Susana Cortés Pomacóndor

susana.cortes@uib.cat

Office hours:
Tuesdays: 10–11am
ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

ASSESSMENT
1. Introduction Pathway A:
Mid-term exam: 45%
2. Spelling and Sounds Final exam: 45%
Film series: 10%

3. Inflectional Morphology
Pathway B:
Mid-term exam: 50%
4. Syntax
Final exam: 50%
 Why should we study the history of the English
language?

Basic concepts

English, a Germanic language?

I. INTRODUCTION
Periodization

From synthesis to analysis

WHY SHOULD WE STUDY THE HISTORY

OF A LANGUAGE?

“To understand how things are, it is often

helpful and sometimes essential to know how
they got to be that way. If we are
psychologists who want to understand a
person’s behavior, we must know
something about that person’s origins
WHY SHOULD WE STUDY THE and development. The same is true of a
language.”
HISTORY OF ENGLISH?

(Pyles, T. & J. Algeo. 1993. The Origins and Development of the English
Language. 4th ed. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace & World, 2)
 “Historically evolved systems are not continually
made afresh; they contain remnants of earlier
stages, sometimes fully functional (...) sometimes
just marginal. Understanding a system
involves knowing where these things come
from and what they used to do, how their
current functions (if any) relate to their old
ones.”
(Lass, R. 1994. Old English. A historical linguistic companion.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 9)
“The English have no respect for their language, and
will not teach their children to speak it. They cannot
spell it because they have nothing to spell it
with but an old foreign alphabet of which only
the consonants –and not all of them- have any
agreed speech value. Consequently, no man can
teach himself what it should sound like from reading
it.”
(G. Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion)
King-queen vs prince-princesses
OE tid ‘time’ > tide
OE gesælig ‘happy, blessed’ > silly (cf. Cat. beneït)
OE wif-mann > woman (compound word >
simple?)
A PLAN FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF ENGLISH
SPELLING
BY MARK TWAIN
For example, in Year 1 that useless letter "c"
would be dropped to be replased either by "k"
or "s", and likewise "x" would no longer be
part of the alphabet. The only kase in which
"c" would be retained would be the "ch"
formation, which will be dealt with later.
Year 2 might reform "w" spelling, so that
"which" and "one" would take the same
konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish "y"
replasing it with "i" and Iear 4 might fiks the
"g/j" anomali wonse and for all.
 A PLAN FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF ENGLISH
SPELLING
BY MARK TWAIN (CONT.)

Jenerally, then, the improvement would <ghoti> /fɪʃ/ (laugh, women, nation)
kontinue iear bai iear with Iear 5 doing awai
with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6- Origin of doubt
12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining (http://explore.brainpickings.org/post/3817324592
voist and unvoist konsonants. Bai Iear 15 or 3/a-fascinating-etymology-of-why-there-is-a-b-in)
sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi
ridandant letez "c", "y" and "x“ tu riplais "ch",
"sh", and "th" rispektivli.
Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl
riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in
ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld."

We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes;

In the farm there were two sheep, three oxen, five
cows and I don´t know how many mice and rats
Brothers vs brethren
The king’s horse vs The horse of the king
Clearer vs more clear (older vs elder)
What’s wrong with y’all?
But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes.
Then one fowl is a goose, but two are called geese;
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a whole lot of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?
The cow in the plural may be cows or kine,
But the plural of vow is vows, not vine.
And I speak of a foot, and you show me your feet,
But I give you a boot --would a pair be called beet?
 If one is a tooth, and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?
If the singular is this, and the plural is these,
Should the plural of kiss be nicknamed kese? He was shaved this morning vs he is very well
shaven (cf. dived vs dove)
Then one may be that, and three may be those,
But the plural of hat would never be hose. I will, but definitely he won´t
We speak of brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren. She sings vs she *cans

The masculine pronouns are he, his and him,

But imagine the feminine she, shis and shim!
So our English, I think you all will agree,
Is the trickiest language you ever did see.

She might can get away early.

