Phonological history of Old English

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 developments prior to the Old English period, see Proto-Germanic language.

Phonetic transcription

Various conventions are used below for describing Old English words, reconstructed parent forms of various sorts and reconstructed Proto- West-Germanic (PWG), Proto-Germanic (PG) and Proto-Indo-European (PIE) forms:
*Forms in ''italics'' denote either Old English words as they appear in spelling or reconstructed forms of various sorts. Where phonemic ambiguity occurs in Old English spelling, extra diacritics are used (''ċ'', ''ġ'', ''ā'', ''ǣ'', ''ē'', ''ī'', ''ō'', ''ū'', ''ȳ'').
*Forms between /slashes/ or racketsindicate, respectively, broad (phonemic) or narrow ( allophonic) pronunciation. Sounds are indicated using standard IPA notation.

The following table indicates the correspondence between spelling and pronunciation transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet. For details of the relevant sound systems, see Proto-Germanic phonology and Old English phonology.

¹Proto-Germanic had two allophones each: stops and fricatives . The stops occurred:
#following a nasal;
#when geminated;
#word-initially, for and only;
#following , for only.
By West Germanic times, was pronounced as a stop in all positions. The fricative allophones are sometimes indicated in reconstructed forms to make it easier to understand the development of Old English consonants. Old English retained the allophony , which in case of palatalisation (see below) became . Later, non-palatalized became word-initially. The allophony was broken when merged with , the voiced allophone of .

Phonological processes

A number of phonological processes affected Old English in the period before the earliest documentation. The processes affected especially vowels and are the reason that many Old English words look significantly different from related words in languages such as Old High German, which is much closer to the common West Germanic ancestor of both languages. The processes took place chronologically in roughly the order described below (with uncertainty in ordering as noted).

Absorption of nasals before fricatives

This is the source of such alternations as modern English ''five'', ''mouth'', ''us'' versus German ''fünf'', ''Mund'', ''uns''. For detail see Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law.

First a-fronting

The Anglo-Frisian languages underwent a sound change in their development from Proto-West-Germanic by which ''ā'' , unless followed by or nasalized, was fronted to ''ǣ'' . This was similar to the later process affecting short ''a'', which is known as Anglo-Frisian brightening or First Fronting (see below). Nasalized ''ą̄'' and the sequences ''ān, ām'' were unaffected and were later raised to ''ǭ, ōn, ōm'' (see below). (This may be taken to imply that a nasal consonant ''n, m'' caused a preceding long vowel to nasalise.) In the non-West-Saxon dialects of English (including the Anglian dialect underlying Modern English) the fronted vowel was further raised to ē : W.S. ''slǣpan'', ''sċēap'' (< Proto-West-Germanic ''*slāpąn'', ''*skāpă'' < Proto-Germanic ''*slēpaną'', ''skēpą'') versus Anglian ''slēpan'', ''sċēp''. The Modern English descendants ''sleep'' and ''sheep'' reflect the Anglian vowel; the West Saxon words would have developed to ''*sleap'', ''*sheap''.

The vowel affected by this change, which is reconstructed as being a low back vowel ''ā'' in Proto-West-Germanic, was the reflex of Proto-Germanic . It is possible that in Anglo-Frisian, Proto-Germanic /ɛː/ simply remained a front vowel, developing to Old English ''ǣ'' or ''ē'' without ever passing through an intermediate stage as the back vowel �ː However, borrowings such as Old English ''strǣt'' from Latin ''strāta (via)'' and the backing to ''ō'' before nasals are much easier to explain under the assumption of a common West Germanic stage ''*ā''.

Monophthongization

Proto-Germanic /ai/ was monophthongized ( smoothed) to (). This occurred after first a-fronting. For example, Proto-Germanic *''stainaz'' became Old English ''stān'' (modern ''stone'') (cf. Old Frisian ''stēn'' vs. Gothic ''stáin'', Old High German ''stein''). In many cases, the resulting was later fronted to by i-mutation: ''dǣlan'' "to divide" (cf. Old Frisian ''dēla'' vs. Gothic ''dáiljan'', Old High German ''teilen'' odern English ''deal''.
It is possible that this monophthongization occurred via the height harmonisation that produced the other diphthongs in Old English (presumably through an intermediate stage: > > ).

Second a-fronting

The second part of a-fronting, called Anglo-Frisian brightening or First Fronting, is very similar to the first part except that it affects short ''a'' instead of long ''ā''. Here ''a'' is fronted to ''æ'' unless followed by or nasalized, the same conditions as applied in the first part.

Importantly, a-fronting was blocked by ''n, m'' only in stressed syllables, not unstressed syllables, which accounts for forms like ''ġefen'' (formerly ''ġefæn'') "given" from Proto-Germanic ''*gebanaz''. However, the infinitive ''ġefan'' retains its back vowel due to ''a''-restoration (see the explanation given in that section for the similar case of ''faren'' vs. ''faran'').

