History of english language

12. The development of monophthongs in ME

The OE close labialized vowels [y] and [y:] disappeared in Early ME. In Early ME the dialectal differences grew. In some areas OE [y], [y:] developed into [e], [e:], in others they changed to [i], [i:], in the South-West and in the west Midlands the two vowels were for some time preserved as [y], [y:] but later were moved backward and merge

d with [u], [u:]. OE fyllan – ME Kentish fellen [], ME West Midland and South Western fullen [], ME east Midland and Northern fillen [] (NE fill). In early ME the long OE [a:] was narrowed to []. This was an early instance of the growing tendency of all long monophthongs to become closer; the tendency was intensified in Late ME when all long vowels changed in that direction. [a:] became [] in all the dialects except the Northern group. ME Northern stan(e) [], ME other dialects stoon, stone [], (NE stone). The resulting ME [] must have been a more open vowel than the long [o:] inherited from OE. The two phonemes [] and [o:] were well distinguished in ME, though no distinction was made in spelling: o, and double o were used for both sounds. The short OE [] was replaced in ME by the back vowel [a]. In OE [] was either a separate phoneme or one of a group of allophones distinguished in writing []. All these sounds were reflected in ME as [a], except the nasalized [a] which became [o] in the West Midlands. ME that [], NE that, ME blak [] NE black, ME West Midland lond [], ME other dialects land []. Most of the modern words going back to the OE prototypes with the vowel [a] have [a], e.g. NE man, sand, and, which means that they came from any dialect except west Midland; some words, however, especially those ending in [], should be traced to the West Midlands, e.g. long, song, strong, from, bond.

13. Diphthongs in the History of English

OE period. Under the influence of succeeding and preceeding consonants some Early OE monophthongs developed into diphthongs. The glide (if a front vowel stood before a velar (задненёбный) consonant), together with the original monophtong formed a dipthong. The front vowels [i], [e] and the newly developed [], changed into dipthongs with a back glide when they stood before [h], before long (double) [ll] or [l] plus another consonant. The changes is known as breaking or fracture. Breaking produced a new set of vowels in OE – the short dipthongs [ea] and [eo]. Diphthongisation of vowels could also be caused b preceding consonants: a glide arose after a palatal consonants as a sort of transition to the succeeding vowel. After the palatal [k’], [sk’] and [j] short and long [e] and [] turned into diphthongs with a more front close vowel as their first element. This process known as diphthongization after palatal consonants. ME period. One of the most important sound changes of the EaME was the loss of OE dipthongs and the growth of new dipthongs, with new qualitative and quantative distinctions. The vowel system lost two sets of diphogs, long and short. In Ea ME the sounds [j] and [] between and after vowels changed into [i] and [u] and formed diphthongs together with preceding vowels. These changes gave rise to two sets of diphthongs:with i-glide and u-glide. e+j= ei, e:+j=ei, +j=ai, a+ =au, o+ =ou, a:+w=ou, a:+x=au+x. NE period. The Great Vowel Shift: during this period all the long vowels became closer or were dipthongised.i: – ai (time) pr ME, a: – ei (maken), o: – ou (stone) – preserved from ME, u: – au (mous – mouse), but au – o: (cause). In Ea NE [r] was vocalized when it stood after vowels, either finally or followed by another consonant. It reduced to neutral sound, which was added to the preceding vowel as a glide thus forming diphthong. Formed э – glide diphthongs – iэ beer (бэр), eэ (there – зэрэ), uэ (moor o-+).

14. Quantative changes of vowels in the History of English

They are: 1. Because of the consonants [ss], [st], [ft], [nt], the vowel [a] became longer pla:nt, a:fter, mж ss. 2. Shortening of vowels – occurred in Early NE before single dental and velar consonants [T, d, t, k]. The long vowels subjected to this shortening – [e:] and [u:] – were changing, or had already changed under the Great Vowel Shift breeth – [brE:T – breT]. The long [u:] which became short before [k], and sometimes also before [t], was a product of the shift. Early ME lengthening of the vowels – before ld, nd, mb in open syllables. Shortening – before other consonant clusters. 1. Short vowels were lengthened before two homorganic consonants, a sonorant and a plosive [wi:ld], 2. All other groups of two or more consonants produce the reverse effect: they made the preceding long vowels short kepte-kept. 3. Short vowels became long in opensyllables [e], [a], [o], O:pqn, na:mq.

15. Major vowel changes in NE. Great vowel shift. Vocalisation of [r]

Extensive changes of vowels are one of the most remarkable features of English linguistic history. A variety of changes affected vowels in stressed syllables. The Great Vowel Shift, – which involved the change of all ME long monophthongs, and probably some of the diphthongs. The Great Vowel Shift is the name given to a series of changes of long vowels between the 14th and the 18th c. During this period all the long vowels became closer or were diphthongized. It affected regularly every stressed long vowel in any position. Some long vowels – [u:], [i:] and [a:] – broke into diphthongs [au] (хус – hause), [ai] (ликэ – like) and [ei] (take такэ), o: – u: (хо-who), – e: – i: – клэн – clean), au – O: (кауз-cause). As we see, the Great Vowel Shift did not add any new sounds to the vowel system; in fact, every vowel which developed under the Shift can be found in Late ME. [ou] (го – go) was preserved from ME. The pronunciation of all the words with these sounds was alerted. During the Shift even the names of some English letters werechanged: a: – ei, e: – i:, o: – ou, i: – ai, be: – bi:, ka: – kei. Changes of short vowels: only 2 short vowels out of 5 were altered: [a] – [ж] (man, that) and [u] – [0] (кумэн, come). The vocalization of [r] took place in the 16th or 17th c. In Early NE [r] was vocalized when it stood after vowels, either finally or followed by another consonant. [r] changed into the neutral sound, which was added to the preceding vowel as a glide forming a dipthong [TE:re – Deq]. Sometimes the only trace left by the loss of [r] was the compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel [arm] – [a:m], [fOr – fO:]. If [r] stood in the final unstressed syllable after [q], the vocalization of [r] to [q] resulted in the survival of the ending [ri:dqrq – ri:dqr-raidq]. If the neutral [q] produced by the vocalization of [r] was preceded by a diphthong, it was added to the diphthong to form a sequence of sounds named «triphthong» [Su:r – Sauq]. O+r= O: for, a+r= a: bar; I, e, u+r =q: first, q+r= q brother/ long vowels i:+r=aiq shire, e:, E:+r= iq ear; E:+r= Eq there; a:+r=Eq hare, O:+r= Oq/O: floor; u:+r=auq flower. There developed a new set of diphthongs, and also triphthogs, with q-glides: [iq, Eq, uq, etc]; there arose a new central long monophthongs [q:]; the new long [a:] filled a vacant position in the system, since ME [a:] had been diphthongized under the GVS.

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