A: Where’s Harry?
You have to can drive a car to get that job.
B: Oh, he is gone. He has just left

I mean he use to be a real a real cool guy so you
know getting girls is never been a problem for
him and I feel that you know <ICE-SIN:S1A-058#84:1:A>
Anyway I just called them just now. I called all
the taxi companies <ICE SIN:S1A-004#268-269>
Yah well anyway he told me that uh you get paid
better as an analyst which <ICE-HK:S1A-010#X600:1:Z>
I can´t get no satisfaction.
Uhm, why don't you learn to do nothing like …
<ICE-HK:S1A-002#X394:1:Z>
Here comes the sun.
Hardly had he uttered those words when he began
laughing…
And there's sort of contract car who drive me to “many irregularities of our language today are
whatever the starting point is. (ICE-HK:S1A-
100#198:1:A) the remnants of earlier, quite regular patterns”

(Pyles, T. & J. Algeo. 1993. The Origins and Development of the

So I was with him and Terence you know which is English Language. 4th ed. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace &
Paul's boyfriend (ICE-HK:S1A-041#211:1:A) World, 2)

He wants less freedom, that he always thought was

outward notion, turns out to be this inner
dwindling. In conclusion, study the history of English is
useful because it helps us understand the present
Martin Martin he 's a model does all the fitting
<ICE-HK:S1A-014#X724:1:Z>

Synchrony (> Gk. συν-χρóνος) and diachrony(>

Gk. δια- χρóνος):

2nd person pronouns in Shakespeare (you, ye /

thee, thou);

2nd person pronouns throughout the history of

the English language
BASIC CONCEPTS
LANGUAGE VARIATION AND CHANGE EXAMPLES:
“Absolute stability in a language is never found… All
parts of the language are subject to change, and any
period of time will see the evolution of greater or Morphological variation (=meaning):
smaller extent. It may vary in rapidity or intensity.
But the principle admits no exceptions. The linguistic
river never stops flowing.” (Saussure 1986: 139) PDE dived/dove (earlier variation between holp and
helped (help). Variation change (PDE only the
analogical form helped has remained)
“Linguistic variation is a condition for linguistic PDE clearer/more clear (earlier only the synthetic
change –though variation does not necessarily option was possible change with the coexistence of
imply change– and the study of diachronic variants)
change presupposes the study of synchronic Variation in the relativization system
variation.”
(Rydén, M. 1980. “Syntactic variation in a historical perspective.” In Jacboson, S. ed.:
Papers from the Scandinavian Symposium on Syntactic Variation. Stockholm:
Almqvist&Wiksell International: 37-45; page 38).

INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL? CHOICE OF

COMPLEMENTIZER
Variants (different means used to express the Texts with a high degree of speechlikeness
same meaning, e.g. relative pronouns, invariable favour the use of zero (over that)
particles, zero)
Paradigm (group of variants with the same Long and complex subjects in the
meaning relativizers) complement clause favour the use of that,
while zero is favoured when the subject is a
pronoun.
Factors (features that condition the variation
and/or change):
Internal: paradigm of relativizers That is favoured when there is intervening
External: material between the matrix verb and the
Degree of formality subject of the object clause, so that it helps to
Register mark the clause boundary (cf. Peter said
Foreign influence yesterday Mary went to the cinema)
(age, sex, etc.)
 (TRASK 1996: 184)

ENGLISH, A GERMANIC
LANGUAGE?

OLD ENGLISH, PDE, ICELANDIC:

“The family tree misses out quite a lot of

important information in the development of Old
English. We know, for example, that Old English
borrowed a large number of words from Latin,
but the family tree suggests that English did not
have any contact with Latin at all. Similarly, the
family tree shows no contact between English
and Celtic, or English and Scandinavian
languages. Later on in the development of
English, French had an important effect on the
language.” (McIntyre 2009: 83)

c. 80% of English vocabulary comes from

external sources (Romance languages)
 DATING THE HISTORY OF
ENGLISH

PERIODIZATION
(Indo-European: 2500BC?) Old English: full inflections
(Proto-Germanic: 500 BC?)
Old English (8th century-1066) Middle English: levelled inflections
Middle English (1066–1486)
Early Modern English (16th century-18th
century) Early Modern English: inflections are lost
………………………………………………….
Modern English
Contemporary English

(Brinton & Arnovick 2006: 11-12)

BUT…
Changes in the language cannot be dated so specifically
that we can use them to provide precise dates for the
end of one period and the beginning of another. The
levelling of inflections has been dated anywhere
between 900 and 1200. It all depends on what data are
used and which texts are selected to provide the
evidence. There is also the further problem of what
particular feature should be chosen to provide the
framework for dating the periods. Sweet chose the
development of inflections, but other scholars have
chosen other phenomena. Various features in the FROM SYNTHESIS TO ANALYSIS
language undergo changes at different times and at
different rates, and it is difficult to justify choosing one
feature to the exclusion of others. (Blake 1996: 7)

E.g. there are declensions in ME (14th c in Kent)

LANGUAGE TYPOLOGY (MORPHOLOGY)