Diphthong height harmonisation

Proto-Germanic had the closing diphthongs (and , an allophone of when an or followed in the next syllable). In Old English, these (except , which had been monophthongised, as noted above) developed into diphthongs of a generally less common type in which both elements are of the same height, called height-harmonic diphthongs. This process is called diphthong height harmonisation. Specifically:
* underwent a-fronting to and was then harmonised to , spelled ''ea'' (or in modern texts ''ēa'').
* was harmonised to , spelled ''eo'' (or in modern texts ''ēo'').
* was already harmonic; it became a separate phoneme , spelled ''io'' (or in modern texts ''īo''). (This interpretation is somewhat controversial; see below.)

Old English diphthongs also arose from other later processes, such as breaking, palatal diphthongisation, back mutation and i-mutation, which also gave an additional diphthong ''ie'' . The diphthongs could occur both short (monotonic) and long .

Some sources reconstruct other phonetic forms that are not height-harmonic for some or all of these Old English diphthongs. The first elements of ''ēa'', ''ēo'', ''īo'' are generally accepted to have had the qualities � (evidence for these qualities comes from the behaviour of breaking and back mutation as described below; the Middle English development of short ''ea'' into could also provide some evidence for the phonetic realisation of ''ēa''). However, the interpretations of the second elements of these diphthongs are more varied. There are analyses that treat all of these diphthongs as ending in a schwa sound � i.e. ''ēa'', ''ēo'', ''īo'' = �ə ə ə. For ''io'' and ''ie'', the height-harmonic interpretations and are controversial, with many (especially more traditional) sources assuming that the pronunciation matched the spelling (, ), and hence that these diphthongs were of the opening rather than the height-harmonic type. Late in the development of the standard West Saxon dialect, ''io'' (both long and short) merged with ''eo'', which is, in fact, one of the most noticeable differences between early Old English (c. 900) and late Old English (c. 1000).

Breaking and retraction

Vowel breaking in Old English is the diphthongization of the short front vowels to short diphthongs when followed by , or by or plus another consonant. Long similarly broke to , but only when followed by . The geminates ''rr'' and ''ll'' usually count as ''r'' or ''l'' plus another consonant, but breaking does not occur before ''ll'' produced by West Germanic gemination (the /i/ or /j/ in the following syllable prevents breaking).

were lowered to in late Old English (see above).

The exact conditions for breaking vary somewhat depending on the sound being broken:

*Short breaks before ''h, rC, lC'', where C is any consonant.
*Short breaks before ''h, rC, lh, lc, w'', i.e. compared to it is also broken before ''w'', but is broken before ''l'' only in the combination ''lh'' and sometimes ''lc''.
*Short breaks before ''h, rC, w''. However, it does not break before ''wi'', and in the Anglian dialects breaking before ''rCi'' happens only in the combination ''*rzi'' (e.g. Anglian ''iorre'' "anger" from ''*irziją'' but ''afirran'' from ''*a+firrijaną'').
*Long ''ī'' and ''ǣ'' break only before ''h''.

Examples:
*''weorpan'' "to throw" <
*''wearp'' "threw (sing.)" <
*''feoh'' "money" <
*''feaht'' "fought (sing.)" <
*''healp'' "helped (sing.)" < (but no breaking in ''helpan'' "to help" because the consonant after is not )
*''feorr'' "far" <
*''feallan'' "to fall" < (but ''tellan'' < earlier is not broken because of the following /j/)
*''eolh'' "elk" <
*''liornian, leornian'' "to learn" < earlier
*''nēah'' "near" (cf. "nigh") <
*''lēon'' "to lend" < < <

The i-mutation of broken (whether long or short) is spelled ''ie'' (possibly , see above).

Examples:
*''hwierfþ'' "turns" ( intr.) < + i-mutation < + breaking < Proto-Germanic < early Proto-Germanic
*''hwierfan'' "to turn" ( tr.) < + i-mutation < + breaking < + a-fronting < Proto-Germanic
*''nīehst'' "nearest" (cf. "next") < + i-mutation < + breaking < + a-fronting < Proto-Germanic
*''līehtan'' "to lighten" < + i-mutation < + breaking < Proto-Germanic

Note that in some dialects was backed ( retracted) to () rather than broken, when occurring in the circumstances described above that would normally trigger breaking. This happened in the dialect of Anglia that partially underlies Modern English, and explains why Old English ''ceald'' appears as Modern English "cold" (actually from Anglian Old English ''cald'') rather than "*cheald" (the expected result of ''ceald'').

Both breaking and retraction are fundamentally phenomena of assimilation to a following velar consonant. While is in fact a velar consonant, , , and are less obviously so. It is therefore assumed that, at least at the time of the occurrence of breaking and retraction (several hundred years before recorded Old English), was pronounced or similar – at least when following a vowel – and and before a consonant had a velar or retroflex quality and were already pronounced and , or similar.

A-restoration

After breaking occurred, short (and in some dialects long as well) was backed to () when there was a back vowel in the following syllable. This is called ''a-restoration'', because it partly restored original , which had earlier been fronted to (see above). (Note: The situation is complicated somewhat by a later change called second fronting, but this did not affect the standard West Saxon dialect of Old English.)

Because strong masculine and neuter nouns have back vowels in plural endings, alternations with in the singular vs. in the plural are common in this noun class:

A-restoration occurred before the *''ō'' of the weak verb suffix *''-ōj-'', although this surfaces in Old English as the front vowel ''i'', as in "to make" < *''makōjan-''.

