THE PRONOUN 9 страница

As stated above, о usually stands for [u] next to letters whose shape resembles the shape of the letter u, though sometimes even in the same environment it can indicate [o], cf. ME some ['suma] and топе l'mo: ne] (NE some, moon). To determine the sound value of о one can look up the origin of the sound in OE or the pronunciation of the word in NE: the sound lu] did not change in the transition from OE to ME (the OE for some was sum); in NE it changed to [a]. It follows that the letter о stood for [u] in those ME words which contain {л] today, otherwise it indicates loh Cf., e.g. ME some ['sumdl, not [not] (NE some, not).

The digraphs ou and ow were interchangeable. Their sound value can be determined either by tracing the words to OE prototypes or by taking into account the modern pronunciation. They indicate [u: 1 in the words which contained [u: ] in OE, since the OE [u: ] had _not changed, and which have [au] in NE, e.g. OE Afls> ME hous [hu: s]> vjg house. If the modern word has lou], the corresponding ME word should be pronounced with the same diphthong lou], e.g. ME snow Istioul, NE snow, as ME lou] has not altered (the origins of the diph­thongs are described in § 380).

Long sounds in ME texts are often shown by double letters or di­graphs. The length of the vowel can sometimes be inferred from the nature of the syllable; open syllables often contain long vowels, while closed syllables may contain both short and long vowels. The succeed­ing consonant groups can also serve as indicators: vowels are long before a sonorant plus a plosive consonant and short before other consonant sequences, e.g. ME maken ['та: кэп ], lat [la: t], lok Пэк ], bihynden [bi'hi: ndsn], bisetten [bi'settsn] (NE make, late, lock, behind, beset). (See § 370 ff. for quantitative changes of vowels in Early ME which ex­plain the causes of these differences.)

(In reading ME texts there is no need to observe the distinctions of sound length but these distinctions are most important for a proper understanding of ME and Early NE sound changes.)

§ 361. The opening stanzas of the Prologue to the CANTERBURY TALES by G. Chaucer (late Hth c.) are given below with transcription and translation; the word stress is shown as required by the iambic meter of the poem and is therefore marked both in monosyllabic and polysyllabic words.

(1) Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote Ixwan '9at ap'rilta 'wiQ his 'fu: rss 'so: ts]

(2) the droghte of March hath perced to the roote,

19э 'druxt of 'martj ha9 'persad 'to: йэ 'го: Ы -

(3) And bathed every veyne in swich licour, [and 'ba: < 5ad 'evri 'vein in 'switj* Ii'ku: rl

(4) Of which vertu engendred is the flour; lof 'xwitf ver'tju: en'd3endrad 'is 0э 'flu: r 1

When April with his sweet showers

The draught of March has pierced to the root,

And bathed every vein in such liquor,

Of which (whose) virtue (power) engendered is the flower;

(5) Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth Ixwan 'zefi'rus e: k 'wi9 his 'swe: ta 'bre: 0]

(6) Inspired hath in every holt and heeth [in'spirad 'haft in 'evri 'ha: lt and 'Ьб: 01

(7) The tendre croppes, and the younge sonne [9э 'tendra 'kroppas 'and вэ 'juogs 'sunna ]

(8) Hath in the Ram his halve cours y-ronne, Iha9 'in 6э ram his 'halva 'kurs i-'runna]

When Zephyr also with his sweet breath

Inspired has into every holt and heath

The tender crops, and the young sun

Has in the Ram half his course run (has passed half

of its way in the constellation of Ram).