In the early 19th century, Wilhem von Humboldt Isolating languages (1 word = 1 meaning).
classified languages into three types according to
their morphology or word-structure: (a) isolating Example: Vietnamese
(also called analytic or root) languages, in which a
word typically consists of one single morpheme.
Words are invariable and syntactic relationships are Khi tôi dèn nhà ban tôi, chung tôi
shown by word-order; (b) agglutinating (or When I came house friend I PL I
agglutinative) languages, in which a word typically bát dàu làm bài
consists of a neat linear sequence of morphemes, all
clearly recognizable; and (c) inflecting (synthetic, begin do lesson
fusional, inflected or inflectional) languages, in ‘When I came to my friend’s house, we began to do lesson’
which a word typically consists of several morphemes
which are tangled up together in a messy way and
cannot be easily separated. ‘we’ = I + plural
(Adapted from Trask, R. L. 1999: Key Concepts in Language and
Linguistics. London: Routledge, 326).
 Agglutinating languages (1 morpheme = 1 meaning). Inflectional languages (1 morpheme = several
Example: Turkish meanings).
Examples: Latin, Spanish, Old English
Yap-tiĝ-im hata-yi memleket-i tani-ma-ma-
Make-Part-my mistake-Obj country-Obj know-not-Ger- Canta-r-é: 1st person singular future simple indicative
‘to sing’
m-a ver-ebil-ir-siniz
my-to give-can-Tense-you
Will-e: 1st person singular present simple indicative ‘to
‘You can ascribe the mistake I made to my not knowing want’
the country’
PDE?
‘you can give/ascribe’: ver-ebil-ir-siniz

PDE? TYPOLOGICAL CHANGE FF A CYCLE:

Largely analytic or isolating (e.g. prepositions,

auxiliaries, etc.),

BUT it also shows a reduced number of inflecting

features, witnesses of its inflecting past:
(e.g. walk-s = walk-pres/3/sg).

However, the paucity of categories available in PDE

makes some forms actually agglutinative (e.g. walk-ed
= walk-past)
SYNTHESIS → ANALYSIS FROM SYNTHESIS TO ANALYSIS (1):
The major contextual drift during the history of English has
been the steady shift from synthetic towards analytic structure,
that is, from a language which marked relationships between
words by special endings to one which used a comparatively
fixed word-order and separable morphemes such as
prepositions. Three related grammatical changes are relevant
here: 1. the obscuration and loss of inflectional endings; 2.
developments in the use of prepositions; 3. changes in element Synthesis → analysis (two end-points of a cline)
order. Through an examination of the interaction of these three Synthesis: relationships are marked by inflections
processes, it is possible to trace the shift in English from Analysis: relationships are marked by fixed word-
synthesis to analysis. Of course, the terms ‘synthesis’ and
‘analysis’ are relative, and are really poles of a cline; Old English order and prepositions
was much less ‘synthetic’ than are (for example) Present-day
Finnish or Present-day Zulu, and Present-day English is much
less ‘analytic’ than, for example, the varieties of Present-day
Chinese. Nevertheless, there has been definite movement along
this cline between Old English and Present-day English.

FROM SYNTHESIS TO ANALYSIS (2): FROM SYNTHESIS TO ANALYSIS (3):

History of English: steady shift from synthetic
towards analytic structure. Why? Grammatical
changes:
Obscuration and loss of inflectional endings
(morphological reduction)
Development and use of prepositions
Changes in the element order
Periodization of English in terms of inflections:
Old English: full inflections
Middle English: levelled inflections
Modern English: loss of inflections
(BUT some inflections still survive in PDE: plural
endings, ‘s of possession, etc.)
 ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE II. SPELLING AND SOUNDS

Sound change or phonological change

Types of sound change

SOUND CHANGE OR
PHONOLOGICAL CHANGE
SOUND CHANGE OR PHONOLOGICAL
CHANGE
Sound change (traditional term) or phonological
change describes all types of change in
pronunciation (Trask, 1996: 52)
There are two main types of phonological
change:
a) Syntagmatic changes
b) Paradigmatic changes
SYNTAGMATIC CHANGES
This is a “change in the sequence of speech sounds
representing the pronunciation of a particular
word, or more accurately, of groups of similar
words.”
(Traks, R. 1996. Historical Linguistics. New York: Arnold, 52)
These changes could affect the same sound or the
same type of sounds consistently.
They are generally the result of coarticulation
effects.
THE PHONETIC BASIS OF PHONOLOGICAL
CHANGE
When we speak, we produce a stream of speech
sounds, or segments, one after the other.
Linearity of speech: one discrete speech sound
precedes another one, producing a continuous
sequence or chain of sound known as a phonetic
continuum.
Segments could affect other segments in the
sequence in different ways.
Natural classes: e.g. stops, nasals, labials,
alveolars, among others.
PARADIGMATIC CHANGES
A paradigmatic change is a change in the phonological
system of the language. The whole system is affected.
The whole system undergoes some restructure.
It does not affect just the way we pronounce a specific
sound or groups of sounds in a sequence.
 SYNTAGMATIC CHANGES
1. Changes in the nature of segments:
Assimilation
Dissimilation
Lenition (or weakening)
Fortition (or strengthening)