Breaking (see above) occurred between a-fronting and a-restoration. This order is necessary to account for words like ''slēan'' "to slay" (pronounced ) from original *''slahan'': > (a-fronting) > (breaking; inhibits a-restoration) > (h-loss) > (vowel coalescence, compensatory lengthening).

A-restoration interacted in a tricky fashion with a-fronting (Anglo-Frisian brightening) to produce e.g. ''faran'' "to go" from Proto-Germanic ''*faraną'' but ''faren'' "gone" from Proto-Germanic ''*faranaz''. Basically:

Note that the key difference is in steps 3 and 4, where nasalised ''ą'' is unaffected by a-fronting even though the sequence ''an'' is in fact affected, since it occurs in an unstressed syllable. This leads to a final-syllable difference between ''a'' and ''æ'', which is transferred to the preceding syllable in step 4. The presence of back ''a'' in the stem of both forms is not directly explainable by sound change, and appears to have been the result of simple analogical levelling.

Palatalization

Palatalization of the velar consonants and occurred in certain environments, mostly involving front vowels. (The phoneme at that time had two allophones: after or when geminated, and everywhere else.) This palatalisation is similar to what occurred in Italian and Swedish. When palatalised:
* became
* became
* became
* became (a voiced palatal fricative; it would later become but not before the loss of older in certain positions discussed below)

The contexts for palatalisation were sometimes different for different sounds:
*Before , for example:
**''ċīdan'' ("to chide"), ''bēċ'' ("books", from earlier ), ''sēċan'' ("seek", from earlier ) ()
**''bryċġ'' ("bridge", from earlier West Germanic after Proto-Germanic ) ()
**''ġiefþ'' ("gives") ()
*Before other front vowels and diphthongs, in the case of word-initial and all , for example:
**''ċeorl'' ("churl"), ''ċēas'' ("chose (sg.)"), ''ċeald'' ("cold") (initial )
**''ġeaf'' ("gave"), ''ġeard'' ("yard") ()
*After (possibly with an intervening /n/), unless a back vowel followed, for example:
**''iċ'' ("I"), ''dīċ'' ("ditch, dike") ()
**In ''wicu'' ("week"), the is not affected due to the following
*For and /sk/ only, after other front vowels (), unless a back vowel followed, for example:
**''weġ'' ("way"), ''næġl'' ("nail"), ''mǣġ'' ("relative") ()
**''fisċ'' ("fish") ()
**In ''wegas'' ("ways") the is not affected due to the following
**In ''āscian'' ("ask", from earlier ) the remains
*For word-initial /sk/, always, even when followed by a back vowel or , for example:
**''sċip'' ("ship"), ''sċuldor'' ("shoulder"), ''sċort'' ("short"), ''sċrūd'' ("dress", giving modern ''shroud'') ()

The palatals and reverted to their non-palatal equivalents and when they came to stand immediately before a consonant, even if this occurred at a significantly later period, as when *''sēċiþ'' ("seeks") became ''sēcþ'', and *''senġiþ'' ("singes") became ''sengþ''.

Palatalization occurred after a-restoration and before i-mutation (although it is unclear whether it occurred before or after h-loss). Thus, it did not occur in ''galan'' "to sing" (cf. modern English ''regale''), with the first backed from due to a-restoration. Similarly, palatalisation occurred in ''dæġ'' ("day"), but not in a-restored ''dagas'' ("days"; cf. dialectal English ''dawes'' "days") or in ''dagung'' ("dawn", where the represents the reflex of unpalatalised ). Nor did it occur in ''cyning'' ("king"), ''cemban'' ("to comb") or ''gēs'' ("geese"), where the front vowels developed from earlier due to i-mutation.

In many instances where a ''ċ/c'', ''ġ/g'', or ''sċ/sc'' alternation would be expected within a paradigm, it was levelled out by analogy at some point in the history of the language. For example, the velar of ''sēcþ'' "he seeks" has replaced the palatal of ''sēċan'' "to seek" in Modern English; on the other hand, the palatalised forms of ''besēċan'' have replaced the velar forms, giving modern ''beseech''.

The sounds and had almost certainly split into distinct phonemes by Late West Saxon, the dialect in which the majority of Old English documents are written. This is suggested by such near- minimal pairs as ''drincan'' ("drink") vs. ''drenċan'' ("drench"), and ''gēs'' ("geese") vs. ''ġē'' ("you"). Nevertheless, there are few true minimal pairs, and velars and palatals often alternate with each other in ways reminiscent of allophones, for example:
*''ċēosan'' ("to choose") vs. ''curon'' ("chose", plural form)
*''ġēotan'' ("to pour") vs. ''guton'' ("poured", plural form)
The voiced velars and were still allophones of a single phoneme (although by now was the form used in initial position); similarly, their respective palatalised reflexes and are analysed as allophones of a single phoneme at this stage. This also included older instances of which derived from Proto-Germanic , and could stand before back vowels, as in ''ġeong'' ("young"; from PGmc ) and ''ġeoc'' ("yoke"; from PGmc ). (See also Old English phonology: dorsal consonants.)

