Like many other languages,
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
has wide variation in
pronunciation
Pronunciation is the way in which a word or a language is spoken. This may refer to generally agreed-upon sequences of sounds used in speaking a given word or language in a specific dialect ("correct pronunciation") or simply the way a particular ...
, both
historically
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
and from
dialect to dialect. In general, however, the regional dialects of English share a largely similar (but not identical)
phonological
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
system. Among other things, most dialects have
vowel reduction
In phonetics, vowel reduction is any of various changes in the acoustic ''quality'' of vowels as a result of changes in stress, sonority, duration, loudness, articulation, or position in the word (e.g. for the Creek language
The Muscogee lang ...
in
unstressed
In linguistics, and particularly phonology, stress or accent is the relative emphasis or prominence given to a certain syllable in a word or to a certain word in a phrase or sentence. That emphasis is typically caused by such properties as i ...
syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...
s and a complex set of
phonological feature
In linguistics, a distinctive feature is the most basic unit of phonological structure that distinguishes one sound from another within a language. For example, the feature oicedistinguishes the two bilabial plosives: and There are many diffe ...
s that distinguish
fortis and lenis
In linguistics, fortis and lenis ( and ; Latin for "strong" and "weak"), sometimes identified with tense and lax, are pronunciations of consonants with relatively greater and lesser energy, respectively. English has fortis consonants, such as the ...
consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wit ...
s (
stops
Stop may refer to:
Places
*Stop, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the United States
* Stop (Rogatica), a village in Rogatica, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Facilities
* Bus stop
* Truck stop, a type of rest stop for truck dri ...
,
affricate
An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pair. ...
s, and
fricative
A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in t ...
s).
This article describes the development of the
phonology of English
Like many other languages, English language, English has wide variation in pronunciation, both History of the English language, historically and from List of dialects of the English language, dialect to dialect. In general, however, the regiona ...
over time, starting from its roots in
proto-Germanic
Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages.
Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic branc ...
to diverse changes in different dialects of modern English.
Abbreviations
In the following description, abbreviations are used as follows:
Changes by time period
This section summarizes the changes occurring within distinct time periods, covering the last 2,000 years or so. Within each subsection, changes are in approximate chronological order.
The time periods for some of the early stages are quite short due to the extensive population movements occurring during the
Migration Period
The Migration Period was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories by various tribes, and the establishment of the post-Roman ...
(early AD), which resulted in rapid dialect fragmentation.
Late Proto-Germanic period
This period includes changes in late
Proto-Germanic
Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages.
Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic branc ...
, up to about the 1st century. Only a general overview of the more important changes is given here; for a full list, see the
Proto-Germanic
Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed proto-language of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages.
Proto-Germanic eventually developed from pre-Proto-Germanic into three Germanic branc ...
article.
*
Unstressed word-final and were lost. Early ' > late PGmc ' "you carried (sg)".
*
/n/">Word-final became .
**
Word-final was then lost after unstressed syllables with
nasalization
In phonetics, nasalization (or nasalisation) is the production of a sound while the velum is lowered, so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by the mouth. An archetypal nasal sound is .
In the Internationa ...
of the preceding vowel. Hence *' > early PGmc ' > late PGmc >
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
"day (acc. sg.)". The nasalisation was retained at least into the earliest history of Old English.
*
Word-final was lost after an unstressed syllable. This followed the loss of word-final , because it remained before : PrePGmc *' > early PGmc ' > late PGmc ' "they carried".
*
/i/"> was raised to in unstressed syllables.
** The original vowel remained when followed by , and was later lowered to .
*
Early i-mutation: was raised to when an or followed in the next syllable.
** This occurred before deletion of word-final ; hence *' > early PGmc ' > late PGmc ' > German "over". Compare PIE *' > early PGmc ' > late PGmc ' > German "over".
** But it occurred after the raising of unstressed to : PIE *' > PGmc ' > ' "you carry (pl)".
** This also affected the diphthong , which became .
** As a consequence of this change, > . The
Elder Futhark
The Elder Futhark (or Fuþark), also known as the Older Futhark, Old Futhark, or Germanic Futhark, is the oldest form of the runic alphabets. It was a writing system used by Germanic peoples for Northwest Germanic dialects in the Migration Peri ...
of the
Proto-Norse language
Proto-Norse (also called Ancient Nordic, Ancient Scandinavian, Ancient Norse, Primitive Norse, Proto-Nordic, Proto-Scandinavian and Proto-North Germanic) was an Indo-European language spoken in Scandinavia that is thought to have evolved as a ...
still contained different symbols for the two sounds.
* z-umlaut: is raised to before .
** Early PGmc ' "me, dative" > late PGmc ' >
Old High German
Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050.
There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old High ...
''mir'',
Old Saxon
Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, was a Germanic language and the earliest recorded form of Low German (spoken nowadays in Northern Germany, the northeastern Netherlands, southern Denmark, the Americas and parts of Eastern Europe). It i ...
''mi'',
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...
''mér'' (with general lowering and lengthening of i before r).
** This change was only sporadic at best because there were barely any words in which it could have occurred at all, since remained only in stressed syllables. The umlauting effect of remained, however, and in Old West Norse it was extended to other vowels as well. Hence OEN ''glaʀ'', ''hrauʀ'', OWN ''gler'', ''hreyrr''.
*
Pre-nasal raising: > before nasal + consonant. Pre-PGmc *' > PGmc ' > ' > OE ''bindan'' > ModE ''bind'' (
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
).
** This was later extended in Pre-Old English times to vowels before all nasals; hence Old English ''niman'' "take" but Old High German ''neman''.
*
Loss of before , with
nasalization
In phonetics, nasalization (or nasalisation) is the production of a sound while the velum is lowered, so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by the mouth. An archetypal nasal sound is .
In the Internationa ...
and
compensatory lengthening
Compensatory lengthening in phonology and historical linguistics is the lengthening of a vowel sound that happens upon the loss of a following consonant, usually in the syllable coda, or of a vowel in an adjacent syllable. Lengthening triggered ...
of the preceding vowel.
** The nasalization was eventually lost, but remained through the
Ingvaeonic
North Sea Germanic, also known as Ingvaeonic , is a postulated grouping of the northern West Germanic languages that consists of Old Frisian, Old English, and Old Saxon, and their descendants.
Ingvaeonic is named after the Ingaevones, a West Ge ...
period.
** Hence Pre-PGmc *' > PGmc ' > OE ''þencan'' > ModE ''think'', but PrePG *' > PGmc ' > ' > OE > ModE ''thought''.
** This change followed the raising of before a nasal: PGmc ' > ' > ' > Gothic .
* Final-syllable short vowels were generally deleted in words of three syllables or more. PGmc ' > Goth "(he) carries" (see above), and also PGmc ', ' > ' (dative and instrumental plural ending of nouns, 1st person plural ending of verbs, as on the
Stentoften Runestone
The Stentoften Runestone, listed in the Rundata catalog as DR 357, is a runestone which contains a curse in Proto-Norse that was discovered in Stentoften, Blekinge, Sweden.
Inscription
Transliteration
:AP niuhAborumz ¶ niuhagestumz ¶ hAþuwolA ...
).
Northwest Germanic period
This was the period that existed after the
East Germanic languages
The East Germanic languages, also called the Oder–Vistula Germanic languages, are a group of extinct Germanic languages that were spoken by East Germanic peoples. East Germanic is one of the primary branches of Germanic languages, along with ...
had split off. Changes during this time were shared with the
North Germanic
The North Germanic languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages—a sub-family of the Indo-European languages—along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages. The language group is also r ...
dialects, i.e.
Proto-Norse
Proto-Norse (also called Ancient Nordic, Ancient Scandinavian, Ancient Norse, Primitive Norse, Proto-Nordic, Proto-Scandinavian and Proto-North Germanic) was an Indo-European language spoken in Scandinavia that is thought to have evolved as a ...
