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Phonological history of the English language
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The phonological history of the English language describes changing phonology of English over time, starting from its roots in proto-Germanic to diverse changes in different dialects of modern English.
Within each section, changes are in approximate chronological order.
NOTE: In the following description, abbreviations are used as follows:
The time periods for many of the following stages are extremely short due to the extensive population movements occurring during the early AD period, which resulted in rapid dialect fragmentation:
This includes changes in late Proto-Germanic, up to the appearance of Proto-West-Germanic c. AD 200:
- Early i-mutation: /e/ is raised to /i/ when an /i/ or /j/ follows in the next syllable.
- This occurs before deletion of any unstressed vowels; hence PIE /bereti/ > PG /bereθi/ > /beriθi/ > Goth baíriθ /beriθ/ "(he) carries".
- The /i/ produced by this change can itself trigger later i-mutation. Hence WG /beriθ/ > /biriθ/ > OE /birθ/ "(he) bears".
- a-mutation: /u/ is lowered to /o/ when a non-high vowel follows in the next syllable.
- This is blocked when followed by a nasal followed by a consonant, or by a cluster with /j/ in it. Hence PG /ɡulda/ > OE/NE gold, but PG /ɡuldjanan/ > OE gyldan > NE gild.
- This produces a new phoneme /o/, due to inconsistent application and later loss of unstressed /a/ and /e/.
- Loss of /n/ before /x/, with nasalization and compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel.
- The nasalization was eventually lost, but remained through the Ingvaeonic period.
- Hence PrePG /tonɡjonom/ > PG /θankjanan/ > OE þencan > NE think, but PrePG /tonktoːm/ > PG /θanxtoːn/ > /θãːxtoːn/ > OE þóhte > NE thought.
- Loss of final /m/, with nasalization (eventually lost) of the preceding vowel. Hence PrePG /dʱoɡʱom/ > PG /daɡam/ > PN /daɡa/ > WG /daɡ/ "day (acc. sg.)".
- Pre-nasal raising: /e/ > /i/ before nasal + consonant. PrePG /bʱendʱonom/ > PG /bendanan/ > /bindanan/ > OE bindan > NE bind (Latin of-fendō).
- This post-dated lost of /n/ before /x/.
- This was later extended in PreOE times to vowels before all nasals; hence OE niman "take" but OHG neman.
- /ei/ > /iː/ (c. AD 100). The Elder Futhark of the Proto-Norse language still contain different symbols for the two sounds.
- Vowels in unstressed syllables were reduced or eliminated. The specifics are quite complex and occurred as a result of many successive changes, with successive stages often happening hundreds of years after the previous stage. Some specifics of the initial stage:
- Final-syllable short vowels inherited from Proto-Germanic were generally deleted. Hence Goth baíriθ /beriθ/ "(he) carries" < PG /bereθi/ (see above).
- This operated universally only in words of three syllables or more. In words of two syllables, final-syllable /a/ and /e/ were deleted, but /i/ and /u/ were unaffected following a short syllable (i.e. one with a short vowel followed by a single consonant.) Hence PG /daɡaz/ > Goth dags "day (nom. sing.)" (OE dæg), PIE /woida/ > PG /waita/ > Goth wáit "(I) know" (OE wát), PIE /woide/ > PG /waite/ > Goth "wáit" "(he) knows" (OE wát); but PIE /sunus/ > PG /sunuz/ > Goth sunus "son (nom. sing.)" (OE sunu), PIE /peku/ > PG /fehu/ > Goth faíhu /fehu/ "cattle (nom. sing.)" (OE feohu), PIE /wenis/ > PG /weniz/ > /winiz/ > OHG wini "friend (nom. sing.)" (OE wine), PIE /poːdi/ > PG /foːti/ > PreOE /føːti/ > OE fét "foot (dat. sing.)".
- Final-syllable /a/ and /e/ were protected in words of two syllables by following /r/ and /ns/. Hence PG /fader/ > NE father; PG /stainans/ > Goth stáinans "stone (acc. pl.)".
- Final-syllable /a/ and /e/ in two-syllable words were still present in Proto-Norse. PN /daɡaz/, Goth dags "day (nom. sg.)". PN /daɡa/, Goth dag "day (acc. sg.)".
- Final-syllable long vowels were shortened.
