Consonant Changes in Old English PDF

Consonant changes in OE Group: 218 Moldakerim Laura, Moldakerim Layla Nauryzbai Simbat , Sariev Beknur, Zharylkaganova Danagul1 Consonant Changes in Pre-Written Periods On the whole, consonants were historically more stabl...

Consonant changes in OE Group: 218 Moldakerim Laura, Moldakerim Layla Nauryzbai Simbat , Sariev Beknur, Zharylkaganova Danagul1 Consonant Changes in Pre-Written Periods On the whole, consonants were historically more stable than vowels, though certain changes took place in all historical periods. It may seem that being a typical OG language OE ought to contain all the consonants that arose in PG under Grimm's and Verner's Law, Yet it appears that very few noise consonants in OE correspond to the same sounds in PG; for in the intervening period most consonants under- went diverse changes: qualitative and quantitative, independent and positional. Лаура Some of the consonant changes dated in pre-written periods are rеferred to as "West Germanic" (WG) as they are shared by all the languages of the WG subgroup; WG changes may have taken place at the transitional stage from PG to Early OE prior to the Germanic settlement of Britain. Other changes are specifically English; they took place in Early OE. Лаура  After the changes under Grimm's Law and Verner's Law PG had the following two sets of fricative consonants: voiceless [f, Ө, x, s) and voiced [v, ð, y, z). In WG and in in Early OE the difference between the two groups was supported by new features. PG voiced fricatives tended to be hardened to corresponding plosives while voiceless fricatives, being contrasted to them primarily as fricatives to plosives, developed new voiced allophones. Ләйлә The PG voiced [d] (due to Verner's Law or to the third act of the shift) was always hardened to [d] in OE and other WG languages; cf., for instance, Gt gops, godai (0), O Icel, göör and OE 30d (NE good). The two other fricatives, (v) and ly) were hardened to [b] and [g] ini- tially and after nasals, otherwise they remained fricatives. In the meantime or somewhat later the PG set of voiceless fricatives [f, 0, x, s]and also those of the voiced fricatives which had not turned into plosives, that is, [v] and [y], were subjected to a new process of voicing and devoicing. In Early OE they became or remained voiced intervocally and between vowels, sonorants and voiced consonants; they remained or became voiceless in other environments, namely, initially, finally and next to other voiceless consonants West Germanic Gemination of Consonants In all WG languages, at an early stage of their independent history, most consonants were lengthened after a short vowel before [j). This process is known as WG "gemination" or "doubling" of con- sonants, as the resulting long consonants are indicated by means of doub le letters, e. g.: fuljan OE fyllan (NE fill): sætjan OE settan (NE set), cf. at satjan. During the process, or some time later, [j] was lost, so that the long consonants ceased to be phonetically conditioned. When the long and short consonants began to occur in identical phonetic conditions, namely between vowels, their distinction became phonemic. Velar Consonants in Early Old English. Growth of New Phonemes In Early OE velar consonants split into two distinct sets of sounds, which eventually led to the growth of new phonemes. The velar consonants [k.g.x.y] were palatalised before a front vowеl, and sometimes also after a front vowel, unless followed by a back vowel.Thus in OE cild (NE child) the velar consonant [k] was softened to [k'] as it stood before the front vowel [i]: [*kild]>[k'ild]; similarly [k] became [k'] in OE spræc (NE speech) after a front vowel but not in OE sprecan (NE speak) where [k] was followed by the back vowel lal. In the absence of these phonetic conditions the consonants did not change, with the result that lingual consonants split into two sets,palatal and velar. Ләйлә The difference between them became phonemic when, a short time later, velar and palatal consonants began to occur in simi- lar phonetic conditions; cf. OE cild [k'ild], ciest [k'iest] (NE child, chest) with palatal [k'] and ceald, cepan (NE cold, keep) with hard, velar (k) both before front vowels. Though the difference between velar and palatal consonants was not shown in the spellings of the OE period, the two sets were undoubtedly differentiated since a very early date. In the course of time the phonetic difference between them grew and towards the end of the period the pal- atal consonants developed into sibilants and affricates: [k']>[tj], [g]>[d3]; in ME texts they were indicated by means of special digraphs and letter sequences  Fricative consonants could be dropped between vowels and before some plosive consonants; these losses were accompanied by a compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel or the fusion of the preceding and succeeding vowel into a diphthong, cf. OE sẽ on, which corresponds to Gt saihwan, OE slean (NE slay), Gt slahan, G. schlagen, OE sæzde and sæde (NE said). We should also mention the loss of semi-vowels and conso- nants in unstressed final syllables. [j) was regularly dropped in suffixes after producing various changes in the root: palatal mutation of vow- els, lengthening of consonants after short vowels. Old English Consonant System The system consisted of several correlated sets of consonants. All the consonants fell into noise consonants and sonorants. The noise con- sonants were subdivided into plosives and fricatives; plosives were further differeritiated as voiced and voiceless, the difference being pho- nemic. The fricative consonants were also subdivided into voiced and voiceless; in this set, however, sonority was merely a phonetic difference between allophones where the difference is positional: the consonant is voiced intervocally and voiceless finally (incidentally, voiced and voiceless fricatives were not distinguished in OE spelling). The opposition of palatal and velar lingual consonants [k] [k'], [g] [g] had probably become phonemic by the time of the earliest written records (Some scholars include in the system one more palatal consonant: Isk'], spelt as sc, e. g. OE scip (NÉ ship); others treat it as a sequence of two sounds [s'] and [k'] until Early ME when they fused into a single sibilant [J.) It is noteworthy that among the OE consonants there were few sibilants and no affricates. Thank you for listening