(9) And smale foweles maken melodye, {and 'smate 'fu: las 'та: кэп 'melo'diaJ

(10) That slepen al the nyght with open ye — [0at 'sle: p3n 'al 0э 'nix't wi0 'э: рзп 'i: ej

(11) So priketh hem nature in here corages — [so: 'prika6 'hem na'tju: r in 'her ku'rad53s]

(12) Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages, [0an 'loggan 'folk to: 'go: n on 'pilgri'madsas]

And small birds sing (lit. fowls make melody) That sleep all the night with open eyes (i.e. do not sleep) — So raises nature their spirit (tit. pricks their courage) — Then folks long to go on pilgrimages,

(13) And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,

land 'palmrss 'for to: 'se: ksn 'straundje 'strondasl

(14) To feme halwes, couthe in sondry londes... [to: 'ferna 'ha: lwos 'ku: 6 in 'sundri 'b: nd3sj

And palmers — to seek strange strands, To ancient saints known in different lands...

QUESTIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

1. Analyse the relationships between the letters and sounds in the extract given in § 361 and say in which instances the ME spelling system was less phonetic — and more conventional — than the OE system.

2. Read the following ME words and explain the employment of the italicized letters:

certainly, padent, carrie, Allien (NE certainly, patient, carry, kill); £ este, gold, (NE jest, gold); was, seson, ese, sory (NE was, season, ease, sorry); о/Лег, //linken, the, that, naffieless, both (NE other, think, the, that, nevertheless, both); a/ere, euery, fight, thief, very (NE affair, every, fight, thief, very); yonge, sonne, not, hose (NE young, sun, not, hose); mous, lorn?, loud, to«n, how (NE mouse, low, loud, town, how); knowen, whether, straunge, what, knyght, iaughte (NE know, whether, strange, what, knight, taught).

Chapter XIV

EVOLUTION OF THE SOUND SYSTEM FROM THE ПТН TO 18TH C.

Preliminary Remarks

§ 362. The sound system of the Engfish language has undergone profound changes in the thousand years which have elapsed since the OE period, The changes affected the pronunciation of words, word accentuation, the systems of vowel and consonant phonemes.

In so far as possible the sound changes in the following survey are grouped into two main stages: Early ME changes, which show the tran­sition from Written OE to Late ME — the age of literary flourishing or " the age of Chaucer" — and Early NE changes, which show the tran­sition from ME 'to later NE — the language of the 18th and 19th c.

Word Stress in Middle English and Early New English

s 363. The system of word accentuation in OE was described in § 115. In OE stress usually fell on the first syllable of the word, rarely

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 fjxed: it never moved in inflection and seldom in derivation.

This way of word accentuation, characteristic of OE, was considerably altered in the succeeding periods. The word accent acquired greater positional freedom and began to play a more important role in word derivation. These changes were connected with the phonetic assimila­tion of thousands of loan-words adopted during the ME period.

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. Probably, when they first entered the English language they retained their original stress — on the ultimate or pen-ultimate syl­lable. This kind of stress could not be preserved for long. Gradually, as the loan-words were assimilated, the word stress was moved closer to the beginning of the word in line with the English (Germanic) system. This shift is accounted for by what is known as the " recessive" tendency. In disyllabic words the accent moved to the first syllable, so that the resulting pattern conformed to the pattern of native words, e.g. ME vertu Iver'tju:! became NE virtue ['va: tjal, cf. native English shortly, childish. The shift can be shown as follows: s's> 'ss (s stands for " syl­lable").

In words of three or more syllables the shift of the stress could be caused by the recessive tendency and also by the " rythmic" tendency, which required a regular alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables. Under the rhythmic tendency, a secondary stress would arise at a dis­tance of one syllable from the original stress. This new stress was either preserved as a secondary stress or else became the only or the principal stress of the word, e.g.

ME recommenden freko'mendsn ]> NE recommend [, reka'mend I— ss'ss>, ss's;

ME disobeien [diso'beian] > NE disobey ['dESo'betj — ss'ss> 'ss's;

ME comfortable Ikomfor'tabla] > NE comfortable ['kAmfatabll — ss'ss> 'sss;

ME consecraten Ikonse'kra: tan ]> NE consecrate ['kansikreitj —ss'ss > 'sss

(Accentual patterns of the type 'sss or s'sss are common in Mod E, ^cf- ability, evident, necessity.