. Many of the changes that occurred were areal, and took time to propagate throughout a dialect continuum that was already diversifying. Thus, the ordering of the changes is sometimes ambiguous, and can differ between dialects.
* Allophonic
i-mutation
I-mutation (also known as umlaut, front mutation, i-umlaut, i/j-mutation or i/j-umlaut) is a type of sound change in which a back vowel is fronted or a front vowel is raised if the following syllable contains , or (a voiced palatal approxi ...
/
Germanic umlaut
The Germanic umlaut (sometimes called i-umlaut or i-mutation) is a type of linguistic umlaut in which a back vowel changes to the associated front vowel ( fronting) or a front vowel becomes closer to (raising) when the following syllable conta ...
: Short back vowels were fronted when followed in the next syllable by or , by
i-mutation
I-mutation (also known as umlaut, front mutation, i-umlaut, i/j-mutation or i/j-umlaut) is a type of sound change in which a back vowel is fronted or a front vowel is raised if the following syllable contains , or (a voiced palatal approxi ...
: > , > , >
** In this initial stage, the mutated vowels were still allophonically conditioned, and were not yet distinct as phonemes. Only later, when the and were modified or lost, were the new sounds phonemicized.
**
i-mutation
I-mutation (also known as umlaut, front mutation, i-umlaut, i/j-mutation or i/j-umlaut) is a type of sound change in which a back vowel is fronted or a front vowel is raised if the following syllable contains , or (a voiced palatal approxi ...
affected all the
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, Engli ...
except for
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
, although with a great deal of variation. It appears to have occurred earliest, and to be most pronounced, in the
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sch ...
area (the home of the
Anglo-Saxons
The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
), and from there to have spread north and south. However, it is possible that this change already occurred in Proto-Germanic proper, in which case the phenomenon would have remained merely allophonic for quite some time. If that is the case, that would be the stage reflected in Gothic, where there is no orthographic evidence of i-mutation at all.
** Long vowels and diphthongs were affected only later, probably analogically, and not in all areas. Notably, they were not mutated in most (western) Dutch dialects, whereas short vowels were.
*
a-mutation
''A''-mutation is a metaphonic process supposed to have taken place in late Proto-Germanic (c. 200).
General description
In ''a''-mutation, a short high vowel ( or ) was lowered when the following syllable contained a non-high vowel (, or ).Gor ...
: is lowered to when a non-high vowel follows in the next syllable.
** This is blocked when followed by a nasal followed by a consonant, or by a cluster with in it. Hence PG ' > OE/ModE ''gold'', but PG ' > OE ''gyldan'' > ModE ''gild''.
** This produces a new phoneme , due to inconsistent application and later loss of word-final vowels.
* Final-syllable long vowels were shortened.
** Final becomes , later raised to . PG ' ("saw (tool)") > OE ''sagu'', ON ''sǫg''.
** Final becomes in ON (later raised to ), in West Germanic. PG ' ("he/she/it healed") > ON ''heilði'', but OE ''hǣlde'', OHG ''heilta''.
** The final long diphthong loses its final element and usually develops the same as from that point on. PG ' ("gift", dative singular) > NWG ' > ON ''gjǫf'', OHG ''gebu'', OE ''giefe'' (an apparent irregular development).
* "Overlong" vowels were shortened to regular long vowels.
* PG (maybe already by late PG) becomes . This preceded final shortening in West Germanic, but postdated it in North Germanic.
* Unstressed
diphthongs
A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...
were monophthongized. > , > . The latter merged with ''ō'' from shortened overlong ''ô''. PG ' ("son", genitive singular) > NWG ' > ON ''sonar'', OE ''suna'', OHG ''suno''; PG ' ("he/she/it take", subjunctive) > NWG ' > ON ''nemi'', OE ''nime'', OHG ''neme''; PG ' ("stone", dative singular) > NWG ' > ON ''steini'', OE , OHG ''steine''.
West Germanic period
This period occurred around the 2nd to 4th centuries. It is unclear if there was ever a distinct "Proto-West Germanic", as most changes in this period were areal, and likely spread throughout a dialect continuum that was already diversifying further. Thus, this "period" may not have been a real timespan, but may simply cover certain areal changes that did not reach into North Germanic. This period ends with the further diversification of West Germanic into several groups before and during the
Migration Period
The Migration Period was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories by various tribes, and the establishment of the post-Roman ...
:
Ingvaeonic
North Sea Germanic, also known as Ingvaeonic , is a postulated grouping of the northern West Germanic languages that consists of Old Frisian, Old English, and Old Saxon, and their descendants.
Ingvaeonic is named after the Ingaevones, a West Ge ...
,
Istvaeonic
Weser-Rhine Germanic is a proposed group of prehistoric West Germanic dialects which would have been both directly ancestral to Dutch language, Dutch, as well as being a notable substratum influencing West Central German dialects. The term was int ...
(
Old Frankish
Frankish ( reconstructed endonym: *), also known as Old Franconian or Old Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul, its speakers in Picardy an ...
) and
Irminonic
Elbe Germanic, also called Irminonic or Erminonic, is a term introduced by the German linguist Friedrich Maurer (1898–1984) in his book, ''Nordgermanen und Alemanen'', to describe the unattested proto-language, or dialectal grouping, ancestra ...
(
Upper German
Upper German (german: Oberdeutsch ) is a family of High German dialects spoken primarily in the southern German-speaking area ().
History
In the Old High German time, only Alemannic and Bairisch are grouped as Upper German. In the Middle High G ...
).
* Loss of word-final .
** This change occurred before rhotacization, as original word-final was not lost.
** But it must have occurred after the
Northwest Germanic split, since word-final was not eliminated in
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...
, instead merging with .
** was not lost in single-syllable words in southern and central German. Compare PG ' > OS ''mi'', OE ''me'' vs. OHG ''mir''.
** The OE nominative plural (ME ), OS nominative plural may be from original accusative plural ', due to the Ingvaeonic Nasal-Spirant law, rather than original nominative plural ', which would be expected to become *''-a'' (OHG ''-a'', compare ON ).
*
Rhotacization: > .
** This change also affected
Proto-Norse
Proto-Norse (also called Ancient Nordic, Ancient Scandinavian, Ancient Norse, Primitive Norse, Proto-Nordic, Proto-Scandinavian and Proto-North Germanic) was an Indo-European language spoken in Scandinavia that is thought to have evolved as a ...
, but only much later. and were still distinct in the
Danish and Swedish dialect of Old Norse, as is testified by distinct runes. ( is normally assumed to be a rhotic fricative in this language, but there is no actual evidence of this.)
** PG > Goth ; OE ''dēor'' > ModE ''deer''
*
West Germanic gemination
West Germanic gemination was a sound change that took place in all West Germanic languages around the 3rd or 4th century AD. It affected consonants directly followed by , which were generally lengthened or geminated in that position. Because of Sie ...
: single consonants followed by except became double (
geminate
In phonetics and phonology, gemination (), or consonant lengthening (from Latin 'doubling', itself from ''gemini'' 'twins'), is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from s ...
). This only affected consonants preceded by a short vowel, because those preceded by a long vowel or by another consonant were never followed by due to
Sievers' law
Sievers's law in Indo-European linguistics accounts for the pronunciation of a consonant cluster with a glide ( or ) before a vowel as it was affected by the phonetics of the preceding syllable. Specifically it refers to the alternation between ...
.
** PG > OE ''biddan'', ''habban'' > ModE ''bid'', ''have''
Ingvaeonic and Anglo-Frisian period
This period is estimated to have lasted only a century or so, the 4th to 5th; the time during which the Franks started to spread south into Gaul (France) and the various coastal people began colonising Britain. Changes in this period affected the Ingvaeonic languages, but not the more southerly Central and Upper German languages. The Ingvaeonic group was probably never homogeneous, but was divided further into
Old Saxon
Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German, was a Germanic language and the earliest recorded form of Low German (spoken nowadays in Northern Germany, the northeastern Netherlands, southern Denmark, the Americas and parts of Eastern Europe). It i ...
and
Anglo-Frisian
The Anglo-Frisian languages are the Anglic (English, Scots, and Yola) and Frisian varieties of the West Germanic languages.