- But final-syllable /oː/ becomes /u/ in NWG, /a/ in Gothic. Hence PG /beroː/ > early OE beru "(I) carry", but Goth baíra; PG /ɡeboː/ > OE giefu "gift (nom. sg.)", but Goth giba.
- Middle-syllable vowels of all types were unchanged; likewise in monosyllables, since they were stressed.
- "Extra-long"' vowels were shorted to long vowels. There is a great deal of argument about what is exactly going on here.
- The traditional view is that a circumflex accent arose (as in Ancient Greek) when two adjacent vowels were contracted into a single long vowel in a final syllable. This circumflexed vowel then remained long when other long vowels shortened.
- A newer view holds that "overlong" (tri-moraic) vowels arose from the contraction of two vowels, one of which was long. Furthermore, final-syllable long vowels remained long before certain final consonants (/z/ and /d/).
- The reason why such theories are necessary is that some final-syllable long vowels are shortened, while others remain. Nominative singular /-oːn/ shortens, for example; likewise first singular /-oːn/ < /-oːm/; while genitive plural /-oːn/ < /-oːm/ remains long. Both of the above theories postulate an overlong or circumflex ending /-ôːn/ in the genitive plural arising in the vocalic (PIE /o/ and /aː/, PG /a/ and /oː/) declensions, arising from contraction of the vocalic stem ending with the genitive plural ending.
- Other examples of vowels that remain long are a-stem and ó-stem nominative plural /-ôz/ < early PIE /-o-es/ and /-aː-es/; PrePG ablative singular /-ôd/, /-êd/ (Gothic ƕadrē "whither", undarō "under"); /ō/-stem dative singular PG /ɡibâi/ > Goth gibái "gift" (but /a/-stem dative singular PG /stainai/ > Goth staina "stone").
This includes changes up through the split of Ingvaeonic and High German (c. AD 400):
- Unstressed diphthongs were monophthongized. /ai/ > /æː/, /au/ > /oː/.
- Results were different in Gothic. Diphthongs remained except for absolutely final diphthongs stemming from PIE short diphthongs, which became short /a/.
- Hence PIE /sunous/ > PG /sunauz/ > Goth sunáus, but > PWG /sunoː/ > OE suna "son (gen. sing.)"; PIE /nemoit/ > PG /nemait/ > /nimait/ > Goth nimái, but > PWG /nimæː/ > OE nime "(he) takes (subj.)"; PIE (loc.?) /stoinoi/ > PG /stainai/ > Goth staina, but > PWG /stainæː/ > OE stáne "stone (dat. sing.)"; PIE (loc.?) /ɡʱebʱaːi/ > PG /ɡebâi/ > Goth gibái, but > PWG /ɡebæː/ > OE giefe "gift" (dat. sing.).
- /æː/ becomes /aː/ [ɑː].
- Elimination of word-final /z/.
- Note that this change must have occurred before rhoticization, as original word-final /z/ did not become /r/.
- But it must have occurred after the North-West-Germanic split , since word-final /z/ was not eliminated in Old Norse, instead merging with /r/.
- Rhoticization: /z/ > /r/.
- This change also affected Proto-Norse; but in Proto-Norse, the date and nature are contested. /z/ and /r/ were still distinct in the Danish and Swedish dialect of Old Norse, as is testified by distinct runes. (/z/ is normally assumed to be a rhotic fricative in this language, but there is no actual evidence of this.)
- West Germanic Gemination of consonants except /r/, when preceded by a short vowel and followed by /j/.
- OE nominative plural /as/ (ME /s/), OS nominative plural /oːs/ may be from original accusative plural /ans/ (rather than original nominative plural /oːz/; cf. ON nominative plural /ar/), following Ingvaeonic nasalization/loss of nasals before fricatives.
This includes changes from c. AD 400 up through the split of the Anglo-Frisian languages from Ingvaeonic, followed by the split of pre-Old English from pre-Old Frisian (c. AD 475). The time periods for these stages are extremely short due to the migration of the Anglo-Saxons westward through Frisian territory and then across the English Channel into Britain, around AD 450.
- Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law: Loss of nasals before fricatives, with compensatory lengthening. Hence PG /munθaz/ > NHG Mund but OE múþ, NE mouth.
