||
| ēā [ε:] | ē | OE ēāst, strēām > | ME eest, streem (east, stream) |
| ea | a | OE earm, heard > | ME arm, hard |
| ēō [e:] | ē | OE dēōp, sēōn > | ME deep, see (deep, see) |
| eo | e | OE feor, deorc > OE heorte > | ME fer, derk (far, dark) ME herte (heart) |
| īe | i [i:] e | OE līehtan > OE hierde > | ME lighten [li:x’tən] (lighten) ME herd (shepherd) |
a) New Diphthongs
As a result of the vocalization of [j] and [w] new diphthongs were formed whose second element was either [i] (the letters, i, y) or [u] (mostly w).
| [ei] | OE | weg | ME | wey | ModE | way |
| [ai] [au] [ou] [au + x] | dæg
 sagu
lagu
boga
snāw
cnāwan
brāhte
| day saw(e) lawe [lauə] bowe [bouə] snou knowen [knouən] braughte [brauxtə] | day saw law bow snow know brought |
Besides the above-mentioned diphthongs which developed from native sources, similar diphthongs (with i and u – glides) are found in some ME borrowings, e.g.
| [oi] | in ME boy, joy |
| [au] | in ME pause [pauzə], cause |
The formation of new diphthongs in ME was an important event. By that time the OE diphthongs had been contracted into monophthongs. The new ME diphthongs differed from the OE ones in structure: they had an open nucleus and a closer glide; they were not contrasted through quantity as long to short.
Unit 22
Date: 2014-12-22; view: 1397
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