Standard Old English spelling did not reflect the split, and used the same letter for both and , and for both () and (). In the standard modernised orthography (as used here), the velar and palatal variants are distinguished with a diacritic: stands for , for , for and , and for and . The geminates of these are written , , , .

Loanwords from Old Norse typically do not display any palatalisation, showing that at the time they were borrowed the palatal–velar distinction was no longer allophonic and the two sets were now separate phonemes. Compare, for example, the modern doublet ''shirt'' and ''skirt''; these both derive from the same Germanic root, but ''shirt'' underwent Old English palatalisation, whereas ''skirt'' comes from a Norse borrowing which did not. Similarly, ''give'', an unpalatalised Norse borrowing, existed alongside (and eventually displaced) the regularly palatalised ''yive''. Other later loanwords similarly escaped palatalisation: compare ''ship'' (from palatalised Old English ''sċip'') with ''skipper'' (borrowed from unpalatalised Dutch ''schipper'').van Gelderen, E., ''A History of the English Language'', John Benjamins 2014, p. 100.

Second fronting

Second fronting fronted to , and to , later than related processes of a-fronting and a-restoration. Second fronting did not affect the standard West Saxon dialect of Old English. In fact, it took place only in a relatively small section of the area ( English Midlands) where the Mercian dialect was spoken. Mercian itself was a subdialect of the Anglian dialect (which includes all of Central and Northern England).

Palatal diphthongization

The front vowels ''e'', ''ē'', ''æ'', and ''ǣ'' usually become the diphthongs ''ie'', ''īe'', ''ea'', and ''ēa'' after ''ċ'', ''ġ'', and ''sċ'':
*''sċieran'' "to cut", ''sċear'' "cut (past sing.)", ''sċēaron'' "cut (past pl.)", which belongs to the same conjugation class (IV) as ''beran'' "to carry", ''bær'' "carried (sing.)", ''bǣron'' "carried (pl.)"
*''ġiefan'' "to give", ''ġeaf'' "gave (sing.)", ''ġēafon'' "gave (pl.)", ''ġiefen'' "given", which belongs to the same conjugation class (V) as ''tredan'' "to tread", ''træd'' "trod (sing.)", ''trǣdon'' "trod (pl.)", ''treden'' "trodden"

In a similar way, the back vowels ''u'', ''o'', and ''a'' were spelled as ''eo'' and ''ea'' after ''ċ'', ''ġ'', and ''sċ'':
*''*ġung'' > ''ġeong'' "young" (cf. German ''jung'')
*''*sċolde'' > ''sċeolde'' "should" (cf. German ''sollte'')
*''*sċadu'' > ''sċeadu'' "shadow" (cf. Dutch ''schaduw'')

Most likely, the second process was simply a spelling convention, and ''a'', ''o'', ''u'' actually did not change in pronunciation: the vowel ''u'' continued to be pronounced in ''ġeong'', ''o'' in ''sċeolde'', and ''a'' in ''sċeadu''. This is suggested by their developments in Middle and Modern English. If ''ġeong'' and ''sċeolde'' had the diphthong ''eo'', they would develop into Modern English ''*yeng'' and ''*sheeld'' instead of ''young'' and ''should''.

There is less agreement about the first process. The traditional view is that ''e'', ''ē'', ''æ'', and ''ǣ'' actually became diphthongs, but a minority view is that they remained as monophthongs:
*''sċieran''
*''sċear''
*''sċēaron''
*''ġiefan''
*''ġeaf''
*''ġēafon''
*''ġiefen''
The main arguments in favour of this view are the fact that the corresponding process involving back vowels is indeed purely orthographic, and that diphthongizations like → and → (if this, contrary to the traditional view, is the correct interpretation of orthographic ''ie'') are phonetically unmotivated in the context of a preceding palatal or postalveolar consonant. In addition, both some advocates of the traditional view of ''ie'' and some advocates of the interpretation believe that the ''i'' in ''ie'' after palatal consonants never expressed a separate sound. Thus, it has been argued that the pronunciation only applied to the instances of ''ie'' expressing the sound resulting from i-mutation.Hogg 2011:23: Brunner takes the ''i'' of ''ie'' after palatalal consonant as purely diacritical ... Colman (1985) argues that ''ie'' which is the product of ''i''-umlaut represents /iy̆, iy/. Colman holds the same position as Brunner ... with regard to ''ie'' after a palatal consonant. In any case, it is thought plausible that the two merged as ə̆at a fairly early stage.

Metathesis of ''r''

Original sequences of an ''r'' followed by a short vowel metathesized, with the vowel and ''r'' switching places. This normally only occurred when the next following consonant was ''s'' or ''n'', and sometimes ''d''. The ''r'' could be initial or follow another consonant, but not a vowel.
*Before ''s'': ''berstan'' "to burst" (Icelandic ''bresta''), ''gærs'' "grass" (Gothic ''gras''), ''þerscan'' "to thresh" (Gothic ''þriskan'')
*Before ''n'': ''byrnan'' ~ ''beornan'' "to burn (intr.)" (Gothic ''brinnan''), ''irnan'' "to run" (Gothic ''rinnan''), ''īren'' "iron" (< ''*īsren'' < ''īsern''; Gothic ''eisarn''), ''wærna'' "wren" (Icelandic ''rindill''), ''ærn'' "house" (Gothic ''razn'')
*Before ''d'': ''þirda'' "third" (Gothic ''þridja''), Northumbrian ''bird'' "chick, nestling" (standard ''bryd'')

Not all potential words to which metathesis can apply are actually affected, and many of the above words also appear in their unmetathesized form (e.g. ''græs'' "grass", ''rinnan'' "to run", ''wrenna'' "wren", rare forms ''brustæn'' "burst (past part.)", ''þrescenne'' "to thresh", ''onbran'' "set fire to (past)", ''īsern'' "iron", ''ren-'' "house", ''þridda'' "third"; ''briddes'' "birds" in Chaucer). Many of the words have come down to Modern English in their unmetathesized forms.

