A brief history of
English Sounds
Why does pronunciation change?
The Lazy Principle
Assimilation: e.g. swan
Dissimilation: e.g. diphthong < M.E. dipthong
Simplification: e.g. know
Elision: e.g. OE meten PDE meet; fam(i)ly
Addition of sounds: e.g. Early ME emtie PDE empty
Social influence
Contact with other languages
The influence of spelling: e.g. ME autour PDE
author
Sounds in the past: how we know
Looking at written records usually no strict rules
in past Old English for spelling, so scribes probably
wrote as they spoke.
Comparison with other closely-related languages.
Known sound changes, e.g., OE hit becoming later
it can easily happen as initial h is dropped also in
Modern English (I saw im)
Poetic evidencehow poets use rhyme of
alliteration.
Published works by the contemporary grammarians
and orthopedists
Change in Germanic vowels
Before the 7th century in pre-historic OE.
Occurred in all Germanic dialects except Gothic.
Germanic vocalic changes can explain
some PDE linguistic irregularities
fronting and raising of vowels through the
influence of [i] or [j] in the immediately following
syllable. *fo:tiz > *fe:tiz > OE ft (feet)
the sounds [i] or [j] were common in suffixes and
endings.
*fulljan > *fylljan > OE fyllan (fill)
* > > OE te (teeth)
*mnniz > *menniz > OE men
*mu:siz > *my:siz > OE ms (mice)
Sound change is not inevitable
Look at these OE words and their PDE equivalent.
asc ash
bedd bed
ford ford
full full
mann man
sacc sack
scip ship
t that
Old English
Now take these OE words and their PDE equivalent.
ma /ti:ma/ time
grene /gre:ne/ green
brecan /brekan/ break
nama /nama/ name
bat /ba:t/ boat
mona /mo:na/ moon
hus /hu:s/ house
Spelling / sound correspondence <f>
<f> in initial and final position.
OE faran (to go)
OE wulf (wolf)
<f> between voiced sounds
OE drfan (to drive)
OE wulfas (wolves)
Middle English
Age of manuscripts. No printed books. Spelling
system was much more variable than in OE.
ME naure, neuer, neure (PDE never)
Norman scribes dominated the making of English
MSS.
Norman scribes used their own spelling
conventions to represent ME sounds.
William Caxton 15th century
Spelling convention to show vocalic
length
Long vowels marked by extra letters. ee, oo
to represent OE /e:/, /o:/. ME see, foot
ou / ow for OE u /u:/. OE hs ME house/howse
ea, oa to represent OE /e:/ /o:/. ME meate, loade
Final scribal e to indicate the preceding vowel is
long. OE ft ME fote/foote
Consonant doubling used to mark short vowels. E.g.
dinner vs. dine)
Spelling convention to show vocalic
length (cont.)
Because the letter u was written similar to v, m, and
n, when it appeared near these, u was replaced by o.
So
OE cuman > ME comen
OE sum > ME some
OE sunu > ME sone.
By the 15th century, English spelling was a
combination of the Old English and French systems
and is one of the roots of todays confusing English
spelling.
OE ME Early Mod. E Modern English
before 1150 1150-1500 1500-1650
> > >
> > >
spelling Great later
change Vowel diphthonging
Shift
Great Vowel Shift
tide house
sweet moon
clean stone
name
sweet moon
clean tide house stone
name
Consonants
Articulation more or less the same from OE times.
Consonant system enlarged by two phonemes:
Cluster reductions.
Many instances of loss.
New consonants and new contexts
> e.g. vision /> /
> so sing and sin .
> e.g. mission >
> e.g. question> /
> e.g. soldier >
Cluster reductions
> e.g. wrong /> /
> e.g. climb >
> e.g. gnawen >
> e.g. knowe >
> e.g. what >
These reductions were commonly accepted in the 17th
century.
Loss of consonants
Loss of e.g. walk >
half >
folk >
Loss of preconsonatal and final /r/
beard scarce force sure
Input
Pre-R diphthong
Laxing
R Dropping
Etymological respelling
Spelling pronunciations
Influenced by classical Latin and Greek.
Insertion of <h> after <t> in a number of foreign
words. throne > OF trone > L. thronus ultimately
borrowed from Greek.
Insertion of unhistorical <l>.
e.g. fault > OF faute > L. fallita
Borrowed French words with initial silent <h> came
to be pronounced with /h/. Except hour, honour, heir
and herb (in Am. Eng.)
Etymological respelling
No effect on pronunciation
Insertion of unetymological <b>, <c>. <p>
doubt > ME doute > OF dute > L. dubitare
debt > ME dette > OF dete > debitum
indict > ME endite > OF enditer > L. indictre
receipt > ME receite > OF recete > L. recepta
Insertion of <s> in island, isle, aisle
isle > ME ile > OF ile > L. insula
island > ME iland > OE gland
aisle > ME ele > OF ele > L. la
Bibliography
Barber, C.; J. Beal & P. Shaw (2009). The
English Language. A Historical Introduction. 2nd
ed. Cambridge: CUP.
Singh, I. (2005). The History of English: a
Students Guide. London: Hodder Education.
Algeo, J. (2009). The Origins and Development
of the English Language. 6th ed. Boston:
Wadsworth Publishing .