2.Whole-segment processes
TYPES OF SYNTAGMATIC Prothesis
Epenthesis
CHANGES Paragoge
Aphaeresis
Syncope
Apocope
Metathesis
Haplology

ASSIMILATION

One of the commonest types of sound change.

Assimilation: process by means of which two segments

that occur close together in speech become more alike.
I. CHANGES IN THE NATURE OF
SEGMENTS Making two neighbouring sounds more similar reduces
the amount of effort required to produce them: ease of
articulation
 ASSIMILATION DEPENDING ON ITS ASSIMILATION DEPENDING ON ITS
DIRECTION MAGNITUDE (1)

DIRECTION
Total assimilation: the sound undergoing assimilation
becomes identical with the sound triggering the
Progressive assimilation assimilation.
The segment that triggers the change occurs before the
segment that it affects. e.g. (even reflection in spelling)

in + maculate = immaculate
Anticipatory assimilation
The sound that triggers the change occurs after the in + logical = illogical
segment that it affects.
in + regular= irregular

ASSIMILATION DEPENDING ON ITS ASSIMILATION DEPENDING ON THE

MAGNITUDE (2) DISTANCE BETWEEN ELEMENTS (1)

Partial assimilation: the sound undergoing assimilation Contact assimilation: the two segments involved are
becomes similar but not identical to the influencing directly adjacent.
sound.

e.g. e.g.

Edinburgh /ˈɛdɪmbɹə/ immaculate, illogical, irregular

/n/ (voiced alveolar nasal) > /m/ (voiced bilabial nasal) Edinburgh

because of the following /b/ (voiced bilabial stop)

 ASSIMILATION DEPENDING ON THE
DISTANCE BETWEEN ELEMENTS (2)
Distant assimilation: the two segments involved are
separated by other sounds.
e.g. i-mutation
IE man – maniz > OE man – menniz
PDE: man – men
The back vowel in the plural underwent assimilation to
the front vowel in the following syllable (i.e. the plural
suffix).
KEY
German:
Proto-Germanic gast (sg) ‘guest’– gastiz (pl) >
> PDGerman Gast (sg) /gast/ – Gäste (pl) /ˈgestə/
Partial anticipatory distant assimilation
Basque:
lan ‘work’ + bide ‘way’ = lanbide /lambide/ ‘profession’
Partial anticipatory contact assimilation
Basque:
bake ‘peace’ > Western Basque pake
Partial anticipatory distant assimilation
DESCRIBE THE ASSIMILATION PROCESSES
IN THE FOLLOWING WORDS:
German:
Proto-Germanic gast (sg) ‘guest’– gastiz (pl) >
> PDGerman Gast (sg) /gast/ – Gäste (pl) /ˈgestə/
Basque:
lan (work) + bide (way) = lanbide /lambide/ (profession)
Basque:
bake (peace) > Western Basque pake
DISSIMILATION
Dissimilation: process by which two segments become
more different than they were before.
Sometimes, repeating the same sound very often is
difficult to pronounce (tongue-twisters). By making
the sounds different, they are easier to pronounce.
 DISSIMILATION: EXAMPLES
Pre-Latin flo:ses > Latin flores
The first /s/ turns into an /r/ (rhotacism)
Latin arbor > Spanish árbol
The second /r/ turn into an /l/
Italian colonello > Spanish coronel
The first /l/ has been dissimilated to /r/ (rhotacism)
Latin anima > Spanish alma
> Basque arima
Sp.: Dissimilation of the first nasal to /l/
Basque: Dissimilation of the first nasal to /r/ (rhotacism)
LENITION (WEAKENING)
Lenition is a process affecting only consonants, and it is
a process in which a consonant’s articulation becomes
weaker.
Weak vs. strong (lenis vs. fortis) consonants: this
classification is based on the amount of articulatory
effort involved in pronouncing these consonants.
Strong consonants require a greater articulatory effort
than weak consonants.
ASSIMILATION AND DISSIMILATION
Sometimes both processes could be at work in the same
word. It is difficult to know which segment has
triggered the change:
Basque ingiru ‘vicinity’ > inguru ‘around’
Is the medial /i/ dissimilating from the preceding /i/ or
assimilating to the following /u/?
EXAMPLES OF LENITION (WEAKENING)
Geminate > simplex
Lat. cuppa ‘wine glass’ > Sp. copa /pp/ > /p/
Stop > fricative > approximant
Lat. ciegu ‘blind’ > Sp. ciego /k/ > /Ɵ/
Stop > liquid (l-sound or r-sound)
BrE water /ˈwɒtə/ > GenAm /ˈwɒɾəɾ/
Oral stop > glottal stop
BrE water /ˈwɒtə/ > London, Glasgow water /ˈwɒʔə/
Non-nasal > nasal
Lat. sabanu ‘covering’ > pre-Basque *zabanu > Basque
zamau ‘table-cloth’
Voiceless > voiced
Lat. strata ‘road’ > It. strada
 FORTITION (STRENGTHENING) EXAMPLES OF FORTITION (STRENGTHENING)