In many polysyllabic words both tendencies, the recessive and the rhythmic, operated together and brought about several changes. For instance in NE consolation f, k3nsa'letfn] we find the results of the shift from the final to the preceding syllable [lei| due to the recessive tendency and a secondary stress on the first syllable. In NE pos& ibiihy the rhythmic factor accounts both for the primary and secondary stress^ (the original position of the accent was on the last syllable).

§ 364. Sometimes the shifting of the word stress should be attrib­uted not only to the phonetic tendencies but also to certain morph₀. logical factors. Thus stress was not shifted to the prefixes of many verbs borrowed or built in Late ME and in Early NE, which accords with the OE rule: to keep verb prefixes unstressed, e.g. ME accepten, engendren, presenten, NE accept, engender, present. Cf. NE verbs befall, mistake] forget. Corresponding nouns sometimes, though not always, received the stress on the first syllable: NE 'present n — pre'sent v; 'discord n —. dis'cord v. The latter pairs of words show that the role of word accen­tuation has grown: word stress performs a phonological function as it distinguishes a verb from a noun. (For the role of word stress in word building see § 595.) Thus it appears that as a result of specifically Eng­lish (or rather Germanic) tendencies, continuously applied to numer­ous polysyllabic loan-words, the entire system of word accentuation has altered. The position of word stress has become relatively free and its phonological application has widened: it can be shifted in word deri­vation, though it is never moved in building grammatical forms.

VOWEL CHANGES IN MIDDLE ENGLISH AND EARLY NEW ENGLISH Unstressed Vowels

§ 365. 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 modification of unaccented vowels was more uniform and simple. It is convenient to begin the description of vowel changes with unstressed vowels, for they will be found in many examples given for other purposes and should therefore be made clear in advance. It should be borne in mind, however, that the boundaries between stressed and unstressed vowels were not static: in the course of time a vowel could lose or acquire stress, as in many words stress was shifted; consequently, the vowel would pass into the other group and would be subjected to other kind of changes.

§ 366. In ME andNE the main direction of the evolution of unstressed vowels was the same as before; even in the pre-written period un­stressed vowels had lost many of their former distinctions, namely their differences in quantity as well as some of their differences in quality {§ 131). The tendency towards pbcnetic reduction operated in all the subsequent periods of history and was particularly strong in unstressed final syllables in ME.

In Early ME the pronunciation of unstressed syllables became in­creasingly indistinct. As compared to OE, which distinguished five short vowels in unstressed position (representing three opposed phonemes [e/il, la] and lo/u]), Late ME had only two vowels in unaccented syl­lables: [э] and [i ], which are never directly contrasted; this means that phonemic contrasts in unstressed vowels had been practically lost.

Cf. some OE words with their descendants in Late ME and NE:

fishes ME risen ['rizan] risen

ME tale l'ta: tel

talen ME body ['bodi]

fish's Gen. sg

NE rose (OE Past pi) NE risen (Part. H) NE tale (OE Nom. and

other cases sg, Dat. Pi) NE body

(The last two examples, OE talum and bodiz show also the fate of consonants in final syllables: -um> -en; -i3> -i.)

The occurrence of only two vowels, [a] and [i ], in unstressed final syllables is regarded as an important mark of ME, distinguishing it on the one hand from OE with its greater variety of unstressed vowels, and on the other hand from NE, when the ME final [э] was dropped.

This final Гэ I disappeared in Late ME though it continued to be spelt as -e. The loss of [a J started in the North, spread to the Midlands, and reached the Southern areas by the 15th c. In the London dialect of Chaucer's time it was very unstable and could be easily missed out be­fore a following initial vowel or when required by rhythm (see the pas­sage from Chaucer in § 361). When the ending -e survived only in spell­ing, it was understood as a means of showing the length of the vowel in the preceding syllable and was added to words which did not have this ending before: cf. OE stan, rad and ME stoon, stone, rode (NE stone, rode). (Sometimes it was added even to words where length was already indicated by another device, e.g. OE hus, ME house.)