The Anglo-Frisian languages are distinct from other West Germanic languages due to several sound changes: besides the ...
.
Old Frankish
Frankish ( reconstructed endonym: *), also known as Old Franconian or Old Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century.
After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul, its speakers in Picardy an ...
(and later
Old Dutch
In linguistics, Old Dutch (Dutch: Oudnederlands) or Old Low Franconian (Dutch: Oudnederfrankisch) is the set of Franconian dialects (i.e. dialects that evolved from Frankish) spoken in the Low Countries during the Early Middle Ages, from aroun ...
) was not in the core group, but was affected by the spread of several areal changes from the Ingvaeonic area.
The Anglo-Frisian languages shared several unique changes that were not found in the other West Germanic languages. The migration to Britain caused a further split into early
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
and early
Old Frisian
Old Frisian was a West Germanic language spoken between the 8th and 16th centuries along the North Sea coast, roughly between the mouths of the Rhine and Weser rivers. The Frisian settlers on the coast of South Jutland (today's Northern Friesl ...
.
*
Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law
In historical linguistics, the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law (also called the Anglo-Frisian or North Sea Germanic nasal spirant law) is a description of a phonological development that occurred in the Ingvaeonic dialects of the West Germanic langu ...
: Loss of nasals before fricatives, with
nasalization
In phonetics, nasalization (or nasalisation) is the production of a sound while the velum is lowered, so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by the mouth. An archetypal nasal sound is .
In the Internationa ...
and
compensatory lengthening
Compensatory lengthening in phonology and historical linguistics is the lengthening of a vowel sound that happens upon the loss of a following consonant, usually in the syllable coda, or of a vowel in an adjacent syllable. Lengthening triggered ...
of the preceding vowel. Hence PG ' became ModG ''Mund'' but in Ingvaeonic dialects first became '. Old English then denasalised the vowels, giving OE > ModE "mouth".
** Following this > . PrePG *' > PG ' > ' > ' > OE > ModE "tooth". (ModG ''Zahn'' < OHG ''zant''.) This also applied to arising
earlier in Proto-Germanic: PG ' > Late PG ' > OE > ModE "(I) thought".
*
Anglo-Frisian brightening
The phonology, phonological system of the Old English language underwent many changes during the period of its existence. These included a number of vowel shifts, and the palatalization (sound change), palatalisation of velar consonants in ma ...
:
** Fronting of to (unless followed by a geminate, by a back vowel in the next syllable, or in certain other cases). Hence OE ''dæġ'' "day", plural ''dagas'' "days" (dialectal ModE "dawes"; compare ModE "dawn" < OE ''dagung'' ).
** This does not affect nasal . And since this is a back vowel, in a preceding syllable was prevented from being fronted as well. This created an alternation between the infinitive in *''-aną'' and strong past participle in *''-ana'' (< PG *''anaz''), where the former became -''an'' in OE but the latter became *-''ænæ'' > -''en''.
** Fronting of to (generally, unless followed).
* Final-syllable , and are lost.
** No attested West Germanic languages show any reflexes of these vowels. However, the way it affected the fronting of as described above shows that at least was retained into the separate history of Anglo-Frisian.
Old English period
This period is estimated to be c. AD 475–900. This includes changes from the split between
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
and
Old Frisian
Old Frisian was a West Germanic language spoken between the 8th and 16th centuries along the North Sea coast, roughly between the mouths of the Rhine and Weser rivers. The Frisian settlers on the coast of South Jutland (today's Northern Friesl ...
(c. AD 475) up through historic early
West Saxon of AD 900:
*
Breaking of front vowels.
** Most generally, before , and + consonant (assumed to be
velarized
Velarization is a secondary articulation of consonants by which the back of the tongue is raised toward the velum during the articulation of the consonant.
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, velarization is transcribed by one of four diac ...
in these circumstances), but exact conditioning factors vary from vowel to vowel.
** Initial result was a falling diphthong ending in , but this was followed by diphthong height harmonization, producing short , , from short , , , long , , from long , , .
*** Written ''ea'', ''eo'', ''io'', where length is not distinguished graphically.
** Result in some dialects, for example
Anglian, was back vowels rather than diphthongs.
West Saxon ''ceald''; but Anglian ''cald'' > ModE ''cold''.
*
Diphthong height harmonization: The height of one element of each diphthong is adjusted to match that of the other.
** > through this change, possibly through an intermediate stage . PG ' > OE > ModE ''stone''.
** was first fronted to and then harmonized to . PG ' > OE ' "joy" (cf. ModE ''dream'', ModG ''Traum''). PG ' > OE > ModE ''death'' (Goth , ModG ''Tod''). PG ' > OE ' > ModE ''eye'' (Goth , ModG ''Auge'').
** is harmonized to .
*
A-restoration
The phonological system of the Old English language underwent many changes during the period of its existence. These included a number of vowel shifts, and the palatalisation of velar consonants in many positions.
For historical development ...
: Short is backed to when a
back vowel
A back vowel is any in a class of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the highest point of the tongue is positioned relatively back in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be c ...
follows in the next syllable.
** This produces alternations such as OE ''dæġ'' "day", pl. ''dagas'' (cf. dialectal ''dawes'' "days").
*
Palatalization
Palatalization may refer to:
*Palatalization (phonetics), the phonetic feature of palatal secondary articulation
*Palatalization (sound change)
Palatalization is a historical-linguistic sound change that results in a palatalized articulation ...
of
velar consonants
Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth (known also as the velum).
Since the velar region of the roof of the mouth is relatively extensive an ...
: were palatalized to in certain complex circumstances. A similar palatalization happened in Frisian, but by this point the languages had split up; the Old English palatalization must be ordered after Old-English-specific changes such as ''a''-restoration.
** Generally, the velar stops were palatalized before or ; after when not before a vowel; and was palatalized at the beginning of a word before front vowels. (At this point, there was no word-initial .)
** was palatalized in somewhat broader circumstances: By any following front vowel, as well as by a preceding front vowel when a vowel did not immediately follow the .
** later becomes , but not before the loss of older below.
** is palatalized in almost all circumstances. PG ' > ModE ''ship'' (cf. ''skipper'' < Dutch ''schipper'', where no such change happened), but West Frisian ''skip''. PG ' > OE ''scyrte'' > ModE ''shirt'', but > ON ''skyrt'' > ModE ''skirt''. An example of retained is PG ' > OE ''ascian'' > ModE ''ask''; there is evidence that OE ''ascian'' was sometimes rendered metathetized to ''acsian'', which is the presumed origin of ModE ''ask''.
*
Palatal diphthongization: Initial palatal , , trigger spelling changes of ''a'' > ''ea'', ''e'' > ''ie''. It is disputed whether this represents an actual sound change or merely a spelling convention indicating the palatal nature of the preceding consonant (written ''g'', ''c'', ''sc'' were ambiguous in OE as to palatal , , and velar or , , , respectively).
** Similar changes of ''o'' > ''eo'', ''u'' > ''eo'' are generally recognized to be merely a spelling convention. Hence WG > OE ''geong'' > ModE "young"; if ''geong'' literally indicated an diphthong, the modern result would be *''yeng''.
** It is disputed whether there is
Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...
evidence of the reality of this change in Old English.
*
i-mutation
I-mutation (also known as umlaut, front mutation, i-umlaut, i/j-mutation or i/j-umlaut) is a type of sound change in which a back vowel is fronted or a front vowel is raised if the following syllable contains , or (a voiced palatal approxi ...