Fortition is a process in which a consonant that is Simplex> geminate

weaker on the scales presented above becomes
stronger.
This process is less frequent because strong consonants
involve more articulatory effort.
Lat. acqua ‘water’ > It. acqua /k/ > /kk/
Approximant > fricative > stop
ON. Þar ‘there’ > Swedish där /Ɵ/ > /d/
Liquid (l-sound or r-sound) > stop
OBasque erur ‘snow’ > western Basque edur
Glottal stop > oral stop
No examples found
Nasal > non-nasal
Basque musti ‘moist’ (borrowed from Occitan) > in most
Basque dialects busti
Voiced > voiceless
German Weg is pronounced /vɛk/ (final devoicing rule)
Cat. diàleg is pronounced /diˈalək/ (final devoicing rule)

WHOLE-SEGMENT PROCESSES

Unlike the processes under (I), these phonological

processes do not involve just changes in the nature of
segments, but a change in the number or ordering of
segments:

POSITION IN THE WORD

Type of change INITIAL MEDIAL FINAL

II. WHOLE-SEGMENT PROCESSES
ADDITION Prothesis Epenthesis Paragoge

REMOVAL Aphaeresis Syncope Apocope

 PROTHESIS (ADDITION, IN INITIAL MORE EXAMPLES FOR PROTHESIS
POSITION) (ADDITION, IN INITIAL POSITION)

Prothesis consists in the addition of a segment at the e.g.

beginning of a word.
Basque words cannot begin with /r/, just as Spanish
words cannot begin with /s/ + consonant.
Most commonly, prothesis involves the addition of vowels. All Latin words beginning with <s> added an initial /e/
sound in Spanish, for instance.
e.g.
All Latin words beginning with <s> added an initial /e/ Latin > Basque
sound.
rosa arrosa
Latin > Spanish Roma Erroma
spatha espada
smeralda esmeralda Spanish
statu estado Rusia > Errusia

APHAERESIS (REMOVAL, IN INITIAL EPENTHESIS (ADDITION, IN MEDIAL

POSITION) POSITION)

Aphaeresis consists in the loss of an initial segment. Epenthesis is a process of sound change by means of which a
segment is added to the middle of the word.
We could witness a deletion process via a lenition one. A
segment could first become weaker and then disappear
completely. e.g.
OE æmtig – PDE empty
However, in aphaeresis there is no previous weakening of ME thuner – PDE thunder
lenition before losing the segment.
e.g. Early Latin Standard classical Latin
e.g.
Words like knight, knife, know, knee were once pronounced faclis facilis ‘easy’
with the inital cluster /kn/ (cf. German das Knie). poclum poculum ‘goblet’

The cluster is retained in spelling nowadays. e.g. Arabic waqt – Turkish vakit ‘time’
The initial stop /k/ is no longer pronounced but there was no
lenition via /x/ or /h/ that we know of.
[reduction of consonant clusters – CV structure]
 SYNCOPE (REMOVAL, IN MEDIAL
EPENTHESIS (TERMINOLOGY) POSITION)

Some scholars use this term to refer to the addition of Syncope is the loss of a vowel in medial position.
any segment, either consonant or vowel, to the middle
of the word. We use it for both.
This term is not normally applied to the loss of a
consonant, and this phenomenon has been widely
Others make a distinction between: disregarded but it is not unfrequent:
The addition of a vowel = Anaptyxis or Svarabhakti (from
Sanskrit – first studies on morphophonology)
e.g. PDE Wednesday (loss of medial /d/)
The addition of a consonant = Excrescence
Spanish Inglaterra (loss of medial /g/)

Could we explain this using a different process?