§ 367. It should be remembered though that while the OE unstressed vowels were thus reduced and lost, new unstressed vowels appeared in borrowed words or developed from stressed ones, as a result of various changes, e.g. the shifting of word stress in ME and NE, vocalisation of lr] in such endings as writer, actor, where [erl and [or] became [э]. Some of the new unstressed vowels were reduced to the neutral (э] or dropped, while others have retained certain qualitative and quantita­tive differences, e.g. Гэ J and [ei] in consecrate, disobey after the shift of stress. (Note also diverse unaccented vowels in the following modern words: ad'versely [se-1; al'ternant b: ] or (ol; direct; fidelity [ai]

or Ы).

These developments show that the gap between the stressed and unstressed vowels has narrowed, so that in ME and NE we can no longer subdivide the vowels into two distinct sub-systems — that of stressed and unstressed vowels (as was done for OE — see § 134).

Main Trends in the Changes of Stressed Vowels

§ 368. No other part of the English sound system has undergone such sweeping changes as the vowels in stressed syllables. They changed
both in quality and quantity, under the influence of the environment and independently, alone and together with the surrounding sounds As a matter of fact, not a single OE long monophthong or diphthong has remained unaltered in the course of history; only a few short vowels were not changed, unless they were lengthened and then shared the fate of long vowels (for instance, short li] and [ol have not suffered any changes in is and of — OE is, of, but the same sounds have developed into diphthongs if they became long: OE blind> y[£ blind {b! t: nd3> NE blind, OE hopa> ME каре fh3.-p3|> NE hope).

§ 369. The system of vowel phonemes has undergone drastic changes in the course of English linguistic history. Though the total number of phonemes has practically remained the same, their distinctive fea­tures and the principles of their opposition in the system, have altered.

Strictly speaking we can observe all kinds of vowel changes in all historical periods. And yet some prevailing trends of evolution can be singled out for certain groups of vowels at certain periods.

Long vowels were the most changeable and historically unstable group of English sounds. At all times they displayed a strong tendency to become narrower and to diphthongise, whereas short vowels displayed a reverse trend — towards greater openness, though this trend was less obvious and less consistent. Qualitative and quantitative changes were intertwined and often proceeded together.

It may be recalled here that in Early OE the prevalent type of vowel changes were assimilative changes mainly affecting the quality of the vowels. Towards the end of OE quantitative vowel changes gained mo­mentum. Early ME is mainly characterised by positional quantitative changes of monophthongs; at the same time profound independent changes affected the system of diphthongs: OE diphthongs were mono­phthongised and lost, and new types of diphthongs developed from vowels and consonants.

Late ME saw the beginnings of a new series of sweeping changes: independent qualitative changes of all long vowels known as the " Great Vowel Shift"; it lasted from the Hth tilt the 17th or even 18th c. Numer­ous positional vowel changes of this period — together with vocalisa­tion of consonants — gave rise to a number of new long monophthongs and diphthongs.

QUANTITATIVE VOWEL CHANGES IN EARLY MIDDLE ENGLISH

§ 370. At the end of OE and in the immediately succeeding centu­ries accented vowels underwent a number of quantitative changes which affected the employment and the phonological status of short and long vowels in the language. It should be recalled that in OE quantity was the main basis of correlation in the vowel system; short vowels were phonemically opposed to long ones, roughly identical in quality. At that time vowel length was for the most part an inherited feature: OE short vowels had developed from PG short vowels, while long ones went back to long vowels or bi-phonemic vowel sequences (except for a few lengthenings, mainly due to the loss of consonants, see § 143, 144)■

In later OE and in Early ME vowel length began to depend on pho­netic conditions.

§371. The earliest of positional quantitative changes was the read­justment of quantity before some consonant clusters; it occurred in Early jViE ^or perhaps even in Late OE.

