The History and Development of the English Language
4. Development of Diphthongs 5. The great Vowel Shift 6. Changes of short vowels in Early NE. 7. Growth of long monophthongs and diphthongs in Early New English due to vocalisation of consonants 8. Quantitative vowel changes in Early New English 9. Evolution of consonants in Middle English and Early New English 10. Growth of sibilants and affricates 11. Treatment o fricative consonants in Middle English and Early New English 12. Loss of consonants
1. Development of Diphthongs One of the most important sound changes of the Early ME period was the loss of OE diphthongs and the growth of new diphthongs, with new qualitative and quantitative distinctions. Towards the en of the OE period some of the diphthongs merged with monophthongs. In Early ME the remaining diphthongs were also contrasted to monophthongs: the long [ea:] coalesced with the reflex of OE [ :] - ME [ :]; the short [ea] ceased to be distinguished from OE [ ] and became [a] in ME. The diphthongs [eo:, eo] – as well as their dialectal variants [io:, io] – fell together with the monophthongs [e:, e, i:, i]. Later they shared in the development of respective monophthongs. As a result of these changes the vowel system lost two sets of diphthongs, long and short. In the meantime a new set of diphthongs developed from some sequences of vowels and consonants due to the vocalisation of OE [ ] and [ ], that is to their change into vowels. In Early ME the sounds [ ] and [ ] between and after vowels changed into [i] and [u] and formed diphthongs together with the preceding vowels, e.g. OE d > ME day [dai]. These changes gave rise to two sets of diphthongs; with i-glides and u-glides. The same types of diphthongs appeared also from other sources: the glide –u developed from OE [w] as in OE snaw, which became ME snow [snou], and before [x] and [l] as in Late ME smaul (alongside smal) and taughte (NE snow, small, taught). The
1. Development of Diphthongs One of the most important sound changes of the Early ME period was the loss of OE diphthongs and the growth of new diphthongs, with new qualitative and quantitative distinctions. Towards the en of the OE period some of the diphthongs merged with monophthongs. In Early ME the remaining diphthongs were also contrasted to monophthongs: the long [ea:] coalesced with the reflex of OE [ :] - ME [ :]; the short [ea] ceased to be distinguished from OE [ ] and became [a] in ME. The diphthongs [eo:, eo] – as well as their dialectal variants [io:, io] – fell together with the monophthongs [e:, e, i:, i]. Later they shared in the development of respective monophthongs. As a result of these changes the vowel system lost two sets of diphthongs, long and short. In the meantime a new set of diphthongs developed from some sequences of vowels and consonants due to the vocalisation of OE [ ] and [ ], that is to their change into vowels. In Early ME the sounds [ ] and [ ] between and after vowels changed into [i] and [u] and formed diphthongs together with the preceding vowels, e.g. OE d > ME day [dai]. These changes gave rise to two sets of diphthongs; with i-glides and u-glides. The same types of diphthongs appeared also from other sources: the glide –u developed from OE [w] as in OE snaw, which became ME snow [snou], and before [x] and [l] as in Late ME smaul (alongside smal) and taughte (NE snow, small, taught). The