Assimilation?

SYNCOPE (REMOVAL, IN MEDIAL PARAGOGE (ADDITION, IN FINAL

POSITION) POSITION)

Loss of vowels or syncope: Paragoge is the addition of a segment at the end of a

word.
e.g. Latin Spanish
littera letra (but literatura) It is sometimes also called excrescence by scholars.
dominico domingo (but dominical)
saeculu siglo (but secular) The added segment is normally a consonant, added to
another consonant.
Syncope is also frequent in PDE:
e.g. police /pəˈli:s/ - /ˈpli:s/ ME amonges > PDE amongst
battery /ˈbætərɪ/ /ˈbætrɪ/ ME amides > PDE amidst
secretary /ˈsekrətərɪ/ /ˈsekrətrɪ/ ME betwix > betwixt (archaic form for between)
 APOCOPE (REMOVAL, IN FINAL APOCOPE (REMOVAL, IN FINAL POSITION)
POSITION) EXAMPLES

Apocope is the loss of a final segment. Apocope is also frequent in English:

This happened very often with French final consonants: e.g.

OE tīma /ˈti:ma/ > PDE time /ˈtaɪm/
e.g. Diphthongisation of the first vowel and apocope of the
lit /li/ ‘bed’ last vowel.
gros /gro/ ‘big’
soûl /su/ ‘drunk’ OE rīdan /ˈri:dan/ > PDE ride /ˈraɪd/
part /par/ ‘ (he) leaves’ Diphthongisation of the first vowel, apocope of the last
consonant and vowel
They were pronounced with the final consonant still
retained in spelling, but they have lost it: apocope

TWO MORE WHOLE-SEGMENT PROCESSES METATHESIS

Other two processes involving whole segments are: Metathesis consists of changing the order of segments
within a word.

metathesis This is very common in Spanish:

haplology e.g.
Latin Spanish
crepare quebrar (not *crebar)
periculu peligro (not *periglo)
miraculu milagro (not *miraglo)
 METATHESIS – FURTHER EXAMPLES HAPLOLOGY

This phenomenon is not very common in English but we Haplology consists in the loss of one syllable when
have some anecdotal examples: followed by another identical or very similar syllable.

e.g. e.g.
OE waps > PDE wasp Basque
The word for ‘cider’ was created as a compound word:
Since OE times: hesitation betwen ask and aks. sagar ‘apple’ + ardo ‘wine’ = not *sagarardo but sagardo
Ask is the prevailing form, but some regional dialects
pronounce it /aks/ and even spell it as ax. One of the two identical syllable disappears:
e.g. He axed what time it was. haplology

HAPLOLOGY – FURTHER EXAMPLES

Basque
Creation of the noun ‘love’ from the adjective ‘beloved’

maite ‘beloved’ + -tasun ‘-ness’ = not *maitetasun but

maitasun
One of two very similar syllables is lost.
ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF
English THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Deadjectival adverb:
simple + -ly = not *simplely but simply
One of two very similar syllables is lost.
 II. SPELLING AND SOUNDS PARADIGMATIC CHANGES

PARADIGMATIC CHANGES PARADIGMATIC CHANGES

Factors of phonological change
In syntagmatic changes, we have seen ways to explain
how the pronunciation of a specific word has changed.
Conditioned and unconditioned changes
A paradigmatic change is a change in the phonological
system of the language. The whole system is affected. Types of paradigmatic changes:
The whole system undergoes some restructure.
Phonemic split
It does not affect just the way we pronounce a specific Phonemic merger
sound or groups of sounds in a sequence. Phonemic loss
Phonemic shift
It is a systematic change.

FACTORS OF PHONOLOGICAL
CHANGE
FACTORS (I)
Ease of articulation: the speaker exerts less effort
in articulating sounds, leading to the
assimilation of neighbouring sounds, to
omissions, and to clipped forms.
Perceptual clarity: the hearer requires that
sounds be maximally distinct (this principle
works against the previous one).
FACTORS OF PHONOLOGICAL CHANGE
Some important factors that contribute to
phonological change are:
Ease of articulation
Perceptual clarity
Phonological symmetry
Universal tendencies
FACTORS (II)
Phonological symmetry: phonological systems tend
towards structural balance, as evidenced by the
pairing of voiced and voiceless consonants or front
and back vowels.
e.g. a language will acquire sounds to fill gaps and
eliminate sounds that cause asymmetries in the system.
English acquired the voiced segment /ʒ/ to match its
already existing voiceless counterpart /ʃ/.
Universal tendencies: certain developments
commonly occur in the evolution of a language, such
as the devoicing of final consonants.
 CONDITIONED AND UNCONDITIONED
CHANGES

Phonological change is normally regular.