: The most important change in the Old English period. All back vowels were fronted before a in the next syllable, and front vowels were raised.
** > (but > before or );
** > > ;
** > ;
** , > > ; this also applied to the equivalent short diphthongs.
** Short > by an earlier pan-Germanic change under the same circumstances; often conflated with this change.
** This had dramatic effects in inflectional and derivational morphology, e.g. in noun paradigms (''fōt'' "foot", pl. ''fēt'' "feet"); verb paradigms (''bacan'' "to bake", ''bæcþ'' "he bakes"); nominal derivatives from adjectives (''strang'' "strong", ''strengþ(u)'' "strength"), from verbs (''cuman'' "to come", ''cyme'' "coming"), and from other nouns (''fox'' "fox", ''fyxenn'' "vixen"); verbal derivatives (''fōda'' "food", ''fēdan'' "to feed"); comparative adjectives (''eald'' "old", ''ieldra'' "older, elder"). Many echoes of i-mutation are still present in the modern language.
*
Close-vowel loss: Loss of word-final and (also from earlier ) except when following a short syllable (i.e. one with a short vowel followed by a single consonant.) For example, PIE *' > PG ' > OE ''sunu'' "son (nom. sing.)", PIE *' > PG ' > OE ''feohu'' "cattle (nom. sing.)", PIE *' > PG ' > OE ''ƿine'' "friend (nom. sing.)", but PrePG *' > PG ' > WG ' > OE "foot (nom. pl.)".
*
Loss of and following a long syllable.
** A similar change happened in the other West Germanic languages, although after the earliest records of those languages.
** This did not affect the new (< ) formed from palatalisation of PG , suggesting that it was still a palatal fricative at the time of the change. For example, PG ' > early OE *' > OE ''ƿrēġan'' ().
** Following this, PG occurred only word-initially and after (which was the only consonant that was not geminated by and hence retained a short syllable).
*
''H''-loss: Proto-Germanic is lost between vowels, and between and a vowel. The preceding vowel is lengthened.
** This leads to alternations such as ''eoh'' "horse", pl. ''ēos'', and ''ƿealh'' "foreigner", pl. ''ƿēalas''.
*
Vowel assimilation: Two vowels in
hiatus
Hiatus may refer to:
*Hiatus (anatomy), a natural fissure in a structure
*Hiatus (stratigraphy), a discontinuity in the age of strata in stratigraphy
*''Hiatus'', a genus of picture-winged flies with sole member species ''Hiatus fulvipes''
*Globa ...
merge into a long vowel.
** Some examples come from ''h''-loss. Others come from loss of or between vowels, e.g. PG ''frijōndz'' > OE ''frīond'' > ''frēond'' "friend"; PG ''saiwimiz'' "sea (dat. pl.)" > *''sǣƿum'' > OE ''sǣm''.
*
Back mutation: Short ''e'', ''i'' and (in Mercian only) ''a'' are sometimes broken to short ''eo'', ''io'', and ''ea'' when a back vowel follows in the next syllable.
** Hence ''seofon'' "seven" < PG ''*sebun'', ''mioluc, meoluc'' "milk" < PG ''*meluks''.
*
Palatal umlaut: Short ''e, eo, io'' become ''i'' (occasionally ''ie'') before ''hs'', ''ht''.
** Hence ''riht'' "right" (cf.
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
''recht''), ''siex'' "six" (cf. German ''sechs'').
* Vowel reductions in unstressed syllables:
** became in final syllables, but usually appears as ''o'' in medial syllables (although ''a'' and ''u'' both appear).
** and (if not deleted by high-vowel loss) became in final syllables.
** normally became in a final syllable except when absolutely word-final.
** In medial syllables, short are deleted; short are deleted following a
long syllable
In linguistics, syllable weight is the concept that syllables pattern together according to the number and/or duration of segments in the rime. In classical Indo-European verse, as developed in Greek, Sanskrit, and Latin, distinctions of syllable ...
but usually remain following a short syllable (except in some present-tense verb forms), merging to in the process; and long vowels are shortened.
* are unrounded to , respectively. This occurred within the literary period.
** Some Old English dialects retained the rounded vowels, however.
* Early pre-cluster shortening: Vowels were shortened when falling immediately before either three consonances or the combination of two consonants and two additional syllables in the word.
** Thus, OE ''gāst'' > ModE ''ghost'', but OE ''găstliċ'' > ModE ''ghastly'' (ā > ă) and OE ''crīst'' > ModE ''Christ'', but OE ''crĭstesmæsse'' > ModE ''Christmas'' (ī > ĭ).
** Probably occurred in the seventh century as evidenced by eighth century Anglo-Saxon missionaries' translation into Old Low German, "Gospel" as ''Gotspel,'' lit. "God news" not expected ''*Guotspel,'' "Good news" due to ''gōdspell'' > ''gŏdspell.''
* and were lowered to and between 800 and 900 AD.
* Initial became in late Old English. This occurred within the literary period, as evidenced by shifting patterns in
alliterative verse
In prosody, alliterative verse is a form of verse that uses alliteration as the principal ornamental device to help indicate the underlying metrical structure, as opposed to other devices such as rhyme. The most commonly studied traditions of ...
.
The Middle English Period
This period is estimated to be c. 900–1400.
*
Homorganic lengthening: Vowels were lengthened before , , , , probably also , , , when not followed by a third consonant or two consonants and two syllables.
** This probably occurred around AD 1000.
** Later on, many of these vowels were shortened again; but evidence from the ''
Ormulum
The ''Ormulum'' or ''Orrmulum'' is a twelfth-century work of biblical exegesis, written by an Augustinian canon named Orm (or Ormin) and consisting of just under 19,000 lines of early Middle English verse. Because of the unique phonemic orthog ...
'' shows that this lengthening was once quite general.
** Remnants persist in the Modern English pronunciations of words such as ''child'' (but not ''children'', since a third consonant follows), ''field'' (plus ''yield'', ''wield'', ''shield''), ''old'' (but not ''alderman'' as it is followed by at least two syllables), ''climb'', ''find'' (plus ''mind'', ''kind'', ''bind'', etc.), ''long'' and ''strong'' (but not ''length'' and ''strength''), ''fiend'', ''found'' (plus ''hound'', ''bound'', etc.).
*
Pre-cluster shortening: Vowels were shortened when followed by two or more consonants, except when lengthened as above.
** This occurred in two stages, the first stage occurring already in late Old English and affecting only vowels followed by three or more consonants, or two or more consonants when two syllables followed (an early form of
trisyllabic laxing
Trisyllabic laxing, or trisyllabic shortening, is any of three processes in English in which tense vowels (long vowels or diphthongs) become lax (short monophthongs) if they are followed by two or more syllables, at least the first of which is un ...
).
*
Diphthong smoothing: Inherited height-harmonic diphthongs were monophthongized by the loss of the second component, with the length remaining the same.
** and initially became and .
** and initially became and .
*
Middle English stressed vowel changes:
** (from Old English ) and became and , respectively.
** (from Old English ) and merged into .
** New front-rounded and (from Old English ) were unrounded to and .
** and were unrounded to and .
* became or , depending on surrounding vowels.
* New diphthongs formed from vowels followed by or (including from former ).
** Length distinctions were eliminated in these diphthongs, yielding diphthongs plus borrowed from French.
**
Middle English breaking: Diphthongs also formed by the insertion of a glide or (after back and front vowels, respectively) preceding .
* Mergers of new diphthongs:
** Early on, high-mid diphthongs were raised: merged with (hence ''eye'' < OE ''ēġe'' rhymes with ''rye'' < *''riġe'' < OE ''ryġe''), merged with and merged with (hence ''rue'' < OE ''hrēoƿan'' rhymes with ''hue'' < OE ''hīƿ'' and ''new'' < OE ''nīƿe'').
** In
Late Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...
, and merge as , so that ''vain'' and ''vein'' are homophones (the
''vein''–''vain'' merger).
