Phonological History of English - Old English Period

Old English Period

This period is estimated to be c. AD 475–900. This includes changes from the split between Old English and Old Frisian (c. AD 475) up through historic early West Saxon of AD 900:

• /k/, /ɣ/, /ɡ/ were palatalized to /tʃ/, /ʝ/, /dʒ/ in certain complex circumstances (see Old English phonology).
  • /ʝ/ later becomes /j/, but not before the loss of older /j/ below.
  • This change, or something similar, also occurred in Old Frisian.
• /œ/ and /øː/ are unrounded to /ɛ/ and /eː/, respectively.
  • Some Old English dialects retained the rounded vowels, however.
• Loss of /j/ and /ij/ following a long syllable.
  • A similar change happened in the other West Germanic languages, although after the earliest records of those languages.
  • This did not affect the new /j/ (< /ʝ/) formed from palatalisation of PG */ɣ/, suggesting that it was still a palatal fricative at the time of the change. For example, PG *wrōgijanan > early OE *wrøːʝijan > OE wrēġan (/wreːjan/).
  • Following this, PG */j/ occurred only word-initially and after /r/ (which was the only consonant that was not geminated by /j/ and hence retained a short syllable).
• /sk/ was palatalized to /ʃ/ in almost all circumstances. PG *skipaz > NE ship (cf. skipper < Dutch schipper, where no such change happened). PG *skurtjaz > OE scyrte > NE shirt, but > ON skyrt > NE skirt.
• Breaking of front vowels.
  • Most generally, before /x/, /w/, /r/ + consonant, /l/ + consonant (assumed to be velar, in these circumstances), but exact conditioning factors vary from vowel to vowel
  • Initial result was a falling diphthong ending in /u/, but this was followed by diphthong height harmonization, producing short /æ̆ɑ̆/, /ɛ̆ɔ̆/, /ɪ̆ʊ̆/ from short /æ/, /ɛ/, /ɪ/, long /æɑ/, /eo/, /iu/ from long /æː/, /eː/, /iː/. (Written ea, eo, io, where length is not distinguished graphically.)
  • Result in some dialects, for example Anglian, was back vowels rather than diphthongs. West Saxon ceald; but Anglian cald > NE cold.
• Diphthong height harmonization. The height of one element of each diphthong is adjusted to match that of the other.
  • /ɑi/ > /ɑː/ through this change, possibly through an intermediate stage /ɑæ/. PG *stainaz > OE stān > NE stone.
  • /ɑu/ was first fronted to /æu/ and then harmonized to /æa/. PG *draumaz > OE drēam "joy" (cf. NE dream, NHG Traum). PG *dauþuz > OE dēaþ > NE death (Goth dáuþus, NHG Tod). PG *augō > OE ēage > NE eye (Goth áugo, NHG Auge).
  • /eu/ is harmonized to /eo/.
• Shortening of Vowels
  • In two particular circumstances, vowels were shortened when falling immediately before either three consonances or the combination of two consonants and two additional syllables in the word. Thus, OE gāst > NE ghost, but OE găstliċ > NE ghastly (ā > ă/_CCC) and OE crīst > NE Christ, but OE crĭstesmæsse > NE Christmas (ī > ĭ/_CC$$).
  • Probably occurred in the seventh century as evidenced by eighth century Anglo-Saxon missionaries' translation into Old Low German, "Gospel" as Gotspel, lit. "God news" not expected *Guotspel, "Good news" due to gōdspell > gŏdspell.
• /ɪ̆ʊ̆/ and /iu/ were lowered to /ɛ̆ɔ̆/ and /eo/ between 800 and 900 AD.
• More reductions in unstressed syllables:
  • /oː/ became /ɑ/.
• Palatal diphthongization: Initial palatal /j/, /tʃ/, /ʃ/ trigger spelling changes of a > ea, e > ie. It is disputed whether this represents an actual sound change or merely a spelling convention indicating the palatal nature of the preceding consonant (written g, c, sc were ambiguous in OE as to palatal /j/, /tʃ/, /ʃ/ and velar /ɡ/ or /ɣ/, /k/, /sk/, respectively).
  • Similar changes of o > eo, u > eo are generally recognized to be merely a spelling convention. Hence WG /junɡ/ > OE geong /junɡ/ > NE "young"; if geong literally indicated an /ɛ̆ɔ̆/ diphthong, the modern result would be *yeng.
  • It is disputed whether there is Middle English evidence of the reality of this change in Old English.
• Initial /ɣ/ became /ɡ/ in late Old English.