Consonants in Old and Middle English - Research Paper Example

Consonants in Old and Middle English This research paper has discussed consonants in Old and Middle English. The introduction has extensively discussed about the invasions that happened in Britain throughout the Old English and Middle English. Next, in the paper is the discussion on Old English from the mid 5th century to the mid-11th century. The paper has discussed the era using charts to practically illustrate how consonants were used then. The specific chart discussed is the consonant chart by Barbara A. Fennell. Thereafter, characteristics of the Old English language have been explained. The second part of the paper has discussed the Middle English (1066-1500 CE). A table of consonants has been used to illustrate what consonants were like during the period. The inventory sounds of consonants of Chaucerian Middle English have been discussed in this section. Another feature highlighted in the section is the characteristics of Middle English. The paper has been concluded by justifying how the English language has developed after undergoing refine standardization for several periods. Introduction A consonant is a speech sound that is coherent to partial closure or complete closure of a vocal tract. Examples of consonants are t, p, k, h and s among others. Some consonants are pronounced at the front of the tongue, some at the back of the lip, some in the throat, some at the back of the tomgue and some are pronounced by forcing air through a narrow channel. English is a language from West German, which originates from Anglo-Frisian Dialects. The language was brought to Britain by invaders and settlers from German (Fennell, 2001). These people settled in the present Netherlands and North West Germany. English is unique from other European languages of the same era in that it uses vocabularies. English is regarded as a borrowing language because most of its modern vocabulary originated from Anglo-Norman languages (Fennell, 2001). Middle English varied from old English because of the two invasions of the middle ages. The North Germanic language natives were responsible for the first invasion. These people conquered and colonized some parts of the Britain during 8th and 9th centuries A.D. The second invasion was caused by the Normans of the 11th Century, who were natives of old Norman. This language developed after sometime to English form and adopted the name Anglo-Norman. The new English vocabularies, which were used during the beginning of the Middle English times, influenced most organizations to a great extent. Some of the influenced organizations include; churches, governments, and court systems among others. Languages like Latin, Ancient Greek, German and Dutch among others influenced the English language during the renaissance period (Algeo, 2010). Old English comprised of various dialects, which reflected various origins of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Britain. The late West Saxon dialect finally dominated the region. The vocabularies and grammar of Old English of 1000 A.D. resembled other Germanic languages like Old Norse and Old High German. Written old English is unintelligible as compared to modern written English. The influence did not affect South West England till 1066 A.D. Norman Invasion when Old English was developed into a full-fledged fictional language (Algeo, 2010). English was then based on the speaking manners of London in the 13th Century A.D. to reflect the exposure of Britain to Scandinavian language. Old English from the Mid 5th Century to the Mid-11th Century After the settlement of the Anglo-Saxon, Brythonic and Latin languages were displaced by Germanic languages in most parts of Britain, which came to be called England. Celtic languages remained in places like Wales, Scotland, and Cornwall (Lass, 1994). Latin was also preserved by most organizations like churches for nobility. It was later reintroduced in England by missionaries from Roman and Celtic churches, which brought a great impact on English. Old English then emerged after a long period. It was as a result of many dialects and languages from the colonizers (Lass, 1994). Old English continued to reveal local variation remnants of which are present in the today’s dialects of today’s English. The epic poem Beowulf is one of the famous works from old English language period surviving to date. The work was composed by an unknown poet. Old English was very different from the modern Standard English because of its unintelligence. Despite this fact, English remains a Germanic language and of its speakers have their roots in the old English. Old English was used till late 12th and early 13th centuries when Middle English took over (Baker, 2007). The Old Norse, which is a North Germanic language, strongly influenced old English during the 10th and 11th centuries. The Consonant Chart by Barbara A. Fennell The chart below was created by Barbara A. Fennell to illusrate how consonants are pronounced. f v f between voiced vowels elsewhere c č k next to a front vowel elsewhere g j ɣ g next to a front vowel between other vowels elsewhere h h x, ç at beginning of word elsewhere s z s between voiced vowels elsewhere ð ð θ between voiced vowels elsewhere r trilled   sc š   cg ǰ   Consonant chart in a History of English book by Barbara A. Fennell Characteristics of the Old English language Latin influenced Germanic tribes because of their exposure to the Latin natives before invading England. Nouns had three genders, which are feminine, masculine, and neuter. These genders were assigned arbitrarily (Oppenheimer, 2006). Consonsnt numbers on the other hand were either singular or plural. They comprised of four cases; dative, accusative, genitive and nominative. The seven groups of declensions for nouns encompassed these cases. The infinitive of verbs adopted an end “an”. The verb’s ‘present tense’ adopted the number and person markers. The weak past tense incorporated “de” and the strong past tense involved a vowel change (Dark, 2000). Old English had many strong verbs as compared to verbs of the modern English. In old language, pronounciation was described by a predictable stress pattern on the first syllable. The 7 long and 7 short consonants characterized the phonemic lenghth of consonants (Baugh & Cable, 2002). The old English also had two front rounded consonants, which are not significant in today’s modern English. i –mutation was used to indicate a front consonant in the end of a word or sentence, which consequently made the root consonants fronted. For instance, “fot” would become “fot+i” to make “fet”. This illustration explains why the word “feet” is the plural of “foot” (Baker, 2003). Middle English (1066-1500 CE) The table below illustrates the inventory surface sounds of consonants of Chaucerian Middle English. The sounds include phonemes and allophones.   