МІНІСТЕРСТВО ОСВІТИ І НАУКИ УКРАЇНИ

ХАРКІВСЬКИЙ НАЦІОНАЛЬНИЙ УНІВЕРСИТЕТ

імені В.Н. КАРАЗІНА

Кафедра англійської філології та методики викладання іноземної мови

Факультет іноземних мов

1) “Evolution of the Sound System in the Middle English Period:

Vowels. Consonants. Word Stress”

Виконавець: Антоневська Софія Геннадіївна,

студент ІІІ курсу факультету

іноземних мов, гр. ЯЕ32

ХАРКІВ 2023
The English language's sound structure has experienced significant transformations
over the past millennium, starting from the era of Old English.Middle English
phonology is necessarily somewhat speculative, since it is preserved only as a
written language. Nevertheless, there is a very large text corpus of Middle English.
The Middle English dialects exhibited substantial variations in both time and
location. Unlike Old English and Modern English, the spelling in Middle English
tended to be phonetic rather than standardized. During the Middle English period,
spelling commonly reflected how words were pronounced by the individual
writing, rather than adhering to a standardized system that might not faithfully
capture the writer's dialectal pronunciation—a practice differing from the more
standardized spelling seen in Modern English today. This period represented a
transformative stage in the development of English, transitioning from its Old
English form to what would eventually become Modern English. This shift had a
notable impact on how words were spoken, the study of speech sounds, and the
overall structure of the language.

Vowels.

This transformation was among the most crucial shifts as English moved from the
Middle to the Modern era, spanning approximately from the 14th to the 18th
centuries. It led to a notable alteration in the way long vowel sounds were
pronounced. For instance: long vowels were pronounced differently than in Old
English. For example, the Middle English word "name" (pronounced /ˈnaːmə/ in
Old English) changed to /ˈnɑːmə/ in Middle English and eventually to /neɪm/ in
Modern English. Some vowels developed into diphthongs, a combination of two
vowel sounds within the same syllable. For instance, the Middle English word
"house" (/huːs/) had a different vowel sound compared to the modern
pronunciation (/haʊs/). Some processes which began in Old English were
completed in Middle English. ( formation of new sounds [ʧ] [ʃ], [ʤ]) ,

- Middle English had a number of French unassimilated sounds.

- Vowels in Middle English were, overall, similar to those of Old English.

-Except for the loss of OE y and æ so that y was unrounded to [I] and [æ] raised
toward [ɛ] or lowered toward [ɑ].

-The Middle English vowels existed, as in Old English, in long and short varieties.

Consonants.

In the history of the English language the consonants were far more stable than the
vowels. A large number of consonants have remained unchanged since the OE
period. Such consonants as [t], [d], [n], [l],[m],[k] have not been subjected to any
alteration. Here are main examples of consonant changes(there are more of them,
but I am limited in space):

1. Consonants of Middle English were very similar to those of Present Day English
but lacking [ ŋ ] as in hung (velar nasal) and [ 3 ] as in measure (alveo-palatal
voiced fricative).

2. loss of long consonants (OE mann > ME man).

3. h lost in clusters, OE hæl fdige > ME ladi ("lady"), OE hnecca > ME necke
("neck"), OE hræ fn > ME raven.

4. g became w after l and r: OE swelgan > ME swolwen ("swallow"), OE feolaga >

ME felawe ("fellow"), OE morgen > ME morwen ("morning"), OE sorg > ME
sorow ("sorrow").

5. OE prefix ge- lost initial consonant and was reduced to y or i: OE genog > ME
inough ("enough").

6. unstressed final consonants tended to be lost after a vowel: OE ic > ME i, OE -

lic > ME -ly (e.g. OE rihtlice > ME rihtly ("rightly").
7. final -n in many verbal forms (infinitive, plural subjunctive, plural preterite) was
lost, e.g. OE cuman > Modern English come (the n remains in some past
participles of strong verbs: seen, gone, taken);

8. w generally dropped after s or t: OE sweostor > sister, (sometimes retained in

spelling: sword, two; sometimes still pronounced: swallow, twin, swim).

Word stress.

With the decline of inflectional endings, word stress patterns changed significantly.
The loss of distinct word endings led to alterations in the way words were stressed
and intonated in speech. The influence of French and Latin, stemming from the
Norman Conquest, introduced new vocabulary and altered the pronunciation of
words, affecting the stress patterns in some words. The changes in vowel and
consonant sounds, alongside alterations in word stress patterns, mark key aspects
of the evolution of the sound system in Middle English. These changes were
crucial in the development of the language from the medieval period to the early
modern era. With the decline of inflectional endings, word stress patterns changed
significantly. The loss of distinct word endings led to alterations in the way words
were stressed and intonated in speech. In OE stress usually fell on the first syllable
of the word, rarely on its second syllable: the prefix or the root of the word were
stressed while the suffixes and endings were unaccented. Word stress in OE was
fixed: it never moved in inflection and seldom in derivation. In Late ME poetry we
find a variety of differently stressed words. Though poetry permits certain
fluctuation of word accent, this variety testifies to greater freedom in the position
of word stress. New accentual patterns are found in numerous ME loan-words from
French.

To conclude, Significant changes in the English language's sound system occurred

over a millennium, from Old English to Middle and Early Modern English. Middle
English phonology, primarily preserved in written form, exhibited regional
variations. Vowel transformations, including the Great Vowel Shift, and diphthong
development, were significant. Some consonants remained stable, while others
underwent changes. Word stress patterns shifted due to the loss of inflectional
endings and the influence of French and Latin. These changes played a crucial role
in the language's evolution. Middle English allowed more freedom in word stress
compared to Old English, with different accentual patterns appearing in loanwords
from French in Middle English poetry.

Sources:

1. Бабенко, О. В. НАЦІОНАЛЬНИЙ УНІВЕРСИТЕТ БІОРЕСУРСІВ І

ПРИРОДОКОРИСТУВАННЯ УКРАЇНИ -КИЇВ, 2014. - C. 334

2. Verba L.G. History of the English Language. -Вінниця, 2012. -C. 296

3. Alex Bergs and Laurel Brinton, Historical Linguistics of English, Middle

English: Phonology-Berlin, 2012. -C. 414