*
Trisyllabic laxing
Trisyllabic laxing, or trisyllabic shortening, is any of three processes in English in which tense vowels (long vowels or diphthongs) become lax (short monophthongs) if they are followed by two or more syllables, at least the first of which is un ...
: Shortening of stressed vowels when two syllables followed.
** This results in pronunciation variants in Modern English such as ''divine'' vs ''divinity'' and ''south'' vs. ''southern'' (OE ''sūðerne'').
* Middle English
open syllable lengthening
Open syllable lengthening, in linguistics, is the process by which short vowels become long in an open syllable. It occurs in many languages at a phonetic or allophonic level, and no meaningful distinction in length is made. However, as it became ...
: Vowels were usually lengthened in open syllables (13th century), except when
trisyllabic laxing
Trisyllabic laxing, or trisyllabic shortening, is any of three processes in English in which tense vowels (long vowels or diphthongs) become lax (short monophthongs) if they are followed by two or more syllables, at least the first of which is un ...
would apply.
*
Reduction and loss of unstressed vowels: Remaining unstressed vowels merged into .
** Starting around 1400 AD, is lost in final syllables.
* Initial clusters , , were reduced by loss of .
* Voiced fricatives
became independent phonemes through borrowing and other sound changes.
* before back vowel becomes ; becomes .
**
Modern English ''sword'', ''answer'', ''lamb''.
** in ''swore'' is due to analogy with ''swear.''
* The cluster, present in words imported from
Norman
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries
** People or things connected with the Norm ...
, is
deaffricated, and merges with (which had perhaps been
apical
Apical means "pertaining to an apex". It may refer to:
*Apical ancestor, refers to the last common ancestor of an entire group, such as a species (biology) or a clan (anthropology)
*Apical (anatomy), an anatomical term of location for features loc ...
in medieval times, as in closely related
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
and
Low German
:
:
:
:
:
(70,000)
(30,000)
(8,000)
, familycolor = Indo-European
, fam2 = Germanic
, fam3 = West Germanic
, fam4 = North Sea Germanic
, ancestor = Old Saxon
, ancestor2 = Middle L ...
), thus merging ''sell'' and ''cell''.
** But unlike French, and are fully preserved.
Up to Shakespeare's English
This period is estimated to be c. AD 1400–1600.
*
H-loss completed: (written ''gh'') lost in most dialects, so that e.g.
''taught'' and ''taut'' become homophones, likewise ''bow'' (meaning "bend") and ''bough''.
* and when not followed by a vowel undergo
mutations
In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA or viral replication, mi ...
:
** Before , a
coronal consonant
Coronals are consonants articulated with the flexible front part of the tongue. Among places of articulation, only the coronal consonants can be divided into as many articulation types: apical (using the tip of the tongue), laminal (using the bla ...
or word-finally, they are diphthongized to and . (By later changes, they become and , as in modern ''salt, tall, bolt, roll''.) After this, the combinations and lose their in most accents, affecting words like ''talk'', ''caulk'', and ''folk''. Words acquired after this change (such as ''talc'') were not affected.
** Before , the becomes silent, so that ''half'' and ''calf'' are pronounced with , and ''salve'' and ''halve'' are pronounced with . is exempt, so that ''solve'' keeps its . is not wholly exempt, as the traditional pronunciation of ''golf'' was .
** Before , become , as in ''alms'', ''balm'', ''calm'', ''palm''; ''Holmes''.
** Some words have irregular pronunciations, e.g. from non-standard dialects (''salmon'') or spelling pronunciations (''falcon'' in
American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...
).
* Short develop into lax
*
Great Vowel Shift
The Great Vowel Shift was a series of changes in the pronunciation of the English language that took place primarily between 1400 and 1700, beginning in southern England and today having influenced effectively all dialects of English. Through ...
; all long vowels raised or diphthongized.
** become , respectively.
** become , respectively.
** become or , later and .
** New developed from old (see below).
*** Thus, effectively rotated in-place.
** Later, the new are shifted again to in
Early Modern English
Early Modern English or Early New English (sometimes abbreviated EModE, EMnE, or ENE) is the stage of the English language from the beginning of the Tudor period to the English Interregnum and Restoration, or from the transition from Middle E ...
, causing merger of former with ; but the two are still distinguished in spelling as ''ea'', ''ee''. the meet-meat merger (see below)
*
Initial cluster reductions:
** merges into ; hence ''rap'' and ''wrap'' become homophones.
* Doubled consonants reduced to single consonants.
*
Loss of most remaining diphthongs.
** became , merging with the vowel in ''broad'' and the of the lot–cloth split below.
** The
long mid mergers: are raised to , eventually merging with , so that
''pane'' and ''pain'', and
''toe'' and ''tow'', become homophones in most accents.
** The above two mergers did not occur in many regional dialects as late as the 20th century (e.g.
Northern England
Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North Country, or simply the North, is the northern area of England. It broadly corresponds to the former borders of Angle Northumbria, the Anglo-Scandinavian Kingdom of Jorvik, and the ...
,
East Anglia
East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...
,
South Wales
South Wales ( cy, De Cymru) is a loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire, south Wales extends westwards ...
, and even
Newfoundland
Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...
).
**
merge to , so that ''dew'' (
EME <
OE ''dēaƿ''), ''duke'' (EME <
Old French
Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...
''duc'' ) and ''new'' (EME < OE ''nīƿe'') now have the same vowel.
*** This would become in standard varieties of English, and later still in some cases through
"Yod-dropping".
*** remains in
Welsh English
Welsh English ( cy, Saesneg Gymreig) comprises the dialects of English spoken by Welsh people. The dialects are significantly influenced by Welsh grammar and often include words derived from Welsh. In addition to the distinctive words and gr ...
and some other non-standard varieties.
** and merge to // (today ), the only Middle English diphthong that remains in the modern standard English varieties.
Up to the American–British split
This period is estimated to be c. AD 1600–1725.
* At some preceding time after
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
, all become .
** Evidence from
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
shows that, at that point, the pronunciation occurred only before a consonant.
**
Scottish English
Scottish English ( gd, Beurla Albannach) is the set of varieties of the English language spoken in Scotland. The transregional, standardised variety is called Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English (SSE). Scottish Standard ...
has consistently.
*/p t k/ develop aspirated allophones /pʰ tʰ kʰ/ when they occur alone at the beginning of stressed syllables.
*
Initial cluster reductions:
** both merge into ; hence ''gnat'' and ''Nat'' become homophones; likewise ''not'' and ''knot''.
* The
foot–strut split
Most dialects of modern English have two close back vowels: the near-close near-back rounded vowel found in words like ''foot'', and the close back rounded vowel (realized as central in many dialects) found in words like ''goose''. The vowel ...
: In southern England, becomes unrounded and eventually lowered unless preceded by a labial and followed by a non-velar. This gives ''put'' but ''cut'' and ''buck'' . This distinction later become phonemicized by an influx of words shortened from to both before (''flood, blood, glove'') and after (''good, hood, book, soot, took'') this split.
*
''Ng''-coalescence: Reduction of in most areas produces new phoneme .
* In some words, coalesce to produce , and the new phoneme , a sound change known as
''yod''-coalescence, a type of
palatalization
Palatalization may refer to:
*Palatalization (phonetics), the phonetic feature of palatal secondary articulation
*Palatalization (sound change)
Palatalization is a historical-linguistic sound change that results in a palatalized articulation ...
: ''nature'', ''mission'', ''procedure'', ''vision''.
** These combinations mostly occurred in borrowings from
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
and
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
.
** Pronunciation of ''-tion'' was from
Old French
Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...
, thus becoming .
** This sound mutation still occurs
allophonically in Modern English: ''did you'' → ''didjou''.
* /ɔ/ as in lot, top, and fox, is lowered towards /ɒ/.