Labial Dental Alveolar Post alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal Nasal m   n     (ŋ)   Stop p  b   t  d tʃ  dʒ   k  ɡ   Fricative f  v θ  ð s  z ʃ (ç) (x) h Approximant     r[1]   j w   Lateral     l         Consonant Allophones All sounds marked in parentheses in the table above are referred to as allophones. For instance, [ŋ] is the allophone of n which occur before g and k. for example the word ring was written as riŋɡ and [ŋ] did not occur alone as it does in today’s English. Ç and x are allophones of h which occurred in coda position after the occurrence of front and back vowels. The evidence for occurrence of allophone ç is unclear because it lacks orthographical indication. During the era, /k/ was frontieredto/tʃ/ and consonants /ɣ/ to /j/ were frontiered just like in the old English. X sometimes became f as in examples of cough and tough. This could occur only if there are no front vowels. For example, the word night was written as niçt and taught was written as tauxt. L and r had allophones ɫ and ɹʷ representing them respectively. Voiced Fricatives In Middle English, the allophones of/f/, /θ/, /s/ were [v], [ð], [z] respectively. These consonants occurred between voiced consonants which are also called vowels. Some of the alterations caused by these allophones were hūs "house" [huːs] changed to house" [huːzes]. The voiced allophones then changed to separate phonemes which brought the following distinctions (Cercignani, 1983). Analogical changes occurred whereby word like glass, glasses and glassy adopted s which replaced the original z. The final e disappeared which brought about voiced fricatives at the end of words with originally had voiceless fricatives. Examples are teeth" vs. "to teethe", "half" vs. "to halve". Double consonants were reduced to single consonants. This brought about contrasts like kiss and to kiss with double s and house vs. to house with z in the verb form. Sandhi efetcs came about introducing voiced fricatives in some unstressed function words. For instance, this" with/s/ vs. "is" with /z/; and "off" with /f/ vs. "of" with /v/, (Cercignani, 1983). The era of Middle English began when Normans invaded Britain in 1066 CE. After the death of King Edward the confessor, William Duke realized that Edward had not left behind any heir and so believed that he had a good chance of becoming the next king. Unfortunately Harold was crowned the king, he decided to invade England and managed to kill Harold and crowned himself as king (Baugh & Cable, 2002).This happened during the Hastings famous Battle despite the fact that William could only speak French. As a result, the elites in England adopted the French language leaving English to the lower social classes (Baugh & Cable, 2002). Despite the adoption of French language in England, it lost its prestige in 1250 CE after King John lost to French. English language dominated the region once again. During this time, many foreigners settled in England enhancing the nobility of English language in England (Baugh & Cable, 2002). The elites were forced to adopt English although they still used French once for a while. French lost its prestige completely in the hundred years of war, which ranged between 1337 and 1453 CE in which French was hated paving way for English language to flourish. The Black Death played a major role in the increment of English use which came as a result of the middle class emergence (Baugh & Cable, 2002). Most workers were killed by the plague, which enhanced the status of peasant English users. The Black Death also played a role in increasing English use with the emergence of the middle class. Several of the workers had been killed by the plague, which increased the status of the peasants, who only spoke English. By 1362 CE, English was declared the official language to be used in court by the Statute of Pleading despite the fact that it was written in French (Baugh & Cable, 2002). In 1935 CE, English was declared the official language to be used in schools. 1350 to 1400 CE was recognized as an era of great individual English writers like Chaucer despite the fact that they apologized for writing in English. The decrease of popularity of French led to the borrowing of some English words, which were Parisian instead of Norman French. Most of the borrowed words were related to sovereign empire, jury, felony, larceny and fashion among others (Baugh & Cable, 2002). Moreover, the legal system maintained some parts of French word order like attorney general and accounts payable where the adjective follows the noun instead of the other way round. Characteristics of Middle English The writings changed radically during the Middle English. Some of the changes made then include; Th replaced the consonants þ and ð The ch represented the c before I or e Sc was replaced by sh H was added agter g as an internal consonant Hw was changed to wh Cw was changed to qu New symbols like v and u were added. V was a word used before and u was applicable everywhere else K was used frequently for example cyning became king New values were given old symbols. For instance, g before I was termed as ǰ; ʒ whereby j and c before i changed to s although not in all cases The historical h which was initially silent was added to some words and assumed that these words begun