Phonological History of English - Ingvaeonic and Proto-Anglo-Frisian Period

Ingvaeonic and Proto-Anglo-Frisian Period

This period is estimated to be c. AD 400–475. This includes changes from c. AD 400 up through the split of the Anglo-Frisian languages from Ingvaeonic, followed by the split of pre-Old English from pre-Old Frisian (c. AD 475). The time periods for these stages are extremely short due to the migration of the Anglo-Saxons westward through Frisian territory and then across the English Channel into Britain, around AD 450.

• Anglo-Frisian brightening:
  • Fronting of /ɑ/ to /æ/ (unless followed by a geminate, by a back vowel in the next syllable, or in certain other cases). Hence OE dæġ /dæj/ "day", plural dagas /dɑɣɑs/ "days" (dialectal NE "dawes"; compare NE "dawn" < OE dagung /dɑɣunɡ/). Gothic dags, plural dagos.
    • This does not affect nasal /ã/. And since this is a back vowel, /ɑ/ in a preceding syllable was prevented from being fronted as well. This created an alternation between the infinitive in *-anã and strong past participle in *-ana (< PG *anaz), where the former became -an in OE but the latter became *-ænæ > -en.
  • Fronting of /ɑː/ to /æː/ (generally, unless /w/ followed).
• Final-syllable /æ/, /ɑ/ and /ɑ ̃/ are lost.
  • No attested West Germanic languages show any reflexes of these vowels. However, the way it affected the fronting of /ɑ/ as described above shows that at least /ɑ ̃/ was retained into the separate history of Anglo-Frisian.
• Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law: Loss of nasals before fricatives, with compensatory lengthening. Hence PG *munþaz > NHG Mund but OE mūþ, NE mouth.
  • An intermediate stage was a long nasal vowel, where nasal /ɑ ̃ː/ > /õː/. PrePG *donts > PG *tanþs > OE tōþ "tooth". (NHG Zahn < OHG zant.)
• Loss of word-final /i/ and /u/ (also from earlier /oː/) except when following a short syllable (i.e. one with a short vowel followed by a single consonant.) For example, PIE *sunus > PG *sunuz > OE sunu "son (nom. sing.)", PIE *peḱu > PG *fehu > OE feohu "cattle (nom. sing.)", PIE *wenis > PG *winiz > OE wine "friend (nom. sing.)", but PrePG *pōdes > PG *fōtiz > WG *fø̄ti > OE fēt "foot (nom. pl.)".