Phonological History of English - West Germanic Period

West Germanic Period

This period is estimated to be c. AD 200–400. This includes changes up through the split of Ingvaeonic and High German (c. AD 400). Starting with this period, vowels in unstressed syllables were gradually reduced or eliminated. The specifics are quite complex and occurred as a result of many successive changes, with successive stages often happening hundreds of years after the previous stage.

• Loss of word-final /z/.
  • This change must have occurred before rhotacization, as original word-final /r/ was not lost.
  • But it must have occurred after the Northwest Germanic split, since word-final /z/ was not eliminated in Old Norse, instead merging with /r/.
  • /z/ was not lost in single-syllable words in southern and central German. Compare PG *miz > OS mi, OE me vs. OHG mir.
  • OE nominative plural -as (ME -s), OS nominative plural -ōs may be from original accusative plural *-ans (rather than original nominative plural *-ōz; cf. ON nominative plural *-ar), following Ingvaeonic nasalization/loss of nasals before fricatives.
• Rhotacization: /z/ > /r/.
  • This change also affected Proto-Norse; but in Proto-Norse, the date and nature are contested. /z/ and /r/ were still distinct in the Danish and Swedish dialect of Old Norse, as is testified by distinct runes. (/z/ is normally assumed to be a rhotic fricative in this language, but there is no actual evidence of this.)
• Initial i-mutation: Short back vowels were fronted when followed in the next syllable by /i/ or /j/, by i-mutation: /ɑ/ >, /o/ >, /u/ >
  • In this initial stage, the mutated vowels were still allophonically conditioned, and were not yet distinct as phonemes. Only later, when the /i/ and /j/ were modified or lost, the new sounds were phonemicized.
  • i-mutation affected all the Germanic languages except for Gothic, although with a great deal of variation. It appears to have occurred earliest, and to be most pronounced, in the Schleswig-Holstein area (the home of the Anglo-Saxons), and from there to have spread north and south. However, it is possible that this change already occurred in Proto-Germanic proper, in which case the phenomenon would have remained merely allophonic for quite some time. If that is the case, that would be the stage reflected in Gothic, where there is no orthographic evidence of i-mutation at all.
  • Long vowels and diphthongs were affected only later, probably analogically, and not in all areas. Notably, they were not mutated in most (western) Dutch dialects, whereas short vowels were.
• a-mutation: /u/ is lowered to /o/ when a non-high vowel follows in the next syllable.
  • This is blocked when followed by a nasal followed by a consonant, or by a cluster with /j/ in it. Hence PWG *guldã > OE/NE gold, but PWG guldijanã > OE gyldan > NE gild.
  • This produces a new phoneme /o/, due to inconsistent application and later loss of word-final vowels.
• West Germanic Gemination of consonants except /r/, when followed by /j/. This only affected consonants preceded by a short vowel, because those preceded by a long vowel or by another consonant were never followed by /j/ due to Sievers' law.
• PG /ɛː/ (maybe already /æː/ by late PG) becomes /ɑː/.
• Word-final long vowels were shortened.
  • Final /oː/ becomes /u/ in NWG, /a/ in Gothic. Hence PG *berō > early OE beru "(I) carry", but Goth baíra; PG *gebō > OE giefu "gift (nom. sg.)", but Goth giba.
• "Extra-long"' vowels were shorted to long vowels. There is a great deal of argument about what is exactly going on here.
  • The traditional view is that a circumflex accent arose (as in Ancient Greek) when two adjacent vowels were contracted into a single long vowel in a final syllable. This circumflexed vowel then remained long when other long vowels shortened.
  • A newer view holds that "overlong" (tri-moraic) vowels arose from the contraction of two vowels, one of which was long. Furthermore, final-syllable long vowels remained long before certain final consonants (/z/ and /d/).
  • The reason why such theories are necessary is that some final-syllable long vowels are shortened, while others remain. Nominative singular *-ōn shortens, for example; likewise first singular *-ōn < *-ōm; while genitive plural *-ōn < *-ōm remains long. Both of the above theories postulate an overlong or circumflex ending *-ôn in the genitive plural arising in the vocalic (PIE /o/ and /aː/, PG a- and ō-declensions, arising from contraction of the vocalic stem ending with the genitive plural ending.
  • Other examples of vowels that remain long are a-stem and ō-stem nominative plural *-ôz < early PIE *-o-es and -eh₂-es; PrePG ablative singular *-ôd, *-êd (Gothic ƕadrē "whither", undarō "under"); ō-stem dative singular PG *gibâi > Goth gibái "gift" (but a-stem dative singular PG *stainai > Goth staina "stone").
• Unstressed diphthongs were monophthongized. /ai/ > /eː/, /au/ > /oː/.
  • Results were different in Gothic. Diphthongs remained except for absolutely final diphthongs stemming from PIE short diphthongs, which became short /a/.
  • Hence PIE *sunous > PG *sunauz > Goth sunáus, but > PWG *sunō > OE suna "son (gen. sing.)"; PIE *nemoit > PG *nemait > *nemai > Goth nimái, but > PWG *nemē > OE nime "(he) takes (subj.)"; PIE (loc.?) *stoinoi > PG *stainai > Goth staina, but > PWG *stainē > OE stāne "stone (dat. sing.)"; PIE (loc.?) *gʰebʰāi > PG *gebōi > Goth gibái, but > PWG *gebē > OE giefe "gift" (dat. sing.).