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Another phenomenon common for Germanic languages is gradation or ablaut- root vowel change in strong verbs etc.

 

2. Spelling changes in ME and NE. Rules of reading. The most conspicuous feature of Late ME texts in comparison with OE texts is the difference in spelling. The written forms of the words in ME texts resemble their modern forms, though the pronunciation of the words was different. In ME many new devices were introduced into the system of spelling; some of them reflected the sound changes which had been completed or were still in progress in ME; others were graphic replacements of OE letters by new letters and digraphs. In ME the runic letters passed out of use. Thorn – þ – and the crossed d – đ, ð – were replaced by the digraph th, which retained the same sound value: [Ө] and [ð]; the rune “wynn” was displaced by “double u” – w – ; the ligatures æ and œ fell into disuse. After the period of Anglo-Norman dominance (11th–13th c.) English regained its prestige as the language of writing. Though for a long time writing was in the hands of those who had a good knowledge of French. Therefore many innovations in ME spelling reveal an influence of the French scribal tradition. The digraphs ou, ie, and ch which occurred in many French borrowings and were regularly used in Anglo-Norman texts were adopted as new ways of indicating the sounds [u:], [e:], and [t∫]. other alterations in spelling cannot be traced directly to French influence though they testify to a similar tendency: a wider use of digraphs. In addition to ch, ou, ie, and th Late ME notaries introduced sh (also ssh and sch) to indicate the new sibilant [∫], e.g. ME ship (from OE scip), dg to indicate [dç] alongside j and g; the digraph wh replaced the OE sequence of letters hw as in OE hwæt, ME what [hwat]. Long sounds were shown by double letters, e.g. ME book [bo:k], though long [e:] could be indicated by ie and ee, and also by e. Some replacements were probably made to avoid confusion of resembling letters: thus o was employed not only for [o] but also to indicate short [u] alongside the letter u; it happened when u stood close to n, m, or v, e.g. OE lufu became ME love [luvə]. The letter y came to be used as an equivalent of i and was evidently preferred when i could be confused with the surrounding letters m, n and others. Sometimes, y, as well w, were put at the end of a word, so as to finish the word with a curve, e.g. ME very [veri], my [mi:]; w was interchangeable with u in the digraphs ou, au, e.g. ME doun, down [du:n], and was often preferred finally, e.g. ME how [hu:], now [nu:]. For letters indicating two sounds the rules of reading are as follows. G and ñ stand for [dç] and [s] before front vowels and for [g] and [k] before back vowels respectively. Y stands for [j] at the beginning of words, otherwise, it is an equivalent of the letter i, e.g. ME yet [jet], knyght [knix’t]. The letters th and s indicate voiced sounds between vowels, and voiceless sounds – initially, finally and next to other voiceless consonants, e.g. ME worthy [wurði]. To determine the sound value of o one can look up the origin of the sound in OE or the pronunciation of the word in NE: the sound [u] did not change in the transition from OE to ME (the OE for some was sum); in NE it changed to [Λ]. It follows that the letter o stood for [u] in those ME words which contain [Λ] today, otherwise it indicates [o].



 

3. Linguistic features of Germanic languages: consonants.

The consonants in Germanic languages are characterized by a number of specific traits which constitute what is perhaps the most remarkable feature of the group. At first sight it may appear that Germanic consonants are similar to those of other Indo-European languages. Yet, comparison of Germanic and non-Germanic words going back to the same Indo-European root shows that Germanic consonants do not correspond to the same consonants in other languages. Thus whenever we have the sound (p) in Latin or Russian, we find (f) in its place in parallel words from Germanic languages. On the other hand, wherever Germanic has (p), non-Germanic have (b) ex. Sleep and ñëàáåòü.

It appears that Germanic languages display regular correspondences of consonants with non-Germanic languages: voiceless consonants occur instead of voiced, ex. (p), (b), fricatives instead of plosives (f), (p).

These correspondences appeared as a result of specifically Germanic tendencies in the development of consonants. Sometimes the alterations were independent, at other times they were caused by phonetics conditions and took place only in certain positions. The most remarkable change, which affected the greatest number of consonants, refers to the Common Germanic period, its results are therefore to be found in all the languages of the group.

 

4. ME phonetics: vowel (reduction, shortening/lengthening, development of OE monophthongs in ME).

In the ME period a great change affected the entire system of vowel phonemes. OE had both short and long vowel phonemes, and each of these could occur in any phonetics environment, that is, they were absolutely independent phonemic units. But in the 10th—12th centuries, the ME vowel system was basically different.

Shortening - a long vowel occurring before 2 consonants (including a doubled, i.e. long, consonants) is shortened. The vowels are shortened before 2 consonants, but remain long in other environments. However, long vowels remain long before the ‘lengthening’ consonant groups ld, nd, mb, i.e. those consisting of 2 voiced consonants articulated by the same organ speech. Long consonants also remained long before such consonant clusters as belonged to the following syllable. This mainly affects the group –st.

Lengthening – short vowels were lengthened in open syllables. This was another item of the development which deprived quantity of its status as a phonetic feature. It affected the short vowels a, e, o. The narrow vowels I and u remained as a rule unaffected by this change, and thus the difference between short I and long and also that between short u and long u retained its quality as a phonemically relevant feature.

Monophthongization of OE Diphthongs – all OE diphthongs were monophthongized in ME. OE short ea became a passing through the stage of ᵫ, as in eald – ald ‘old’, healf – half.

 


Date: 2015-12-17; view: 1256


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