Metathesis in the other direction occasionally occurs before ''ht'', e.g. ''wrohte'' "worked" (cf. obsolescent ''wrought''; Gothic ''wurhta''), Northumbrian ''breht'' ~ ''bryht'' "bright" (Gothic ''baírhts''), ''fryhto'' "fright" (Gothic ''faúrhtei''), ''wryhta'' "maker" (cf. ''wright''; Old Saxon ''wurhtio''). Unmetathesized forms of all of these words also occur in Old English. The phenomenon occurred in most Germanic languages.

I-mutation (i-umlaut)

Like most other Germanic languages, Old English underwent a process known as i-mutation or i-umlaut. This involved the fronting or raising of vowels under the influence of or in the following syllable. Among its effects were the new front rounded vowels , and likely the diphthong (see above). The original following or that triggered the umlaut was often lost at a later stage. The umlaut is responsible for such modern English forms as ''men'', ''feet'', ''mice'' (compare the singulars ''man'', ''foot'', ''mouse''), ''elder'', ''eldest'' (compare ''old''), ''fill'' (compare ''full''), ''length'' (compare ''long''), etc.

For details of the changes, see Germanic umlaut, and particularly the section on i-mutation in Old English.

Final a-loss

Absolutely final unstressed low vowels (''-æ'' from Proto-Germanic ''-a(z)'' by Anglo-Frisian brightening, and ''-ą'') were lost. Note that final ''-z'' was lost already in West Germanic times. Preceding ''-j-'', ''-ij-'', and ''-w-'' were vocalised to ''-i'', ''-ī'' and ''-u'', respectively. This occurred after breaking, since PG ' was affected, becoming OE ''bearu'', while words in PG *''-uz'' were not. (Apparent instances of such breaking are due to the later process of back mutation, which did not apply across all consonants, cf. unbroken West Saxon OE ''teru'' "tear" < PG ' but broken ''smeoru'' "grease" < PG ', where back mutation did not apply across ''-r-'' in West Saxon.) It also probably occurred after a-restoration; see that section for examples showing this. It apparently occurred before high vowel loss, because the preceding vocalised semivowels were affected by this process; e.g. ''gād'' "lack" < *''gādu'' (by high-vowel loss) < PG ' (cf. Gothic ''gaidw''). It is unclear whether it occurred before or after i-mutation.

Medial syncopation

In medial syllables, short low and mid vowels () are deleted in all open syllables.

Short high vowels () are deleted in open syllables following a long syllable, but usually remain following a short syllable; this is part of the process of high vowel loss.

Syncopation of low/mid vowels occurred after i-mutation and before high vowel loss. An example demonstrating that it occurred after i-mutation is ''mæġden'' "maiden":

If the syncopation of short low/mid vowels had occurred before i-mutation, the result in Old English would be **''meġden''.

An example showing that syncopation occurred before high vowel loss is ''sāw(o)l'' "soul":
*PG *''saiwalō'' > *''sāwalu'' > *''sāwlu'' (medial syncopation) > ''sāwl'' "soul". (By-form ''sāwol'' is due to vowel epenthesis.)
Had it occurred after high vowel loss, the result in Old English would be **''sāwlu''.

High vowel loss

In an unstressed open syllable, and (including final from earlier ) were lost when following a long syllable (i.e. one with a long vowel or diphthong, or followed by two consonants), but not when following a short syllable (i.e. one with a short vowel followed by a single consonant). This took place in two types of contexts:
#Absolutely word-final
#In a medial open syllable

;Word-final

High-vowel loss caused many paradigms to split depending on the length of the root syllable, with ''-u'' or ''-e'' (from *''-i'') appearing after short but not long syllables. For example,
*feminine ō-stem nouns in the nom. sg.: PG ' > OE ''ġiefu'' "gift" but PG ' > OE ''lār'' "teaching";
*neuter a-stem nouns in the nom./acc. pl.: PG ' > OE ''scipu'' "ships" but PG ' > OE ''word'' "words";
*masculine i-stem nouns in the nom./acc. sg.: PG ' > OE ''wine'' "friend" but PG ' > OE ''ġiest'' "guest";
*u-stem nouns in the nom./acc. sg.: PG ' > OE ''sunu'' "son" but PG ' > OE ''hand'' "hand";
*strong adjectives in the feminine nom. sg. and neuter nom./acc. pl.: PG ' > OE ''tilu'' "good (fem. nom. sg., neut. nom./acc. pl.)" but PG ' > OE ''gōd'' "good (fem. nom. sg., neut. nom./acc. pl.)";
*weak class 1 imperatives: OE ''freme'' "perform!" vs. ''hīer'' "hear!" (PG stems *''frami-'' and *''hauzi-'', respectively; it's unclear if the imperatives ended in *''-i'' or *''-ī'').
This loss affected the plural of root nouns, e.g. PrePG *' > PG ' > ' > OE "feet (nom.)". All such nouns had long-syllable stems, and so all were without ending in the plural, with the plural marked only by i-mutation.

