Look at the changes of vowels during the Great Vowel Shift and make sure you read them correctly.

SEMINAR 3

Old English Phonetics

Study lecture 5 and work out the answers to the following questions.

Stress in Old English	- What kind of stress was used in OE? - Where did the stress fall in disyllabic and polysyllabic words? - And what about different grammatical forms? Was it normally fixed or free? - How many stresses could compound words have? - Where did the stress fall in words with prefixes? - Could stress distinguish parts of speech? How?
Old English Vowel System	- What did OE vowel system comprise? - What were the front/back vowels? - What were the OE diphthongs? - What kind of changes did English vowels undergo diachronically? - What is a qualitative/ quantitative/ dependent/ independent change?
Changes in the system of vowels	- What is OE: fracture (breaking)? gradation? palatalization? i-mutation? back (velar) mutation? contraction? - What does quantity of vowels (length/shortness) become dependent on in ME? - What happened to word stress in ME? - Where did stress fall in French loan-words? - What are recessive and rhythmic tendencies in word stress in ME? - What other factors can the word stress be accounted for? - What is leveling of unstressed vowels? - What is monophthongization of OE diphthongs? - What new diphthongs developed in ME? - What was their emergence caused by? - When did shortening of vowels take place? - Which vowels were affected by lengthening? - What changes affected the following vowels: short and long ‘ a ’; short and long ‘ x ’; short and long ‘ y ’? - Name the changes that took place in the MdE period? - What is the essence of the Great Vowel Shift? When did it begin?

Make sure you can read the OE alphabet.

a æ b c [k], [k’] d e

f [f], [v] ʒ [g], [g’], [j], [γ] h [h], [х ], [ x’] i l m

n [n], [ŋ] o p r s [s], [z] t

Þ, ð, th u v w x y z

Read aloud the words. Pay attention to long and short sounds.

a) fisc, scip, fyllan, pytt, sprecan, helpan, stelan, sunu, pund, cuman, folc, cos, faran, caru, glæd, hwæt, land, lond, mann, monn, cann, conn;

b) wi:n, ti:d, bry:d, wy:scan, slæ:pan, fe:t, te:Þ, stræ:t, sæ:, hu:s, tu:n, lu:can, fo:t, bo:c, a:n, hwa, wra:t, ba:n;

c) healf, wearm, eahta, steorra, feohtan, solh, ʒeolu, siolufr, hiora, siofun, scield, ʒiest, nieht;

d)he:ah, e:aʒe, e:are, de:op, le;oht, be:odan, sti:oran, drioriʒ, ci:ese, hi:eran

Identify the phonetic change in these words and explain its meaning.

a) hældan – healdan, wærm – wearm, sæh – seah, æhta – eahta, næh – neah, melcan – meolcan, selh – seolh, herte – heorte, sterra – steorra, fehtan- feohtan, cneht- cneoht;

b) ri:san – ra:s, be:ad –budon, faran – for, ri:dan – rad;

c) ʒefan–ʒiefan, ʒeldan–ʒieldan, ʒæf– ʒeaf, ʒæfon–ʒe:afon, scacan–sceacan, scort–sceort;

d) sandian–sendan, namnian–nemnan, tælian–tellan, sælian–sellan, sætian– settan, læʒian–lecʒan, fullian–fyllan, hleahian–hliehan, he:arian–hieran, ʒetreowi–ʒetriewe

e) sifon–siofon, limu–liomu, hefon–heofon, saru–searu;

f) slahan–sleahan–sle:an, seha–seohan–se:on, ti:han–te:ohan–te:on;

g) ce:pan – kepte, fe:dan – fedde, wi:s – wisdom, we:nan – we:nde, he:ran – he:rde, læ:sta – le:st, e:astan – e:sten, mæ:sta –mo:st;

h) deop – de:p, healf – half, heorte – herte, steorra – sterre, steorfan – sterven, bindan – binden, tellan – tellen, sunu–sune, sone, sinʒan – singen

Look at the changes of vowels during the Great Vowel Shift and make sure you read them correctly.

Changes	Examples
i: - ai	time findan
e: - i:	kepen field street east stelen
a- ei	maken table
o:- ou	stone open soo
o: - u:	moon goos
u:- au	mous founden now
au: - o:	cause drawen

From King Ælfred’s Translation Of Orosius’s Universal History

(Early West Saxon, 893 AD)

Ælfred the Great was not only a great military leader who after years of continuous wars finally defeated the Danes. Seeing that learning in England had greatly decayed during the long years of warfare and after the destruction of monasteries this Anglo-Saxon king (879-899) undertook to learn Latin and translate some books from Latin himself or have them translated by others. One of these books was A History Against the Heathens by the Spanish monk Orosius (the 5^th c.) What makes this book valuable for us is King Ælfred’s own additions to the text. The best known of these is the passage telling of the voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan, two Scandinavian travellers who arrived in England and told Ælfred of their experiences. They had sailed different routes. As for Ohthere, he sailed to what is now the Koa Peninsula and the White Sea, where he met Finnish tribesmen and was able to converse with them.

5. Read the passage from King Alfred’s translation of Orosius’ World History. Try to translate it into modern English and Russian.

Ohthere sæde his hlaforde, Ælfrëde

cyninʒe, Þat hë ealra Norðmonna norÞmest

büde … Þa för hë ʒiet norÞryhte

swä feor swä hë meahte on ÞUm

öÞrum Þrïm daʒum ʒesiʒlan.

____________________________________

hlaford - lord

ealra -all

büde - (had) lived

swä feor swä - as far as

ʒiet -yet

för -travelled

ʒesiʒlan - sail

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