Sound Changes in Old English
Sound Changes in
Old English
The three different types of sound
changes that took place in the Old English period were
1.
Mutation
2.
Metathesis
3.
Ablaut
or Vowel Gradation.
Mutation
The most important sound change
that took place in Old English and left its mark on Modern English is Umblaut
or Mutation. It is of two kinds.
A.
Front
or Palatal Mutation
B.
Back
or Guttural Mutation
Front Mutation
Front Mutation, also called
i-umblaut is the name given to the modification of a vowel or diphthong by the
influence of /i/ or /j/ of the second syllable. The /i/ or /j/ which caused the
change mostly disappeared or remained weakened to ‘e’. This change took place
in the 6th century.
1.
ā→æ
eg:
dāljan→dælan (to deal)
hāljan→hælan (to heal)
2.
The
plural suffix in Germanic was ‘iz’ which was added to the singular noun to form
the plural. The ending ‘iz’ was lost in the process.
Eg:
Fōt+ iz→ fōtiz→fēt
(feet)
Gōs+ iz→gōsiz→gēs
(geese)
Mūs+iz→mūsiz→mys (mice)
Mann+ iz→manniz→menn
(men)
3.
The
affix ‘–jan’ was added to nouns to form verbs.
Eg;
Fōd+ jan→fōdjan→fēdan
(to feed)
Dōm+ jan→dōmjan→dēman
(to deem)
The change accounts for
the different pairs of words such as doom and deem, blood and bleed, food and
feed.
4.
In
Germanic, it was possible to derive a noun from the adjective by adding the
suffiz ‘-iþu’. The /i/ in the suffix caused the change.
Eg:
Lang+ iþu→langiþu→lengþ
(length)
Hāl+ iþu→hāliþu→helþ
(health)
5.
In
Old English, the comparative degree of the adjective was formed by adding the
suffiz –ira and superlative by adding –ist. The /i/ caused mutation. These
later became –er and –est.
Eg:
Eald+ira→ealdira→ielder
(elder)
Eald +ist→ealdist→ieldest (eldest)
Back Mutation
Back mutation, also called guttural
mutation is the modification of a, e and I by the influence of back vowels of
the next syllable.
a→ea
fatu→featu (vessel)
e→eo
medu→meodu (mead)
i→io
sinu→sionu (tendon)
Metathesis
Another sound change which took
place in Old English was Metathesis. This is the transposition of two
consecutive sounds, one or both of which may be consonants.
hros→hors (horse)
bresta→bersta (to burst)
þridda→thirde (third)
Ablaut (Vowel Gradation)
In all Indo-European languages
including primitive Germanic, certain vowel variations occur within groups of
etymologically related words. This happens because of the variation of the
accent. In indo-European, accent was free or variable. According to the strength
with which a syllable was uttered, the original vowel was preserved in full
volume, weakened or dropped. Grimm called this variation Ablaut and the English
philologists call it vowel gradation. Ablaut may be defined as the differences
in the qulity and quantity of cognate (related series) words.
Eg: Bind (verb), band (noun).
Changes in pronunciation in the various forms of the same word can also occur.
For instance, can - /kæn, ken, kәn, kn, ka:nt/
In Old English, some verbs showed
Ablaut in their different forms and they were called strong verbs. In Modern
English, there are survivals of some such verbs.
Drive-drove-driven
Choose-chose-chosen
Sing-sang-sung
Steal-stole-stolen
Eat- ate- eaten.
Ablaut thus helped in the growth of
vocabulary by creating new words by a change in the vowel.
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