Two-syllable nouns consisting of two short syllables were treated as if they had a single long syllable — a type of equivalence found elsewhere in the early Germanic languages, e.g. in the handling of Sievers' law in Proto-Norse, as well as in the metric rules of Germanic alliterative poetry. Hence, final high vowels are dropped. However, in a two-syllable noun consisting of a long first syllable, the length of the second syllable determines whether the high vowel is dropped. Examples (all are neuter nouns):
*Short-short: ''werod'' "troop", pl. ''werod'' (treated as equivalent to a single long syllable, or more correctly as a single long foot)
*Short-long: ''færeld'' "journey", pl. ''færeld''
*Long-short: ''hēafod'' "head", pl. ''hēafdu'' (from *''hēafodu'')
*Long-long: ''īsern'' "iron", pl. ''īsern''

Note also the following apparent exceptions:
*OE ''wītu'' "punishments" (pl. of ''wīte'') < PG ';
*OE ''rīċ(i)u'' "kingdoms" (pl. of ''rīċe'') < PG ';
*OE ''wildu'' "wild" (fem. of ''wilde'') < PG ';
*OE ''strengþu'' "strength" < PG '.
In reality, these aren't exceptions because at the time of high-vowel loss the words had the same two-syllable long-short root structure as ''hēafod'' (see above).

As a result, high-vowel loss must have occurred after i-mutation but before the loss of internal ''-(i)j-'', which occurred shortly after i-mutation.

;Word-medial

Paradigm split also occurred medially as a result of high-vowel loss, e.g. in the past tense forms of Class I weak forms:
*PG *''dōmidē'' > OE ''dēmde'' "(he) judged"
*PG *''framidē'' > OE ''fremede'' "(he) did, performed (a duty)"

Normally, syncopation (i.e. vowel loss) does not occur in closed syllables, e.g. ''Englisċe'' "English", ''ǣresta'' "earliest", ''sċēawunge'' "a showing, inspection" (each word with an inflected ending following it). However, syncopation passes its usual limits in certain West Saxon verbal and adjectival forms, e.g. the present tense of strong verbs (''birst'' "(you) carry" < PG *beris-tu, ''birþ'' "(he) carries" < PG *beriþ, similarly ''dēmst, dēmþ'' "(you) judge, (he) judges") and comparative adjectives (''ġinġsta'' "youngest" < PG *''jungistô'', similarly ''strenġsta'' "strongest", ''lǣsta'' "least" < *''lǣsesta'' < PG ''*laisistô'').

When both medial and final high-vowel loss can operate in a single word, medial but not final loss occurs:
* PG *''strangiþō'' > WG *''strangiþu'' > *''strengþu'' "strength";
* PG *''haubudō'' > WG *''haubudu'' > *''hēafdu'' "heads".
This implies that final high-vowel loss must precede medial high-vowel loss; else the result would be **''strengþ, hēafd''.

Loss of -(i)j-

Internal ''-j-'' and its Sievers' law variant ''-ij-'', when they still remained in an internal syllable, were lost just after high-vowel loss, but only after a long syllable. Hence:
*PG ' > WG ' > OE ''wītu'' "punishments" (if ''-ij-'' were lost before high-vowel loss, the result would be **''wīt'');
*PG ' > *''dø̄mijan'' (after i-mutation) > OE ''dēman'' "to judge" (cf. NE ''deem'');
*PG ' > WG ' > *''sættjaną'' (after Anglo-Frisian brightening) > *''settjan'' (after i-mutation) > OE ''settan'' "to set".

Note that in Proto-Germanic, the non-Sievers'-law variant ''-j-'' occurred only after short syllables, but due to West Germanic gemination, a consonant directly preceding the ''-j-'' was doubled, creating a long syllable. West Germanic gemination didn't apply to , leaving a short syllable, and hence wasn't lost in such circumstances:
*PG ' > OE ''erian'' "to plow".

By Sievers' law, the variant occurred only after long syllables, and thus was always lost when it was still word-internal at this point.

When ''-j-'' and ''-ij-'' became word-final after loss of a following vowel or vowel+/z/, they were converted into ''-i'' and ''-ī'', respectively. The former was affected by high-vowel loss, surfacing as ''-e'' when not deleted (i.e. after ), while the latter always surfaces as ''-e'':
*PG ' > WG ' > *''kunni'' > *''kynni'' > OE ''cynn'' "kin, family, kind";
*PG ' > WG ' (West Germanic gemination didn't apply to /r/) > *''hari'' > *''heri'' > OE ''here'' "army";
*PG ' > *''wītī'' > OE ''wīte'' "punishment".