It normally applies to every single relevant word.

What is a relevant word?

CONDITIONED AND All the words containing a specific segment

UNCONDITIONED CHANGES All the words containing a specific segment in a specific
context.

In order to know that, we need to distinguish between

conditioned and unconditioned phonological changes

CONSEQUENCES OF UNCONDITIONED
UNCONDITIONED CHANGE CHANGES

The consequences of an unconditioned change are

This change applies to every single occurrence of a generally modest:
particular segment in the language, regardless to its
position in a word and regardless of the nature of any
neighbouring segments. The number of phonemes remains the same, and their
distribution in words remains the same.
e.g.
ME /i:/ > PDE /ai/ All that changes is the phonetic character of one or
more phonemes
Ancient Basque /j/ > Gipuzkoan dialect of Basque /x/
e.g. Gipuzkoan Basque: /j/ has been replaced by /x/
They are fairly common with vowels but much less Just that, no further consequences.
common with consonants.

CONDITIONED CHANGE
A conditioned change, in contrast, is one which applies
to a particular segment only in certain positions in a
word (e.g. only intervocalically or only word-finally or
only in a stressed syllable).
That is, this segment only changes in a specific context.
e.g. Latin /p t k/ > Spanish /b d g/ between vowels but
remained voiceless in other positions: pacāre > pagar
e.g. English /l/ was delateralized only when followed by
a consonants and preceded by certain vowels, as in
folk and talk, but not as in milk or fall.
Conditioned changes are much more frequent than
unconditioned ones.
TYPES OF PARADIGMATIC
CHANGES
CONSEQUENCES OF CONDITIONED
CHANGES
Conditioned changes have more complex effects upon
the phonological system of a language.
We could end up having more phonemes than we
originally had (phonemic split)
We could end up losing a phoneme (phonemic merger).
PHONEMIC SPLIT
Any historical process in which an original single
phoneme gives rise to two or more phonemes as
descendants.
e.g.
1. Pre-Old English /k/ pronounced as [k] in all
positions.
2. [k] was fronted before front vowels > this
palatalisation made /k/ be pronounced [tʃ] before /i/,
/e/, /ea/ and /eo/.
3. Then, the first element of /ea/ and /eo/ was lost > [tʃ]
now occurred before /a/ and /o/ too.
4. As a result it became a phoneme /tʃ/
 PHONEMIC SPLIT: EXAMPLE PHONEMIC MERGER

Phoneme /k/ split into two phonemes /k/ and /tʃ/. One phoneme may undergo unconditional merger with
another one, so that what were formerly two different
phonemes are combined into a single phoneme.
e.g.

e.g.
cat chaff chin 1. An ancestral form of Spanish used to have /b/ and /v/.
Stage I [katt] [keaff] [kinn] 2. These two have merged into a single phoneme in
/katt/ /keaff/ /kinn/ almost all modern varieties of Spanish.
Stage II [katt] [tʃeaff] [tʃinn] 3. The ancient spelling distinction (e.g. vaca vs. baca) is
/katt/ /keaff/ /kinn/ still retained but they are now pronounced
Stage III [katt] [tʃaff] [tʃinn]
identically (e.g. /baka/)
/katt/ /tʃaff/ /tʃinn/ 4. As a result, Spanish only has /b/ now.

PHONEMIC LOSS PHONEMIC SHIFT

A phonological change in which a segment disappears When phonemic shift has taken place, two words that
from a whole class of words. were distinguished in the protolanguage by means of
a particular pair of sounds are still distinguished in
e.g. the daughter language, but the distinction between
the two words is marked by a different pair of sounds.
The disappearance of initial /k/ in English words like
knot and know.
e.g. Grimm’s Law
 THE FIRST GERMANIC CONSONANT THE FIRST GERMANIC CONSONANT SHIFT
SHIFT (GRIMM’S LAW) (GRIMM’S LAW): EXAMPLES

The First Germanic Consonant Shift (also known as

Grimm’s Law) applied in prehistoric times in Proto-
Germanic to a number of the consonants inherited
from Proto-Indo-European.
PIE > Proto-Germanic
Because of these changes, languages which also come
from PIE (e.g. Latin, Greek, etc.) have retained the
original PIE consonants but those which belonged to
the Proto-Germanic branch, such as Gothic, Old
English and Old Norse show the shift.