- An intermediate stage was a long nasal vowel, where nasal /ãː/ > /õː/. PIE /dontos/ > PG /tanθaz/ > OE tóθ "tooth". (NHG Zahn < OHG zant.)
- Development of new /ɑ/-/æ/ distinction through Anglo-Frisian brightening and other changes:
- Fronting of /ɑː/ to /æː/ (generally, unless /w/ followed).
- Fronting of /ɑ/ to /æ/ (unless followed by a geminate, by a back vowel in the next syllable, or in certain other cases). Hence OE dæg /dæj/ "day", plural dagas /dɑɣɑs/ "days" (dialectal NE "dawes"; compare NE "dawn" < OE dagung /dɑɣunɡ/). Gothic dags, plural daɡós.
- Change of /ai/ to /ɑː/. PG /stainaz/ > OE stán > NE stone.
Old English period (c. AD 475–900)
This includes changes from the split between Old English and Old Frisian (c. AD 475) up through historic early West Saxon of AD 900:
- Breaking of front vowels
- Most generally, before /x/, /w/, /r/ + consonant, /l/ + consonant (assumed to be velar [ɹ], [ɫ] in these circumstances), but exact conditioning factors vary from vowel to vowel
- Initial result was a falling diphthong ending in /u/, but this was followed by diphthong height harmonization, producing short /æ̆ɑ̆/, /ɛ̆ɔ̆/, /ɪ̆ʊ̆/ from short /æ/, /ɛ/, /ɪ/, long /æɑ/, /eo/, /iu/ from long /æː/, /eː/, /iː/. (Written ea, eo, io, where length is not distinguished graphically.)
- Result in some dialects, for example Anglian, was back vowels rather than diphthongs. West Saxon ceald; but Anglian cald > NE cold.
- /ɪ̆ʊ̆/ and /iu/ were lowered to /ɛ̆ɔ̆/ and /eo/ between 800 and 900 AD.
- By the above changes, /au/ was fronted to /æu/ and then modified to /æa/ by diphthong height harmonization.
- PG /draumaz/ > OE dréam "joy" (cf. NE dream, NHG Traum). PG /dauθuz/ > OE déaþ > NE death (Goth dáuθus, NHG Tod). PG /auɡoː/ > OE éage > NE eye (Goth áugō, NHG Auge).
- /sk/ was palatalized to /ʃ/ in almost all circumstances. PG /skipaz/ > NE ship (cf skipper < Dutch schipper, where no such change happened). PG /skurtjaz/ > OE scyrte > NE shirt, but > ON skyrt > NE skirt.
- /k/, /ɣ/, /ɡ/ were palatalized to /ʧ/, /j/, /ʤ/ in certain complex circumstances, described in detail on the Old English page.
- This change, or something similar, also occurred in Old Frisian.
- Back vowels were fronted when followed in the next syllable by /i/ or /j/, by i-mutation (c. 500 AD).
- i-mutation affected all the Germanic languages except for Gothic, although with a great deal of variation. It appears to have occurred earliest, and to be most pronounced, in the Schleswig-Holstein area (the home of the Anglo-Saxons), and from there to have spread north and south.
- This produced new front rounded vowels /œ/, /øː/, /ʏ/, /yː/. /œ/ and /øː/ were soon unrounded to /ɛ/ and /eː/, respectively.
- All short diphthongs were mutated to /ɪ̆ʏ̆/, all long diphthongs to /iy/. (This interpretation is controversial. These diphthongs are written ie, which is traditionally interpreted as short /ɪ̆ɛ̆/, long /ie/.)
- Late in Old English (c. AD 900), these new diphthongs were simplified to /ʏ/ and /yː/, respectively.
- The conditioning factors were soon obscured (loss of /j/ whenever it had produced gemination, lowering of unstressed /i/), phonemicizing the new sounds.
- More reductions in unstressed syllables:
- /oː/ became /ɑ/.
- Germanic high vowel deletion eliminated /ɪ/ and /ʊ/ when following a heavy syllable.
- Palatal diphthongization: Initial palatal /j/, /ʧ/, /ʃ/ trigger spelling changes of a > ea, e > ie. It is disputed whether this represents an actual sound change or merely a spelling convention indicating the palatal nature of the preceding consonant (written g, c, sc were ambiguous in OE as to palatal /j/, /ʧ/, /ʃ/ and velar /ɡ/ or /ɣ/, /k/, /sk/, respectively).
