Old English

LECTURE 2
Old English Phonetic System and

Phonetic Changes
1. Old English Vowels
and Consonants.
The Old English sound system, consisting

of vowels and consonants, developed from the
PG (Proto-Germanic) system.
Old English vowels are divided into
monophthongs and diphthongs. They could
be long and short.
VOWELS
The monophthongs are: aæeiuyo

åāǣēīūȳō
The diphthongs are: ea eo ie io
ēā ēō īē īō
In OE there existed a parallelism between
short and long vowels (except for a). In the
diphthong the 2nd element was more open
than the first.
CONSONANTS
The system of consonants in OE

manifested the following peculiarities.
1. The consonants were divided into:
labial (губні) sounds – p, b, m, w, f, v;
velar (заднепіднебінні) and palatal
(піднебінні) – k, h, g, ɣ, j;
dental (зубні) – t, d, r, l, n, s, z, θ,ð.
CONSONANTS
2. The absence of affricates (африкати) and

sibilants (свистячі, шиплячі).
3. Dependence of the quality of the
consonants on the environment (оточення) in the
word:
a) phonemes, denoted by the letters f, þ (ð),
s could be voiced or voiceless. They were voiced
in the intervocal position. This position could be
made up of a vowel and a voiced consonant.
CONSONANTS
hlāf, oft [f] – hlaford, lifde [v]

tōþ [θ] – tōþes [ð]
ʒōs [s] – ʒōses [z]
But doubled consonants were always
voicelss: offrian [f:] (пропонувати),
sceþþan [θ:] (шкодити), cyssan [s:]
(цілувати).
CONSONANTS
b) the letter ʒ was pronounced in 3 ways.

as the voiced velar plosive variant [g] at the
beginning of the word, before back vowels (a, o, u) and
consonants, in the middle of the word after n:
[g] – ʒōd, ʒrētan, ʒanʒan
as the voiced velar fricative variant [ɣ] in the
middle of the word after back vowels and consonants
[r, l]:
[ɣ] – daʒas, sloʒ, sorʒ, folʒan
as the voiced palatal fricative variant [j] before
and after front vowels:
[j] – ʒēār, dæʒ
CONSONANTS
4. Double consonants were read as long:

settian [t:], steppan [p:].
5. Instead of doubled ʒ, cʒ was written:
lecʒan [g’:] (покласти)
6. The prefix ʒe- was read as [je] and did
not influence the pronunciation of the
following consonant: ʒeseʒlian [je 'sejlian].
2. Phonetic Changes in Old English
Vowels.
The phonetic changes in the vowels system
were qualitative (якісні) and quantitative
(кількісні).
The qualitative changes are
*fracture (breaking) (заломлення)
*palatalization (палаталізація)
*mutation/umlaut (умляут)
FRACTURE
OE fracture is diphthongization of short

vowels before certain consonant clusters
(кластери, зрощення, групи).
 æ >ea before ‘r +consonant’,
‘l+consonant’, ‘h+consonant’ and before
final h:
ærm>earm ‘arm’, æld>eald ‘old’, æhta>eahta
‘eight’, sæh>seah ‘saw’.
FRACTURE
 e>eo before the clusters ‘r, l, h+consonant’, and h

final:
herte>heorte ‘heart’, melcan>meocan ‘milk’(v),
selh>seolh ‘seal’, feh>feoh ‘cattle’, ‘property’.
The essence of fracture is that the front vowels are
partially assimilated to the following hard consonant
by forming a glide, which combines with the vowel to
form a diphthong.
PALATALIZATION
Palatalization is diphthongization after palatal

consonants [j,k] and the cluster [sk].
 e>ie: ʒefan>ʒiefan ‘give’, ʒeldan>ʒieldan
‘pay’
 æ>ea: ʒæf>ʒeaf ‘gave’, cæster>ceaster
‘camp’, scæl>sceal ‘shall’
 æ>ea: ʒæfon>ʒeafon ‘gave’ (pl.)
 a>ea: scacan>sceacan ‘shake’
 o>eo: scort>sceort ‘short”
MUTATION (UMLAUT)
Mutation is the change of one vowel to

another through the influence of a vowel in the
succeeding syllable (наступний склад).
It was of three types:
1) i-mutation (palatal mutation)
2) back mutation
3) mutation before h
I-MUTATION
The most important type of mutation is that

caused by an i (j) of the following syllable.
Let’s study the mechanism of i-mutation,
taking the change fullian>fyllan ‘fill’ as an
example. The vowel u is articulated by
raising the back of the tongue together with
rounding the lips. The sound i requires
raising the front of the tongue.
I-MUTATION
When the speaker begins to articulate

the u, he at the same time anticipates
(передбачати) the articulation needed
for i and raises the front of the tongue
instead of its back. The lip-rounding is
preserved. The result is the vowel y.
BACK MUTATION
 Another type of mutation was caused by a

back vowel (a, o, u) of the following syllable.
The essence of it is the following. The
articulation of the back vowel is anticipated in
the preceding front vowel, which accordingly
develops into a diphthong.
BACK MUTATION
These are the examples of back-mutation:

 i>io hira>hiora (heora)‘their’, sifon>siofon
‘seven’
 e>eo herot>heorot ‘heart’
 a>ea saru>searu ‘armour’
MUTATION BEFORE h
There’s no satisfactory explanation for the

essence of this type of mutation. This is an
example of such a change.
naht>neaht, nieht, niht, nyht ‘night’
It may be due to a palatal quality of the h or
due to an i which was probably a case ending
(відмінкове закінчення) in the original type of
declension (відміна) to which the word
belonged.
Quantitative Changes in OE
Vowels
Quantitative changes in OE vowels are represented

by lengthening.
Lengthening took place in certain positions in the 9th
century.
1. Vowels are lengthened before the clusters ld, nd, mb:
 cild>cīld ‘child’
 bindan>bīndan ‘bind’
 climban>clīmban ‘climb’
But if the cluster was followed by another consonant,

lengthening did not take place, as in cildru ‘children’.
LENGTHENING
2. It took place if some consonants were lost.

a) The vowels were lengthened when ʒ was lost
before d,n.
sæʒde>sǣde ‘said’
mæʒden>mǣden ‘maiden’
b) The vowels were lengthened when m,n were lost
before f, s, Þ, h.
bronhte>brōhte ‘brought’, finf>fīf ‘five’, uns>ūs ‘us’,
onÞer>ōÞer ‘other’.
LENGTHENING
3. Lengthening took place in case of contraction

(стягнення). If, after a consonant had dropped,
two vowels met inside a word, they usually
contracted into one long vowel.
ah+vowel>eah+vowel>ea
slahan>sleahan>slēāh ‘slay’ (бити, вибивати,

винищувати)
eh, ih+vowel>eoh+vowel>eo
sehan>seohan>sēōn ‘see’
oh+vowel>o fohan>fōn ‘catch’
3. Phonetic Changes in OE
Consonants
Qualitative changes:
*voicing and devoicing of fricatives
*palatalization
*assimilation.
Voicing and Devoicing of Fricatives
In OE the fricatives f, s, Þ were subjected

(піддались) to a process of voicing and
devoicing. They became voiced intervocally –
between vowels, sonorants and voiced
consonants. In other positions they remained
voiceless.
weorÞan – (стає) [ð],
wearÞ (став) - [θ]
Palatalization
The velar consonants [k, g, g:, х] were

palatalized before a front vowel and approached
(наближатися) affricates in Late OE.
k>k’>ʧ cild ‘child’
sk>sk’>ʃ scip ‘ship’
g(g:)>g’(g:’)>dʒ senʒean ‘singe’ (опік)
brycʒ ‘bridge’
Assimilation
Assimilation is a process when two adjacent

consonants within a word influence each other in
such a way that the articulation of one sound
becomes similar to or identical with the
articulation of the other one.
For example,
fm>mm wifman>wimman ‘woman’;
fn>mn efn>emn ‘even’
Quantitative Сhanges of OE
Consonants
These include
* loss of consonants:
a) syncopation (синкопа)
b) simplification (спрощення)
*metathesis (метатеза)
*gemination (гемінація, подвоєння)
Syncopation
Syncopation is shortening of a word through
the loss of a sound in the middle of the word
e.g.:
friʒnan>frinan ‘ask’
sehan>seahan>seon ‘see’
Simplification
Simplification is shortening at the beginning
of a word. H is lost in hl, hr:
hlaford >loverd ‘lord’

hring>ring ‘ring’
Metathesis
Metathesis is a phonetic change which consists in

two sounds exchanging their places. It mainly
affected the consonant r and the succeeding vowel
e.g.
Þridda> Þirda ‘третій’,
rinnan>irnan, iernan ‘бігти’.
Occasionally metathesis affected other sounds:
sk>ks wascan>waxan ‘wash’
ps> sp aps>asp 1. осика 2. гадюка, змія (розм.)
Gemination
Gemination is doubling of consonants. This

process accompanied i-mutation. It takes place
only if the preceding sound is short (before j, i),
e.g.
sætjan>settan ‘put, place’
But dōmian>dēman ‘judge’
This change didn’t affect the sonorant r:
werian=werian
That’s all, folks!
THANK YOU

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LECTURE 2

Old English Phonetic System and

The Old English sound system, consisting

The monophthongs are: aæeiuyo

The system of consonants in OE

2. The absence of affricates (африкати) and

hlāf, oft [f] – hlaford, lifde [v]

b) the letter ʒ was pronounced in 3 ways.

4. Double consonants were read as long:

OE fracture is diphthongization of short

 e>eo before the clusters ‘r, l, h+consonant’, and h

Palatalization is diphthongization after palatal

Mutation is the change of one vowel to

The most important type of mutation is that

When the speaker begins to articulate

 Another type of mutation was caused by a

These are the examples of back-mutation:

There’s no satisfactory explanation for the

Quantitative changes in OE vowels are represented

But if the cluster was followed by another consonant,

2. It took place if some consonants were lost.

3. Lengthening took place in case of contraction

slahan>sleahan>slēāh ‘slay’ (бити, вибивати,

In OE the fricatives f, s, Þ were subjected

The velar consonants [k, g, g:, х] were

Assimilation is a process when two adjacent

hlaford >loverd ‘lord’

Metathesis is a phonetic change which consists in

Gemination is doubling of consonants. This

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