(1) Short vowels were lengthened before two homorganic consonants, a sonorant and a plosive; consequently, all vowels occurring in this position remained or became long, e.g. OE iwiW; > ME wild [wi: ld] /jvjE wild);

(2) All other groups of two or more consonants produced the reverse effect: they made the preceding long vowels short, and henceforth all vowels in this position became or remained short, e.g. OE cepte> ME kepte ['keptal (NE kzpt); OE bewildriari> lAE bewildren [be'wildr-an 1 (NE bewilder). (Cf. the latter example with wild given above; the third consonant [r] in ME bzwildren prevented the lengthening.)

§ 372. Another decisive alteration»n the treatment of vowel quan­tity took place some time later: in the 12th or 13th c.

(3) Short vowels became long in open syllables. This lengthening mainly affected the more open of the short vowels lei, la] and lo}, but sometimes, though very seldom, it is also found in the close vowels, Ji] and [u]. In the process oE lengthening close vowels acquired a more open quality, e.g.,

OE operi> ME open ['э: рэп] (NE open) wike> weke l'we: ka] (NE week) пата~> name ['na: ma] (NE name)

In spite of some restrictions (e.g. no lengthening occurred in poly­syllabic words and before some suffixes, OE bodis > ME body I'bodil (NE body), the alteration affected many words {see Table 1 on p. 194).

§ 373. The changes ol vowel quantity reduced the number of posi­tions in which the opposition of long vowels to short ones could be used for phonemic contrast. Before a consonant cluster vowel quantity was now predetermined by the nature of the cluster; and in open syllables three vowels— [э: 1, la: 1 and [e: ] were always long. Consequently, opposition through quantity could be used for distinction, as a phono­logical feature, only in the absence of those phonetic conditions, namely: in closed syllables, in polysyllabic words, or with the vowels fi] and lul in open syllables. Such is the contrast, e.g. tn ME risen ['ri: z.anl inf. and risen I'rizan) Part. II (NE rise, risen). The limitations in the application of vowel length as a distinctive feature undermined the role of vowel quantity in the language.

§ 374. Quantitative vowel changes in Early ME have given rise to a number of explanations and hypotheses.

АИ the changes in vowel quantity have been interpreted as manifestations ol a sort °f rhythmic tendency. In order to achieve an average uniformity in the length of tbe -syllable, and also to use an average amount of energy for its pronunciation, the vowel was shortened before a group of consonants and was made longer it there were no consonants following, that is, in " open" syllables. Lengthening ol vowels before homorganic groups looks as an exception or a contradiction; to account for ■ his lengthening it was suggested that -nd, -Id and the like were virtually equiva-

~ 'i-u. 244S 193

lent to single consonants, therefore a long vowel would not make the syllabi? too heavy.

Table I

Quantitative Vowel Changes in Late Old English and Early Middle English

This theory was criticised for attributing al! the quantitative changes to one general cause — the effort to maintain a uniform syllable length — though in reali­ty the changes were not simultaneous. Lengthening in open syllables occurred at a later period^ some time in the 13th c. ■ —and may have been caused by other factors. To cope with this difficulty, it was suggested that lengthening in open syllables was tied up with the weakening of final vowels; when the second, unaccented, syllable was weakened, the first syllable became more prominent an'J the vowel was made longer. Cf. OE talu and ME tale |Ча: 1э| — the average amount of energy required for the pronunciation of the word is the same but its distribu­tion is different.

QUALITATIVE VOWEL CHANGES IN EARLY MIDDLE ENGLISH Development of Monophthongs

§ 375. As compared with quantitative changes, qualitative vowel changes in Early ME were less important. They affected several mono­phthongs and displayed considerable dialectal diversity. On the whole they were independent of phonetic environment.