- Similar changes of o > eo, u > eo are generally recognized to be merely a spelling convention. Hence WG /junɡ/ > OE geong /junɡ/ > NE "young"; if geong literally indicated an /ɛ̆ɔ̆/ diphthong, the modern result would be *yeng.
- It is disputed whether there is Middle English evidence of the reality of this change in Old English.
- Initial /ɣ/ became /ɡ/ in late Old English.
Up through Chaucer's English (c. AD 900–1400)
- Vowels were lengthened before /ld/, /mb/, /nd/, /rd/, probably also /nɡ/, /rl/, /rn/, when not followed by a third consonant.
- This probably occurred around AD 1000.
- Later on, many of these vowels were shortened again; but evidence from the Ormulum shows that this lengthening was once quite general.
- Remnants persist in the Modern English pronunciations of words such as child (but not children, since a third consonant follows), field (plus yield, wield, shield), climb, find (plus mind, kind, bind, etc.), fiend, found (plus hound, bound, etc.).
- Vowels were shortened when followed by two or more consonants, except when lengthened as above.
- This occurred in two stages, the first stage affecting only vowels followed by three or more consonants.
- Inherited height-harmonic diphthongs were monophthongized by the loss of the second component, with the length remaining the same.
- /æː/ and /ɑː/ became /ɛː/ and /ɔː/.
- /æ/ and /ɑ/ merged into /a/.
- /ʏ/ and /yː/ were unrounded to /ɪ/ and /iː/.
- /ɣ/ became /w/ or /j/, depending on surrounding vowels.
- New diphthongs formed from vowels followed by /w/ or /j/ (including from former /ɣ/).
- Length distinctions were eliminated in these diphthongs.
- Diphthongs also formed by the insertion of a glide /w/ or /j/ (after back and front vowels, respectively) preceding /x/.
- Many diphthong combinations soon merged.
- Trisyllabic laxing: Shortening of stressed vowels when two syllables followed.
- This results in pronunciation variants in Modern English such as divine vs divinity and south vs. southern (OE súðerne).
- Middle English open syllable lengthening: Vowels were usually lengthened in open syllables (13th century), except when trisyllabic laxing would apply.
- Remaining unstressed vowels merged into /ə/.
- Initial clusters /hɾ/, /hl/, /hn/ were reduced by loss of /h/.
- Voiced fricatives became independent phonemes through borrowing and other sound changes.
- /sw/ before back vowel becomes /s/; /mb/ becomes /m/.
- Modern English sword, answer, lamb.
- /w/ in swore is due to analogy with swear.
Up to Shakespeare's English (c. AD 1400–1600)
- Loss of most remaining diphthongs.
- /ai/ (and former /ɛi/, merged into /ai/ in Early Middle English) became /ɑː/ before the Great Vowel Shift.
- /ou/ (and former /ɔu/, merged into /ou/ in Early Middle English) became /oː/ and /ei/ became /eː/ after the shift causing the long mid mergers.
- /au/ became /ɔː/ after the shift.
- The dew-new merger: /ɛu/ and /iu/ merger, and they then become /juː/ after the shift.
- The joy-point merger: /ʊi/ and /oi/ merge, so that point and joy now have the same vowel.
- The rein-rain merger: /ai/ and /ei/ merge, so that rain and rein are now homonyms.
- The dew-duke merger: /y/ and /iu/ merge, so that dew and duke now have the same vowel.
- /oi/ remained.
- A few regional accents, including some in Northern England, East Anglia, South Wales, and even Newfoundland, monophthongization has not been complete, so that pairs like pane /pain and toe/tow are distinct. (Wells 1982, pp. 192–94, 337, 357, 384–85, 498)
- /x/ (written gh) lost in most dialects causing the taut-taught merger.
- Great Vowel Shift; all long vowels raised or diphthongized.
- /aː/, /ɛː/, /eː/ become /ɛː/, /eː/, /iː/, respectively.
- /ɔː/, /oː/ become /oː/, /uː/, respectively.
- /iː/, /uː/ become /əi/ and /əu/, later /ai/ and /au/.