* Long vowels , from
ME , inconsistently shortened, especially before : ''sweat'', ''head'', ''bread'', ''breath'', ''death'', ''leather'', ''weather''
** Shortening of occurred at differing time periods, both before and after the centralizing of to ; hence ''blood'' versus ''good'' : also ''foot'', ''soot'', ''blood'', ''good''.
* The
''Meet''–''meat'' merger /eː/ (ea) raises to /iː/ (ee) Thus ''Meet'' and ''meat'' become homophones in most accents. Words with (ea) that were shortened (see above) avoided the merger, also some words like steak and great simply remained with an /eː/ (which later becomes /eɪ/ in most varieties) merging with words like name, so now death, great, and meat have three different vowels.
* Changes affect short vowels in many varieties before an at the end of a word or before a consonant
** as in ''start'' and as in ''north'' are lengthened.
** ''(the
last of these often deriving from earlier before , as in
worm and "word")'' merge before , so all varieties of
ModE
Mode ( la, modus meaning "manner, tune, measure, due measure, rhythm, melody") may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* '' MO''D''E (magazine)'', a defunct U.S. women's fashion magazine
* ''Mode'' magazine, a fictional fashion magazine which is ...
except for some
Scottish English
Scottish English ( gd, Beurla Albannach) is the set of varieties of the English language spoken in Scotland. The transregional, standardised variety is called Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English (SSE). Scottish Standard ...
and some Irish English have the same vowel in ''fern'', ''fir'' and ''fur''.
** Also affects vowels in derived forms, so that ''starry'' no longer rhymes with ''marry''.
* , as in ''cat'' and ''trap'', fronted to in many areas. In certain other words it becomes , for example ''father'' . is actually a new phoneme deriving from this and words like ''calm'' (see above).
** Most varieties of northern
English English
The English language spoken and written in England encompasses a diverse range of accents and dialects. The language forms part of the broader British English, along with other varieties in the United Kingdom. Terms used to refer to the ...
,
Welsh English
Welsh English ( cy, Saesneg Gymreig) comprises the dialects of English spoken by Welsh people. The dialects are significantly influenced by Welsh grammar and often include words derived from Welsh. In addition to the distinctive words and gr ...
and
Scottish English
Scottish English ( gd, Beurla Albannach) is the set of varieties of the English language spoken in Scotland. The transregional, standardised variety is called Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English (SSE). Scottish Standard ...
retain in ''cat'', ''trap'' etc.
* The
''lot''–''cloth'' split: in some varieties, lengthening of before voiced velars (, ) (
American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...
only) and voiceless fricatives (, , ). Hence
American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...
''long, dog, loss, cloth, off'' with (except in dialects with the
cot–caught merger
The ''cot''–''caught'' merger or merger, formally known in linguistics as the low back merger, is a sound change present in some dialects of English where speakers do not distinguish the vowel phonemes in "cot" and "caught". "Cot" and "caugh ...
where the split is made completely mute).
* becomes in many words spelt ''oo'': for example, ''book, wool, good, foot''. This is partially resisted in the northern and western variants of English English, where words ending in -ook might still use .
After American–British split, up to World War II
This period is estimated to be c. AD 1725–1945.
* Split into
rhotic and non-rhotic accents
Rhoticity in English is the pronunciation of the historical rhotic consonant by English speakers. The presence or absence of rhoticity is one of the most prominent distinctions by which varieties of English can be classified. In rhotic varieti ...
: syllable-final is lost in the
English of England, producing new centering diphthongs (''square''), (''near''), (''cord''), (''sore''), (''cure''), and the highly unusual phoneme (''nurse'').
** The Southern Hemisphere varieties of English (
Australian
Australian(s) may refer to:
Australia
* Australia, a country
* Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia
** European Australians
** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists
** Aboriginal Au ...
,
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
, and
South African __NOTOC__
South African may relate to:
* The nation of South Africa
* South African Airways
* South African English
* South African people
* Languages of South Africa
* Southern Africa
Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the Afric ...
) are also non-rhotic.
** Non-rhotic accents of North American English include New York City, Boston, and
older Southern.
*
Unrounding of : as in ''lot'' and ''bother'' is unrounded in
Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...
, the
West Country
The West Country (occasionally Westcountry) is a loosely defined area of South West England, usually taken to include all, some, or parts of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, and, less commonly, Wiltshire, Gloucesters ...
, in
Hiberno-English
Hiberno-English (from Latin ''Hibernia'': "Ireland"), and in ga, Béarla na hÉireann. or Irish English, also formerly Anglo-Irish, is the set of English dialects native to the island of Ireland (including both the Republic of Ireland a ...
and most of
North American English
North American English (NAmE, NAE) is the most generalized variety of the English language as spoken in the United States and Canada. Because of their related histories and cultures, plus the similarities between the pronunciations (accents), v ...
** The
Boston accent
A Boston accent is a local accent of Eastern New England English, native specifically to the city of Boston and its suburbs. Northeastern New England English is classified as traditionally including New Hampshire, Maine, and all of eastern Massa ...
is an exception where the vowel is still rounded.
** In
North American English
North American English (NAmE, NAE) is the most generalized variety of the English language as spoken in the United States and Canada. Because of their related histories and cultures, plus the similarities between the pronunciations (accents), v ...
, is typically also lengthened to merge with in ''father'', resulting in the
''father''–''bother'' merger: so that most North American dialects only have the vowel .
*** Out of North American dialects that have unrounded , the only notable exception is
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.
* The
trap–bath split
The – split is a Phonological change#Phonemic splits, vowel split that occurs mainly in English language in Southern England, Southern English English, English in England (including Received Pronunciation), Australian English, New Zealand Engl ...
: in
Southern England
Southern England, or the South of England, also known as the South, is an area of England consisting of its southernmost part, with cultural, economic and political differences from the Midlands and the North. Officially, the area includes G ...
inconsistently becomes before and or followed by another consonant.
** Hence
RP has ''pass, glass, grass, class'' with but ''mass, crass'' with .
** All six words rhyme in most
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
,
Scottish English
Scottish English ( gd, Beurla Albannach) is the set of varieties of the English language spoken in Scotland. The transregional, standardised variety is called Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English (SSE). Scottish Standard ...
and
Northern England English
The English language in Northern England has been shaped by the region's history of settlement and migration, and today encompasses a group of related dialects known as Northern England English (or, simply, Northern English in the United Kingd ...
.
* The long vowels from the Great Vowel Shift become diphthongs in many varieties of English, though not in Scottish and Northern England English.
* Voicing of to results in the
''wine''–''whine'' merger in most varieties of English, aside from Scottish,
Irish
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
,
Southern American, and
New England English
New England English is, collectively, the various distinct dialects and varieties of American English originating in the New England area. Most of eastern and central New England once spoke the " Yankee dialect", some of whose accent features st ...
.
* In
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
,
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
,
Australian
Australian(s) may refer to:
Australia
* Australia, a country
* Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia
** European Australians
** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists
** Aboriginal Au ...
and to some degree
New Zealand English
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
, are
flapped or
voiced
Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced.
The term, however, is used to refer ...
to between vowels.
** Generally, between vowels or the syllabic consonants , when the following syllable is completely unstressed: ''butter'', ''bottle'', ''bottom'' .
** But before syllabic is pronounced as a glottal stop, so ''cotton'' .
*
''Happy''-tensing (the term is from Wells 1982): final
lax
Los Angeles International Airport , commonly referred to as LAX (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary international airport serving Los Angeles, California and its surrounding metropolitan area. LAX is located in the W ...
becomes tense in words like ''happ''. Absent from some dialects.
*
''Line''–''loin'' merger: merger between the diphthongs and in some accents of Southern England English, Hiberno-English, Newfoundland English, and Caribbean English.
*
''H''-dropping begins in England and
Welsh English
Welsh English ( cy, Saesneg Gymreig) comprises the dialects of English spoken by Welsh people. The dialects are significantly influenced by Welsh grammar and often include words derived from Welsh. In addition to the distinctive words and gr ...