The OE close labialised vowels [yj and [y: ] disappeared in Early ME, merging with various sounds in different dialectal areas. The treat­ment of [у Г and [у: 1 in ME can be regarded as evidence of growing dialectal divergence. At the same time it is a relatively rare instance of similar alterations of a short and a long vowel.

Development of Old English Jy] and (y: J in Middle English dialects

The vowels tyl and ly: ] existed in OE dialects up to the 10th c., when they were replaced by le], [e: ] in Kentish and confused with [iel and lie: 1 or li], 15: 3 in WS. In Early ME the dialectal differences grew. In some areas OE [y], Iy: l developed into fe], le: ], in others they changed to [i 1, li: l; in the South-West and in the West Midlands the two vowels were for some time pre­served as [y], ly: ] but later were moved backward and merged with lul, [u: ]. (The existence of [y ] as a sepa­rate vowel may have been prolonged by the borrowing of French words with this sound, e.g. ME vertu, nature were at first pronounced as Iver'ty: ], [na'ty: r], la­ter as [ver'tju: ], [na'tju: r] (NE virtue, nature).

The map^[17] and the examples show the treatment of OE [yj, (y: ] in ME dialects:

Examples

ME

Kentish

West Midland and South Western

felten I'fellan] fullen ['fylian, 'fulbn]

ME

East Midland and

Northern Kentish

West Midland and

South Western Northern and East Midland

fiUen ['fillan]

mees [me: s] mus, muis [my: s,

mu: sj mis, mice [mi; s]

ME pronunciations illustrate the variation stage; the NE words given in the last column show the final stage of the change: selection of one of co-existing variants in Standard English. For the most part NE forms descend from the East Midland dialect, which made the basis

of the literary language; this is also true of the word kill shown in the map and of the words fire, king, kiss, 'kin, little and many others. Some mod­ern words, however, have preserved traces of other dialects: e.g. NE sleeve going back to OE slyfe entered Standard English from the South- Eastern regions with the sound fe: J (which later regularly changed to [i: ], see the Great Vowel Shift § 383 ff). Sometimes we can find traces of several dialects in one word; thus NE busy (OE bysi$) comes from an East Midland form with til as far as sounds go, but has re­tained a traceof the West­ern form in the spelling: the letter и points to the Western reflex of ly); likewise the letter и in NE bury (OE byrian) is a trace of the Western forms, while the sound (e) comes from the South-East (Rent).

Development of Old English [a: ] in Middle Eng­lish dialects

§376. In Early ME the long OE (a:) was narrowed to [э: I. 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 Jong vowels changed in that direction. {a: l became fo: J in all the dia­lects except the Northern group (see the map above).

ME

Northern other dialects

stan(e) ('sta: naj stoon, stone ['st3in(a)l

_aldi Northern aid [arid]¹ old

other dialects old [3: ld]

The resulting ME b: I must have been a more open vowel than the long inherited from OE, e.g. OE fot, ME foot [fo: t] (NE foot). Judging by their earlier and later history the two phonemes b: l and |o: 1 were well distinguished in ME, though no distinction was made in spelling: o, and double о were used for both sounds. {The open [o: j also developed from the short [ol due to lengthening in open syllables, see § 372), ²

§377. The short OE [ael was replaced in ME by the back vowel [a). In OE [ae] was either a separate phoneme or one of a group of allo­phones distinguished in writing [ae, a, a, ea] (see§ 123). All these sounds were reflected in ME as [a], except the nasalised [aI which became [ol in the West Midlands (and thus merged with a different phoneme [ol or b].^s

OE pst> ME that [6at] (NE thai) earm> arm [arm] (NE arm) btacu> btak [blak] (NE black) [18]

See the map on p. 198 and the examples showing the splitting of [a] in different dialects:

e.g. OE ME NE

lond, land West Midland fond [land] land

other dialects land [land] lonz, lans West Midland long [lag) long other dialects tang [lag]

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 [fl I, should be traced to the West Midlands, e.g. long, song, strong, from, bond (but also sand, rang and band, to be distinguished from bond).