Development of monophthongs

Qualitative changes in EME were less important, they affected several monophthongs and displayed dialectal diversity.

OE [y], [y:] disappeared in EME (the existence of [y] in ME was due to loan words, French ones ME vertu, nature [ver?ty:], [na?ty:z] → [ver?tju:], [na?tju:z].

OE ME NE

fyllan Kentish fellen fill

West Midland fullen

South Western fullen

East Midland fillen

Northern fillen

(The East Midland dialect made the basis of the literary language.)

In some words we can trace several dialects in one word busy – OE bysig (East Midland [i], spelling u Western [y]).

Long OE [a:] > [э:] in all the dialects, but Northern OE stān Northern stan(e) [´sta:nэ] stone, other dialects stoon, stone [stэ:n(э)].

Short OE [?] > [a] } Some scholars doubt this –

OE??t > ME that [Oat] } PG [a] > OE [?] > ME [a] > NE [?]

} They think a stood for both [ж] and [a]

Development of Diphthongs

ME period was characterized by the loss of OE diphthongs and the growth of new diphthongs.

OE ME NE

1) ea: ε:

ēast eest [ε:st] east

?: ε:

str?t street

2) eo: e:

dēop deep

e: e:

he: he [he:]

3) ie: i:

e:

hīeranheren hear

i: i:

e: e:

cēpan kepen keep

4) ea a

earmarm [arm]

? a

bжc back

5) eo e

heorteherte

e e

bedd bed

6) ie i

e

nieht, niht night [nixґt]

hierde, hyrde herd “shepherd”

i i

e e

hit it

The system of long and short diphthongs was lost, a new set of diphthongs developed from some vowels and consonants.

OE ME NE

e+j ei

weg wey way

e:+j ei

grēg grey grey

?+j aı

m?g may

a+y au

lagu lawe[?lauэ] law

o+y ou

boga bowe[?bouэ] bow

a:+w ou

cnāwan knowen know

a:+x au+x

brāhte braughte[´brauxtэ] brought

So, the formation of new diphthongs in ME was an important event in the history of the language ME diphthongs differed from the OE ones in structure: they had an open nucleus and a closer glide.

System of Vowels in Late ME

(the Age of Chaucer, late 14^th century)

Short i e a o u (5) } Monophthongs

Long i: e: ε: a: э: u: (7) }

Diphthongs ei ai oi au ou

ЛЕКЦІЯ

з навчальної дисципліни “Історія іноземної мови (англійської)

Змістовий модуль 2. Середньоанглійський період

Заняття № 2.

Тема лекції: Граматична будова мови у середньоанглійський період.

Час на проведення заняття – 2 години.

№	Навчальні питання	Орієнтовний час на відпрацювання, хв.
	Вступ
	Дієслово.
	Номінативні частини мови.
	Висновки та відповіді на запитання.

ЗМІСТ ЛЕКЦІЇ

ME GRAMMAR (Morphology)

ME Verb

I. Evolution of the verb in ME.

II. Changes in the morphological classes of verbs:

Strong Verbs;

Weak Verbs;

Irregular Verbs;

Preterite-present Verbs.

The ME verb underwent 1) considerable simplifying changes (of the synthetic forms) and 2) complication (due to the growth of new analytical forms and grammatical categories mostly in late ME and early NE).

The changes are as follows:

1) the infinitive ending –an and the past plural –on were weakened to –en

(-n);

2) the personal endings were weakened to

1p.sg. – e

2p.sg. – est

3p.sg. – e

pl. – en

past – en

den

3) the Nominative and Dative case of the infinitive fell together

bīnden

to bīnden

to bīnden (e)

4) the prefix ge- was reduced to y- and later disappeared.

All types of verbs existing in OE: strong, weak, preterite-present, irregular- were preserved in ME.

Strong Verbs

1) Alternation of consonants was completely abandoned but for [ z –r ]

forlēsen – forlēs – forloren

bēn – was – wēre and a few others

2) Changes of the vowel gradation in some of the classes led to the reduction in the number of stems: three instead of four.

3) A number of verbs underwent a strong tendency to make the system more regular. They built Past forms or Past Participle by the analogy with the weak verbs.

I. biden (bide-bode-bided)

II. crepen (creep-crept)

III. climben – clomb (climb)

IV. helen (heal)

V. wreken (wreak)

VI. waschen (wash)

VII. slepen – slēp, slepte (sleep-slept)

Two past forms (shrove-shrived) in the modern language (mostly in the dialects) can be explained by the still going process of changing their belonging to strong or weak verbs. In ME the number of such forms was rather high:

stope – stepped, sat – sitted, crope – crept.

The modern adjectives cloven, laden, shaven, swollen are originally Past Participles of strong verbs.

4) The total number of strong verbs was reduced due to their becoming obsolete: liЂan (ходити), niman (брати), fōn (ловити) and others.

So, only half of the OE strong verbs were left in ME.

I – VII classes of Strong Verbs

I. wrīten – wrōte – writen – writen

II. chēsen – chōs – chōsen – chōsen

III. drinken – drank – dronken – dronken

IV. stēlen – stal – stēlen, stal – stōlen

V. sitten – sat – sēten – sēten

VI. shaken – shōk – shōken – shaken

V1I. knowen – knew –knewen -knowen

Weak Verbs

1) Some weak verbs and Past Participles changed the past suffix – d into – t.

a) with –rd, -ld, -nd stems;

bilden – bilte - bilt

b) after l, ll, n, nn

dwellen – dwelte – dwelt;

c) after s [z], f [v]

lōsen – loste – lost

2) I and II classes of OE weak verbs fell together, III class lost its doubled consonant.

I –II classes of Weak Verbs

I siren (OE stirian I)

loven (OE lusan II)

II haven (OE habban III)

Some weak verbs belonging to the first class had irregular forms (originally they had causative meaning)

sellen – sōlde

byen – boughte

tēchen - taugte

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16