, but this does not affect the upper-class southern accent that developed into
Received Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation (RP) is the Accent (sociolinguistics), accent traditionally regarded as the Standard language, standard and most Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestigious form of spoken British English. For over a century, there has been ...
, nor does it affect the far north of England or East Anglia.
After World War II
Some of these changes are in progress.
* Restoration of post-vocalic in some non-rhotic accents of
Southern American English
Southern American English or Southern U.S. English is a regional dialect or collection of dialects of American English spoken throughout the Southern United States, though concentrated increasingly in more rural areas, and spoken primarily by Wh ...
* Changes to the low front vowel
**
/æ/ raising
In the sociolinguistics of the English language, raising or short-''a'' raising is a phenomenon by which the "short ''a''" vowel , the vowel (found in such words as ''ash, bath, man, lamp, pal, rag, sack, trap,'' etc.), is pronounced with a rai ...
: raising, lengthening or diphthongization of in some varieties of
American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...
in particular contexts, especially before
nasal consonant
In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast majorit ...
s, resulting in . Some linguistics research suggests that /æ/ raising existed since the American colonial era, due to relic evidence of this feature in some of the Northern and Midland U.S.
**
Bad–lad split: the lengthening of to in some words, found especially in
Australian English
Australian English (AusE, AusEng, AuE, AuEng, en-AU) is the set of varieties of the English language native to Australia. It is the country's common language and ''de facto'' national language; while Australia has no official language, Engli ...
and to a degree in Southern English English.
** Raising to in
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
and
South African English
South African English (SAfrE, SAfrEng, SAE, en-ZA) is the set of English language dialects native to South Africans.
History
British settlers first arrived in the South African region in 1795, when they established a military holding op ...
.
** Lowering to in
Received Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation (RP) is the Accent (sociolinguistics), accent traditionally regarded as the Standard language, standard and most Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestigious form of spoken British English. For over a century, there has been ...
,
Canadian English
Canadian English (CanE, CE, en-CA) encompasses the varieties of English native to Canada. According to the 2016 census, English was the first language of 19.4 million Canadians or 58.1% of the total population; the remainder spoke French ( ...
, and
Western American English
Western American English (also known as Western U.S. English) is a variety of American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English languag ...
(except before nasal consonants).
*
Lock–loch merger: the replacement of with among some younger
Scottish English
Scottish English ( gd, Beurla Albannach) is the set of varieties of the English language spoken in Scotland. The transregional, standardised variety is called Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English (SSE). Scottish Standard ...
speakers from
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
br>
Annexe 4: Linguistic Variables
*
''Pin''–''pen'' merger: the raising of to before nasal consonants in
Southern American English
Southern American English or Southern U.S. English is a regional dialect or collection of dialects of American English spoken throughout the Southern United States, though concentrated increasingly in more rural areas, and spoken primarily by Wh ...
and southwestern varieties of
Hiberno-English
Hiberno-English (from Latin ''Hibernia'': "Ireland"), and in ga, Béarla na hÉireann. or Irish English, also formerly Anglo-Irish, is the set of English dialects native to the island of Ireland (including both the Republic of Ireland a ...
.
*
Horse-hoarse merger
In English, many vowel shifts affect only vowels followed by in rhotic dialects, or vowels that were historically followed by that has been elided in non-rhotic dialects. Most of them involve the merging of vowel distinctions and so fewer vowe ...
/ɔr/ and /or/ merge in many varieties of English
*
Vowel mergers before intervocalic /r/ in most of North America (resistance occurs mainly on the east coast):
**
Mary–marry–merry merger
In English, many vowel shifts affect only vowels followed by in rhotic dialects, or vowels that were historically followed by that has been elided in non-rhotic dialects. Most of them involve the merging of vowel distinctions and so fewer vowe ...
: /eɪr/ and /ær/ merge to /ɛr/.
**
Hurry-furry merger
In English, many vowel shifts affect only vowels followed by in rhotic dialects, or vowels that were historically followed by that has been elided in non-rhotic dialects. Most of them involve the merging of vowel distinctions and so fewer vowe ...
: /ʌr/ and /ɜr/ merge to /ɚ/.
**
Mirror-nearer merger
In English, many vowel shifts affect only vowels followed by in rhotic dialects, or vowels that were historically followed by that has been elided in non-rhotic dialects. Most of them involve the merging of vowel distinctions and so fewer vowe ...
/ɪr/ and /ir/ merge or are very similar, the merged vowel can be quite variable.
* Fronting of back vowels:
** In many varieties of English, is fronted to , , or
*** Resistance occurs in Northern American English and New York City English.
** In British English and some American English, is fronted to , , or
*** Resistance occurs in
Northern American English
Northern American English or Northern U.S. English (also, Northern AmE) is a class of historically related American English dialects, spoken by predominantly white Americans, in much of the Great Lakes region and some of the Northeast region wi ...
and
New York City English
New York City English, or Metropolitan New York English, is a regional dialect of American English spoken by many people in New York City and much of its surrounding metropolitan area. It is described by sociolinguist William Labov as the most ...
.
** In many varieties /ʌ/ is fronted to
̟ or
*
T-glottalization
In English phonology, ''t''-glottalization or ''t''-glottalling is a sound change in certain English dialects and accents, particularly in the United Kingdom, that causes the phoneme to be pronounced as the glottal stop in certain positions. ...
becomes increasingly widespread in Great Britain.
* Various treatments of the ''th'' sounds, the dental fricatives :
**
''Th''-fronting: merger with the labiodental fricatives
**
''Th''-stopping: shift to dental stops , or merger with alveolar stops
**
''Th''-debuccalization:
lenition
In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them more sonority hierarchy, sonorous. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronic analysis, s ...
to
**
''Th''-alveolarization: merger with alveolar fricatives
*
''L''-vocalization: changes to an approximant or vowel, such as , or . This occurs in
Estuary English
Estuary English is an English accent associated with the area along the River Thames and its estuary, including London. Phonetician John C. Wells proposed a definition of Estuary English as "Standard English spoken with the accent of the southea ...
and other dialects.
*
''Yod''-dropping: loss of in some consonant clusters. Though it occurs in some environments in many British English dialects, it is most extensive in American and (in younger speakers) Canadian English.
*
Northern Cities Vowel Shift
Inland Northern (American) English, also known in American linguistics as the Inland North or Great Lakes dialect, is an American English dialect spoken primarily by White Americans in a geographic band reaching from the major urban areas of U ...
in
Inland Northern American English
Inland Northern (American) English, also known in American linguistics as the Inland North or Great Lakes dialect, is an American English dialect spoken primarily by White Americans in a geographic band reaching from the major urban areas of Up ...
:
** raising and tensing of (in reversal
[Dinkin, Aaron (2017).]
Escaping the TRAP: Losing the Northern Cities Shift in Real Time (with Anja Thiel)
. Talk presented at NWAV 46, Madison, Wisc., November 2017. in many locations before non-nasal consonants)
** fronting of (also somewhat in reversal)
** lowering of
**backing and lowering of
** backing of
** lowering and backing of
* Changes to centering diphthongs in non-rhotic varieties of English (England and
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
):
** smooth to : ''near'', ''square'', ''start'', ''north''.
** smooths to , breaks to , or lowers and merges with (
''pour''–''poor'' merger): ''
**Triphthongs smooth to or (
''tower''–''tire'', ''tower''–''tar'' and ''tire''–''tar'' mergers).
*
Cot–caught merger
The ''cot''–''caught'' merger or merger, formally known in linguistics as the low back merger, is a sound change present in some dialects of English where speakers do not distinguish the vowel phonemes in "cot" and "caught". "Cot" and "caugh ...
: lowering of to in
Western American English
Western American English (also known as Western U.S. English) is a variety of American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English languag ...