with an h sometimes back. These words include; honest, honor, habit, heir, herb etc. There are cases where words were written with o but they were pronounced as ʊ. This form was later changed when they started being pronounced as ʌ. Examples of these words are son, some, money, front, honey, wonder, ton, and one among others. The stress shift at the beginning of words made Middle English loose the case suffixes at the end of nouns (Larry, 1987). Consequently, it led to phonological erosion, which dropped off some consonants. The generalized plural marker changed to –s to compete –n. The –an ending in verb was replaced with ‘to’ before the verb to mean an inifinitive form. The consonant - (e)th marked the third person both in singular and plural (Campbell, 1959). However, the singular was still competing with – (e)s from the dialect of the north. The strongest irregular verbs weakened during the Middle English era. Adjectives could no longer agree with nouns, but –e, which is a weak ending, remained. The comparative form changed to –er as well as the superlative form, which changed to –est. Consonants were prolonged in the adjective form while they were shortened in the comparative form (Campbell, 1959). For instance late was prolonged to latter. Demonstratives like these and those were added during this era and the adverds ending with -lič changed to –ly. Some flat adverbs like ‘hard’ and ‘late’ did not incorporate the –ly. Dual numbers in the consonants of pronouns disappered while the dative and accusative assumed the object and pronoun forms respectively. Old consonants like th- like them and they, which were borrowed from scandunavian were replaced by third person plural pronouns. She was used for feminine singular subject pronoun while you, the plural was used as a status marker for the formal singular. The use of syntax was emphasized while the usage of prepositions was increased (Bruce & Robinson, 2001). New Compound tenses like perfect tenses were used too while progressive and passive voices were abandoned. The increament in the usage of double negation led to the increament in impersonal constructions. The verbs will and shall for future tenses were used for the first time. Will meant want while shall meant obliged to (Thomas, 1906). Some of the pronounciations that changed during the Middle English era include; The h in a cluster was lost. For instance, hleapan meant “to leap” and hnutu meant “hut”. W was lost consonant and back vowel, for instance, w is silent in two, answer and sword Č was lost in unstressed syllable V was lost in the middle of some words like had which was initially hæfde. Final –n in possessive pronouns was lost while it was added to some words which begin with a vowel Phonemics together with the voiced counterpart for š replaced voiced fricatives š was complemented with ž which is a phoneme borrowed from French unrounded and front rounded counterparts emerged The length of vowels could be predicted due to lose of phonemic status. For instance, a long vowel had an open syllable without a consonant following it while a short vowel contained a closed syllable with atleast a consonant following it. Further, there were dialectical differences in both the north and south. Northern natives used – (e) s to mark plural and third person singular. Th- which was borrowed from Scandinavians was used by southerners for third person plural (Filppula, Juhani & Heli, 2002). Southerners used – (e) as well for the plural, the third person singular was referred using – (e)th and the third person plural pronoun was referred using – (e)n. The northerners referred to the third person singular using – (e)th, the third person plural pronun was referred using h-. Northerners used ‘a’ and ‘k’ while southerners used o and č for particular words (Dobson, 1968). Finally, the northern dialect became the standardized modern English due to its grammatical endings although southern pronounciations of oand č still remained. Conclusion Today, English has achieved an international status after undergoing various stages of refinication especially on the consonant part of it. Asia, Africa, America and other continets of te world are speking a standardized modern English understood by everyone. For instance, religious leaders like the catholic Pope address people in English language understtod by everyone from wherever he is even in the Middle East. References Algeo, J. (2010). The Origins and Development of the English Language. Boston, MA: Wadsworth. Baker, P. S. (2007), Introduction to Old English, 2nd ed., Oxford: Blackwell. Baker, P. S. (2003). “Pronouns” The Electronic Introduction to Old English. Oxford: Blackwell.   Baugh, A. & Cable, T. (2002). The History of the English Language. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Bruce, M & Robinson, F. C. (2001), A Guide to Old English 6th ed, Oxford: Blackwell. Campbell, A. (1959). Old English Grammar, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Cercignani, F. (1983), The Development of */k/ and */sk/ in Old English, Journal of English and Germanic Philology 82 (3), 313–323 . Crystal, D. (2004). The Stories of English. London: Penguin. Dark, K. (2000). Britain and the End of the Roman Empire. Brimscombe, Gloucestershire: Tempus. Dobson, E. J. (1968). English Pronounciation, 1500-1700. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Fennell, B. A. (2001). A History of English: A Sociolinguistic Approach. Oxford and Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers. Filppula, M., Juhani, K. & Heli, P. (2002). The Celtic Roots of English. Joensuu: University of Joensuu, Faculty of Humanities. Larry D. B. (1987). Spelling based on The Riverside Chaucer3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. Lass, R. (1994). Old English: A historical linguistic companion, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Oppenheimer, S. (2006). The Origins of the British London: Robinson. Thomas, W. (1906). Origin of the Anglo-Saxon Race - A Study of the Settlement of England and the Tribal Origin of the Old English People. 1st ed. London: Robinson. Read More