Old English Phonology - Distribution of Velars and Palatals

Distribution of Velars and Palatals

The pairs /k/~/tʃ/ and /ɡ/~/j/ are almost certainly distinct phonemes synchronically in late West Saxon, the dialect in which the majority of Old English documents are written. This is suggested by such near-minimal pairs as:

• drincan "to drink" vs. drenċan "to drench"
• gēs "geese" vs. ġē "you"

Nevertheless there are very few environments in which both the velars and the palatals can occur; in most environments only one or the other set occurs. Also, the two sets alternate with each other in ways reminiscent of allophones, for example:

• ċēosan "to choose" vs. curon "chose (pl.)"
• ġēotan "to pour" vs. guton "poured (pl.)"

(In the standardized orthography used on this page, c stands for /k/, ċ for /tʃ/, g for /ɡ/ and, and ġ for /j/ and . The geminates of these are spelled cc, ċċ, cg, ċġ.)

The best way to explain the distribution of c~ċ and g~ġ is through historical linguistics. The PGmc ancestor of both c and ċ is *k; the ancestor of both g and ġ is *ɣ. Palatalization of *k to ċ and of *ɣ to ġ happened in the following environments:

• before PGmc nonlow front vowels (*i, *ī, *e, *ē, *eu) as well as PGmc *j
  • Examples: ġifþ "(he) gives" < *ɣiβiði, ċīdan "to chide" < *kīðanaN, ċeorl "churl" < *kerlaz, ċēoce "cheek" < *keukōN; non-initially bēċ "books" < *bōkiz, sēċan "seek" < *sōkijanaN, bryċġ "bridge" < *bruɣjō
• before OE /æ, æː/ < PGmc *a, ā (but not before OE /ɑ, ɑː/ < PGmc *a, ǣ by a-restoration)
  • Examples: ġeaf /jæf/ "gave" < *ɣaβ
• before OE /æːɑ/ < PGmc *au
  • Examples: ċēas "chose (sg.)" < *kaus, ġēat "poured (sg.)" < *ɣaut, ċēace /tʃæːke/ "cheek" < *kaukōN
• before OE /æɑ/ < PGmc *a by breaking
  • Examples: ċeald "cold" < *kaldaz, ġeard "yard" < *ɣarðaz
• after OE /i, iː/, unless a back vowel followed
  • Examples: iċ "I" < PGmc *ik, dīċ "ditch, dike" < PGmc *dīkaz (but wicu "weak")
• after OE /e, eː/ and /æ, æː/ (*ɣ only!), unless a back vowel followed
  • Examples: weġ "way" < PGmc *weɣaz, næġl "nail" < PGmc *naɣlaz, mǣġ "relative" < PGmc *mēɣaz (but wegas "ways")

The velars remained velar, however, before back vowels that underwent i-mutation (umlaut):

• cyning "king" < *kuningaz
• gēs "geese" < *ɣōsi < *ɣansiz
• cemban "to comb" < *kambijanaN

Palatalization was undone before consonants in OE:

• sēcþ "he seeks" < *sēċþ < *sōkīþi
• sengþ "he singes" < *senġþ < *sangīþi

The palatalization of PGmc *sk to OE /ʃ/ (spelt sċ) is much less restricted: word-initially it is found before back vowels and r as well as in the environments where ċ and ġ are found.

• sċuldor "shoulder" < *skuldrō
• sċort "short" < *skurtaz
• sċrūd (mod. "shroud") "dress" < *skrūðaN

Non-initially palatalization to sċ is found before PGmc front vowels and j, and after front vowels in OE, but not before an OE back vowel

• fisċ "fish" < *fiskaz
• āscian "ask" < *aiskōnaN

In addition to /j/ from the palatalization of PGmc *ɣ, Old English also has /j/ from PGmc *j, which could stand before back vowels:

• ġeong /junɡ/ "young" < PGmc *jungaz
• ġeoc /jok/ "yoke" < PGmc *jukaN

Many instances where a ċ/c, ġ/g, or sċ/sc alternation would be expected within a paradigm, it was levelled out by analogy at some point in the history of the language. For example, the velar of sēcþ "he seeks" has replaced the palatal of sēċan "to seek" in Modern English; on the other hand, the palatalised forms of besēċan have replaced the velar forms, giving modern beseech.