, some dialects in
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
, and dialects scattered in
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
. This sound change is still in progress.
Examples of sound changes
Summary of vowel developments
Development of Middle English vowels
Monophthongs
This table describes the main historical developments of English vowels in the last 1000 years, beginning with late
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
and focusing on the
Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...
and
Modern English changes leading to the current forms. It provides a lot of detail about the changes taking place in the last 600 years (since
Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...
), while omitting any detail in the
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
and earlier periods. For more detail about the changes in the first millennium AD, see the section on the
development of Old English vowels.
This table omits the
history of Middle English diphthongs; see that link for a table summarizing the developments.
The table is organized around the pronunciation of Late Middle English c. 1400 AD (the time of
Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...
) and the modern spelling system, which dates from the same time and closely approximates the pronunciation of the time. Modern English spelling originates in the spelling conventions of Middle English scribes and its modern form was largely determined by
William Caxton
William Caxton ( – ) was an English merchant, diplomat and writer. He is thought to be the first person to introduce a printing press into England, in 1476, and as a printer (publisher), printer to be the first English retailer of printed boo ...
, the first English
printer
Printer may refer to:
Technology
* Printer (publishing), a person or a company
* Printer (computing), a hardware device
* Optical printer for motion picture films
People
* Nariman Printer ( fl. c. 1940), Indian journalist and activist
* Jame ...
(beginning in 1476).
As an example, the vowel spelled corresponds to two Middle English pronunciations: in most circumstances, but long in an
open syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...
, i.e. followed by a single consonant and then a vowel, notated ''aCV'' in the spelling column. (This discussion ignores the effect of
trisyllabic laxing
Trisyllabic laxing, or trisyllabic shortening, is any of three processes in English in which tense vowels (long vowels or diphthongs) become lax (short monophthongs) if they are followed by two or more syllables, at least the first of which is un ...
.) The lengthened variant is due to the Early Middle English process of
open-syllable lengthening; this is indicated by (leng.). Prior to that time, both vowels were pronounced the same, as a short vowel ; this is reflected by the fact that there is a single merged field corresponding to both Middle English sounds in the Late Old English column (the first column). However, this earlier Middle English vowel is itself the merger of a number of different Anglian Old English sounds:
# the short vowels indicated in Old English spelling as , and ;
# the long equivalents , , and often when directly followed by two or more consonants (indicated by ''ā+CC'', ''ǣ+CC'', etc.);
# occasionally, the long vowel when directly followed by two consonants, particularly when this vowel corresponded to West Saxon Old English . (Middle English, and hence Modern English, largely derives from the Anglian dialect of Old English, but some words are derived from the West Saxon dialect of Old English, because the border between the two dialects ran through the London area. The West Saxon dialect, not the Anglian dialect, is the "standard" dialect described in typical reference works on Old English.)
Moving forward in time, the two Middle English vowels and correspond directly to the two vowels and , respectively, in the Early Modern English of c. 1600 AD (the time of
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
). However, each vowel has split into a number of different pronunciations in Modern English, depending on the phonological context. The short , for example, has split into seven different vowels, all still spelled but pronounced differently:
# when not in any of the contexts indicated below, as in ''man'', ''sack'', ''wax'', etc.
# A vowel pronounced in
General American
General American English or General American (abbreviated GA or GenAm) is the umbrella accent of American English spoken by a majority of Americans. In the United States it is often perceived as lacking any distinctly regional, ethnic, or so ...
(GA) and in
Received Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation (RP) is the Accent (sociolinguistics), accent traditionally regarded as the Standard language, standard and most Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestigious form of spoken British English. For over a century, there has been ...
(RP) when preceded by and not followed by the velar consonants , as in ''swan'', ''wash'', ''wallow'', etc. (General American is the standard pronunciation in the U.S. and Received Pronunciation is the most prestigious pronunciation in Britain. In both cases, these are the pronunciations typically found in news broadcasts and among the middle and upper classes.)
# (GA) or (RP) when followed by a written , as in ''hard'', ''car'', etc. (This does not include words like ''care'', where the was pronounced as long in Middle English.)
# But (GA) or (RP) when both preceded by and followed by written , as in ''war'', ''swarm'', etc.
# when followed by an plus either a consonant or the end of a word, as in ''small'', ''walk'', etc. (In the case of ''walk'', ''talk'', ''chalk'', etc. the has dropped out, but this is not indicated here. Words like ''rally'', ''shallow'' and ''swallow'' are not covered here because the is followed by a vowel; instead, earlier rules apply. Nor are words like ''male'' covered, which had long in Middle English.)
# when followed by , as in ''palm'', ''calm'', etc. (The has dropped out in pronunciation.)
# In RP only, the pronunciation is often found when followed by an
unvoiced
In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies v ...
fricative
A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in t ...
, i.e. , or (but not ), as in ''glass'', ''after'', ''path'', etc. This does not apply to GA and also unpredictably does not affect a number of words of the same form, e.g. ''crass'', ''math'', etc.
Diphthongs
This table describes the main developments of
Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...
diphthongs
A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...
, starting with the
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
sound sequences that produced them (sequences of vowels and ''g'', ''h'' or ''ƿ'') and ending with their
Modern English equivalents. Many special cases have been ignored.
Development of Old English vowels
See also
*
English language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
*
History of the English language
English is a West Germanic language that originated from Ingvaeonic languages brought to Britain in the mid-5th to 7th centuries AD by Anglo-Saxon migrants from what is now northwest Germany, southern Denmark and the Netherlands. The Anglo-Sax ...
*
English phonology
Like many other languages, English has wide variation in pronunciation, both historically and from dialect to dialect. In general, however, the regional dialects of English share a largely similar (but not identical) phonological system. Among ...
*
Phonological history of English consonants
This article describes those aspects of the phonological history of the English language which concern consonants.
Consonant clusters
H-cluster reductions
* Reduction of /hw/ – to /h/ in a few words (such as ''who''), but usually to , for t ...
**
Phonological history of English consonant clusters
The phonological history of the English language includes various changes in the phonology of consonant clusters.
H-cluster reductions
The H-cluster reductions are various consonant reductions that have occurred in the history of English, inv ...
*
Phonological history of English vowels
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
**
Phonological history of English short A
Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
**
Phonological history of English low back vowels
The phonology of the open back vowels of the English language has undergone changes both overall and with regional variations, through Old and Middle English to the present. The sounds heard in modern English were significantly influenced by the ...
**
Phonological history of English high back vowels
Most dialects of modern English have two close back vowels: the near-close near-back rounded vowel found in words like ''foot'', and the close back rounded vowel (realized as central in many dialects) found in words like ''goose''. The vowel ...
**
Phonological history of English high front vowels
The close and mid-height front vowels of English (vowels of ''i'' and ''e'' type) have undergone a variety of changes over time and often vary by dialect.
Developments involving long vowels
Until Great Vowel Shift
Middle English had a long ...
**
English-language vowel changes before historic /r/
In English language, English, many vowel shifts affect only vowels followed by in rhotic and non-rhotic accents, rhotic dialects, or vowels that were historically followed by that has been elided in non-rhotic dialects. Most of them involve the ...
**
English-language vowel changes before historic /l/
*
Scottish vowel length rule
The Scottish Vowel Length Rule (also known as Aitken's law after A. J. Aitken, the Scottish linguist who formulated it) describes how vowel length in Scots, Scottish English, and, to some extent, Ulster English and Geordie is conditioned by the ...
*
Phonological history of Scots
This is a presentation of the phonological history of the Scots language.
Scots has its origins in Old English (OE) via early Northern Middle English; though loanwords from Old Norse and Romance sources are common, especially from ecclesiasti ...
Notes
References
* .
* .
* .
* .
* .
* .
* .
* .
* .
* .
* .
* .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Phonological History Of English
History of the English language
English phonology
Splits and mergers in English phonology