It is possible that loss of medial ''-j-'' occurred slightly earlier than loss of ''-ij-'', and in particular before high-vowel loss. This appears to be necessary to explain short ''-jō'' stem words like ''nytt'' "use":
*PG ' > WG ' > *''nyttju'' (by i-mutation) > *''nyttu'' (by j-loss) > OE ''nytt'' (by high-vowel deletion).
If high-vowel deletion occurred first, the result would presumably be an unattested **''nytte''.

A similar loss of ''-(i)j-'' occurred in the other West Germanic languages, although after the earliest records of those languages (especially Old Saxon, which still has written ''settian'', ''hēliand'' corresponding to Old English ''settan'' "to set", ''hǣlend'' "savior"). Some details are different, as the form ''kunni'' with retained ''-i'' is found in Old Saxon, Old Dutch and Old High German (but note Old Frisian ''kenn, kin'').

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 ''wrēġan'' ().

Back mutation

Back mutation (sometimes back umlaut, guttural umlaut, u-umlaut, or velar umlaut) is a change that took place in late prehistoric Old English and caused short ''e, i'' and sometimes ''a'' to break into a diphthong (''eo, io, ea'' respectively, similar to breaking) when a back vowel (''u, o, ō, a'') occurred in the following syllable. Examples:
*''seofon'' "seven" < ''*sebun'' (cf. Gothic ''sibun'')
*''heol(o)stor'' "hiding place, cover" (cf. English ''holster'') < earlier ''helustr'' < *''hulestr'' < *''hulistran'' (cf. Gothic ''hulistr'')
*''eofor'' "boar" < *''eburaz'' (cf. Old High German ''ebur'')
*''heorot'' "hart" < *''herutaz'' (cf. Old High German ''hiruz'')
*''mioluc, meoluc'' "milk" < *''melukz'' (cf. Gothic ''miluks'')
*''liofast, leofast'' "you (sg.) live" < *''libast''
*''ealu'' "ale" < *''aluþ''

Note that ''io'' turned into ''eo'' in late Old English.

A number of restrictions governed whether back mutation took place:
*Generally it only took place when a single consonant followed the vowel being broken.
*In the standard West Saxon dialect, back mutation only took place before labials (''f, b, w'') and liquids (''l, r''). In the Anglian dialect, it took place before all consonants except ''c, g'' (Anglian ''meodu'' "mead", ''eosol'' "donkey" vs. West Saxon ''medu, esol''). In the Kentish dialect, it took place before all consonants (Kentish ''breogo'' "price" vs. West Saxon, Anglian ''bregu, brego'').
*Back mutation of ''a'' normally took place only in the Mercian subdialect of the Anglian dialect. Standard ''ealu'' "ale" is a borrowing from Mercian. Similar borrowings are poetic ''beadu'' "battle" and ''eafora'' "son, heir", cf. Gothic ''afar'' (many poetic words were borrowed from Mercian). On the other hand, standard ''bealu'' "evil" (arch. ''bale'') and ''bearu'' "grove" owe their ''ea'' due to breaking — their forms at the time of breaking were *''balwą'', *''barwaz'', and the genitive singulars in Old English are ''bealwes, bearwes''.

Anglian smoothing

In the Anglian (i.e. Mercian and Northumbrian) dialects of Old English, a process called smoothing undid many of the effects of breaking. In particular, before a velar or before an or followed by a velar, diphthongs were reduced to monophthongs. Note that the context for smoothing is similar to the context for the earlier process of breaking that produced many of the diphthongs in the first place. In particular:
*''ea'' > ''æ'' before a velar, ''e'' before or + velar
*''ēa'' > ''ē''
*''eo'' > ''e''
*''ēo'' > ''ē''
*''io'' > ''i''
*''īo'' > ''ī''
This change preceded h-loss and vowel assimilation.

The diphthongs ''ie'' and ''īe'' did not exist in Anglian (or in fact in any dialect other than West Saxon).

H-loss

In the same contexts where the voiceless fricatives become voiced, i.e. between vowels and between a voiced consonant and a vowel, is lost, with compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel if it is short. This occurs after breaking; hence breaking before and takes place regardless of whether the is lost by this rule. An unstressed short vowel is absorbed into the preceding long vowel.

Examples:
*''sċōs'' "shoe" (gen.) < < , cf. ''sċōh'' (nom.)
*''fēos'' "money" (gen.) < < < , cf. ''feoh'' (nom.)
*''wēalas'' "foreigners, Welsh people" < < , cf. ''wealh'' (sing.)