- New /ɔː/ developed from old /au/ (see above).
- Note that /ɔː/, /oː/, /uː/, /au/ effectively rotated in-place.
- /ɛː/, /eː/ are shifted again to /eː/, /iː/ in Early Modern English, causing merger of former /eː/ with /iː/; but the two are still distinguished in spelling as ea, ee.
- Loss of /ə/ in final syllables.
- Initial cluster /ɡn/ loses first element; but still reflected in spelling.
- /kn/ reduces to /n/ in most dialects, causing the not-knot merger.
- /wr/ reduces to /r/ in most dialects, causing the rap-wrap merger.
- Doubled consonants reduced to single consonants.
Up to the American–British split (c. AD 1600–1725)
- At some preceding time after Old English, all /r/ become /ɹ/.
- Evidence from Old English shows that, at that point, the pronunciation /ɹ/ occurred only before a consonant.
- Scottish English has /r/ consistently.
- The foot-strut split: Except in northern England, /ʊ/ splits into /ʊ/ (inconsistently after labials), as in put, /ʌ/ (otherwise), as in cut.
- Ng coalescence: Reduction of /nɡ/ in most areas produces new phoneme /ŋ/.
- Palatalization of /tj/, /sj/, /dj/, /zj/ produces /ʧ/, /ʃ/, /ʤ/, and new phoneme /ʒ/ (for example measure, vision). Received Pronunciation resisted against this kind of coalescence until the 20th century.
- These combinations mostly occurred in borrowings from French and Latin.
- Pronunciation of -tion was /sjən/ from Old French /sjon/, thus becoming /ʃən/.
- Long vowels inconsistently shortened in closed syllables. (Modern English head, breath, bread, blood, etc.)
- The meet-meat merger: Meet and meat become homonyms in most accents.
- Changes affect short vowels in many varieties before an /r/ at the end of a word or before a consonant
- /a/ as in start and /ɔ/ as in north are lengthened.
- /ɛ/, /ɪ/ and /ʌ/ merge, hence most varieties of Modern English have the same vowel in each of fern, fir and fur.
- Also affects vowels in derived forms, so that starry no longer rhymes with marry.
- Scottish English unaffected.
- /a/, as in cat and trap, fronted to [æ] in many areas.
- But backed, rounded, and lengthened to /ɔː/ before syllable-final (that is, velarized) /l/ ([ɫ]). Modern English tall, talk, bald, salt, etc. But /ɑ/ in -alm, /æ/ in -alf.
- New phoneme /ɑ/ develops from /alm/ (calm /kɑm/) and in certain other words, for example father /fɑðə(ɹ)/.
- Most varieties of northern English English, Welsh English and Scottish English retain [a] in cat, trap etc.
- Loss of /l/ in /lk/, /lm/, /lf/ (see above).
- The pane-pain merger: The words pane and pain become homophones in most accents.
- The toe-tow merger: The words toe and tow become homophones in most accents.
After American–British split, up to the 20th century (c. AD 1725–1900)
- Split into rhotic and non-rhotic accents: loss of syllable-final /ɹ/ in some varieties, especially of English English, producing new centering diphthongs /ɛə/ (square), /ɪə/ (near), /ɔə/ (cord), /oə/ (sore), /ʊə/ (cure), and highly unusual phoneme /ɜː/ (nurse).
- The trap-bath split: southern English English /æ/ inconsistently becomes /ɑː/ before /s/, /f/, /θ/ and /n/ or /m/ followed by another consonant.
- Reduction of /hw/ and /ʍ/ to /w/, causing whine and wine to be homophones, in most varieties of English English; also, regionally, in American English.
- American and Australian English flapping of /t/ and /d/ to [ɾ] in some circumstances.
- Generally, between vowels (including syllabic [ɹ̩], [l̩] and [m̩]), when the following syllable is completely unstressed.
- But not before syllabic [n̩] in American English, for example cotton [kɑʔn̩].
- Happy tensing (the term is from Wells 1982): final lax [ɪ] becomes tense [i] in words like happy.
- Line-loin merger: merger between the diphthongs /aɪ/ and /ɔɪ/ in some accents of Southern English English, Hiberno-English, Newfoundland English, and Caribbean English. .
After 1900
Some of these changes are in progress.
See also
References
Germanic Philology
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