*p > f *b > p *bh > b

*t > Þ [Ɵ] *d > t *dh > d
*k > x *g > k *gh > g

THE FIRST GERMANIC CONSONANT SHIFT THE FIRST GERMANIC CONSONANT SHIFT
(GRIMM’S LAW): EXAMPLES (GRIMM’S LAW): EXCEPTIONS TO THE LAW
Gothic Old English Old Norse PIE Germanic

Lat piscis fisks fisc fisk ‘fish’ Latin stāre English stand ‘stand’
Lat tu Þu Þu Þu ‘thou’
Latin piscis Gothic fisks ‘fish’
Lat canis hunds hund hundr ‘dog’
Lat quis hwas hwa hverr ‘who’ Latin captivus OE hæft ‘captive’
Lith trobá Þaúrp Þorp ‘village’ _____ Latin spuere OHighGerman spiwan ‘spit’
‘house’ ‘field’
Lat decem taíhun tien tio ‘ten’ Latin est Gothic ist ‘is’
Lat ego ik ic ek ‘I’ Latin noct- Gothic nahts ‘night’
Lat vivus qius cwicu kvikr ‘alive’
(<*gwiwos)
The consonant shift occurred except immediately
Skr bharami baíran beran bera ‘bear’ after a voiceless consonant.
Grimm’s Law is a conditioned change.
THE FIRST GERMANIC CONSONANT SHIFT
(GRIMM’S LAW): FURTHER EXCEPTIONS VERNER’S LAW
PIE Germanic
In Grimm’s Law, PIE voiceless stops are supposed to
become voiceless fricatives.
Greek patér OE fæder ‘father’

Greek hypér O High German ubar ‘over’

PIE > Proto-Germanic

Greek hekurá O High German swigur ‘mother-in-law’ *p > f

*t > Þ [Ɵ]
*k > x

They do not follow the pattern */p t k/ > /f Ɵ x/ However, this only happens when the consonant is immediately
preceded by the PIE accent (or whenever it was word initial)
These exceptions cannot be explained.

VERNER’S LAW: EXAMPLES I-MUTATION (UMLAUT)

Change by This is a post-ProtoGermanic change affecting all

Verner’s Law dialects except Gothic.
PIE *p > Grmc. *b Grk. heptá ‘seven’ Gothic síbun
This sound change is a regressive assimilation process
because of a vowel or vowel-like segment in a
PIE *t > Grmc. *d Skt. patí ‘master’ Gothic fádi following syllable.

PIE *k > Grmc. *g Grk. hekurá OE swéger Effects: back vowels become front, and low front vowels
‘mother-in-law’ raise before a syllable which contains /i, j/.

Grimm’s Law does not apply because in PIE

the stress was not before the stops.
 I-MUTATION (UMLAUT) I-MUTATION (UMLAUT) - EXAMPLES
As there were many environments where /i, j/ followed a stem
– especially inflectional and derivational suffixes – umlaut
had a widespread effect on OE morphology.
i y u
e.g.
e ø o … before /i, j/ Germanic to OE
ū>ȳ ̄ *rūm ‘spacious’ + -jan > rȳman ‘to make spacious’
æ ɑ *mūs ‘mouse’ +iz > mȳs ‘mice’
ō>ø̄/ē *gōs ‘goose’ + -iz > gēs ‘geese’ (from earlier /øː/)
*fōt ‘foot’ > fēt ‘feet’ + iz (from earlier /øː/)
The quality /i/ acts as a goal or point of attraction for ɑ>æ>e *Angle ‘Angle’ + -isc > Englisc ‘English’
other vowels, which move toward it on the ‘fronting (before a nasal)
dimension’ or the ‘height dimension’. æ>e *sæt ‘sat’ + -jan > settan ‘to set’
Then the /i/ in the following syllable is either changed
to /e/ or lost.

CHANGES WHICH LED TO OE

PHONOLOGY EXERCISES
Exercise 1
Grimm’s Law, Verner’s Law and i-mutation are What change has taken place in these words? Define
phonological changes which resulted in what we the Specify how the change took place.
consider Old English.
Latin pater (cf. paternal) English father
Now we are going to focus on the phonology of OE and Latin bucca (cf. buccal) OE pohha ‘a sack’
they way it developed subsequently. Sanskrit mādhu ‘honey’ English mead
IE *ghostis English guest
Latin tenuis (cf. tenuous English thin
Latin decem (cf. decimal) English ten
Greek kardia (cf. cardiac) English heart
Sanskrit bhrātar English brother
Latin genu (cf. genuflect) English knee