Vowel assimilation

Two vowels that occurred in hiatus (i.e. next to each other, with no consonant separating) collapsed into a single long vowel. Many occurrences were due to h-loss, but some came from other sources, e.g. loss of or after a front vowel. (Loss of occurred early, in Proto-Germanic times. Loss of occurred later, after i-umlaut.) If the first vowel was ''e'' or ''i'' (long or short), and the second vowel was a back vowel, a diphthong resulted. Examples:
*''sċōs'' "shoe" (gen.) < Proto-Germanic ''*skōhas'' (see under h-loss)
*''fēos'' "money" (gen.) < Proto-Germanic *''fehas'' (see under h-loss)
*''frēond'' "friend" < ''frīond'' < Proto-Germanic *''frijōndz'' (two syllables, cf. Gothic ''frijōnds'')
*''sǣm'' "sea" (dat. pl.) < ''sǣum'' < ''*sǣwum'' < ''*sǣwimiz'' < Proto-Germanic *''saiwimiz''

Palatal umlaut

Palatal umlaut is a process whereby short ''e, eo, io'' appear as ''i'' (occasionally ''ie'') before final ''ht, hs, hþ''. Examples:
*''riht'' "right" (cf. German ''recht'')
*''cniht'' "boy" (mod. ''knight'') (cf. German ''Knecht'')
*''siex'' "six" (cf. German ''sechs'')
*''briht, bryht'' "bright" (cf. non-metathesized Old English forms ''beorht'', (Anglian) ''berht'', Dutch ''brecht'')
*''hlihþ'' "(he) laughs" < ''*hlehþ'' < ''*hlæhiþ'' + i-mutation < Proto-Germanic ''*hlahiþ'' (cf. ''hliehhan'' "to laugh" < Proto-Germanic ''*hlahjaną'')

Unstressed vowel reduction

There was steady vowel reduction in unstressed syllables, in a number of stages:
#In West Germanic times, absolutely final non-nasal *''-ō'' (but not e.g. *''-ōz'', *''-ô'' or *''-ǭ'') was raised and shortened to ''-u''.
#All other final-syllable *''ō'' were lowered to *''ā''. By Anglo-Frisian brightening, these ended up as *''-ǣ'' (later ''-æ''). Overlong *''ô'', as well as *''ō'' in medial syllables, were unaffected.
#Although vowel nasality persisted at least up through Anglo-Frisian times and likely through the time of a-restoration, it was eventually lost (in stressed as well as unstressed syllables), with non-nasal vowels the result.
# Final a-loss deleted word-final short unstressed low vowels (*''-æ'' < PG *''-az'', *''-a'' < PG *''-ą''), causing preceding semivowels ''-j- -ij- -w-'' to become vocalised to ''-i -ī -u''.
# Medial syncopation deleted word-medial short unstressed low/mid vowels in open syllables. This may be the same process as final a-loss.
# High-vowel loss deleted short unstressed high vowels and in open syllables following a long syllable, whether word-final or word-medial.
#All unstressed long and overlong vowels were shortened, with remaining long ''ō, ô'' shortening to ''a''.
#This produced five final-syllable short vowels, which remained into early documented Old English (back ''a, u''; front ''æ, e, i''). By the time of the majority of Old English documents, however, all three front short vowels had merged into ''e''.
#Absolutely final ''-u'' tends to be written ''u'' (sometimes ''o''); but before a consonant, it is normally written ''o'' (e.g. ''seovon'' "seven" < PG *''sibun''). Exceptions are the endings ''-ung'', ''-(s)um'', ''-uc'' and when the root has ''u'' in it, e.g. ''duguþ'' "band of warriors; prosperity".
#Final-syllable ''e'' is written ''i'' in the endings ''-ing, -iġ, -(l)iċ, -isċ, -iht''.

A table showing these developments in more detail is found in Proto-Germanic: Later developments.

Vowel lengthening

In the late 8th or early 9th century, short stressed vowels were lengthened before certain groups of consonants: ''ld'', ''mb'', ''nd'', ''ng'', ''rd'', ''rl'', ''rn'', ''rs''+vowel. Some of the lengthened vowels would be shortened again by or during the Middle English period; this applied particularly before the clusters beginning ''r''. Examples of words in which the effect of lengthening has been preserved are:
*''ċild'' > ''ċīld'' > mod. ''child'' (but lengthening did not occur if another consonant immediately followed, as in ''ċildru'', giving modern ''children'' with )
*''ald'' > ''āld'' > mod. ''old'' (but lengthening did not occur in the antepenultimate syllable, as in ''aldormann'', giving modern ''alderman'', with an originally short ''a'')
*''climban'' > ''clīmban'' > mod. ''climb''
*''grund'' > ''grūnd'' > mod. ''ground''
*''lang'' > ''lāng'' > mod. ''long'' (''ā'' went regularly to ''ō'' but was shortened in this position in late Middle English; compare Scots ''lang'' where the shortening occurred first)

Diphthong changes

In Late West Saxon (but not in the Anglian dialects of the same period) ''io'' and ''īo'' were merged into ''eo'' and ''ēo''. Also, the earlier West Saxon diphthongs ''ie'' and ''īe'' had developed into what is known as "unstable ''i''", merging into in Late West Saxon. For further detail, see Old English diphthongs. All of the remaining Old English diphthongs were monophthongised in the early Middle English period: see Middle English stressed vowel changes.

Dialects

Old English had four major dialect groups: West Saxon, Mercian, Northumbrian, and Kentish. West Saxon and Kentish occurred in the south, approximately to the south of the River Thames. Mercian constituted the middle section of the country, divided from the southern dialects by the Thames and from Northumbrian by the Humber and Mersey rivers. Northumbrian encompassed the area between the Humber and the Firth of Forth (including what is now southeastern Scotland but was once part of the Kingdom of Northumbria). In the south, the easternmost portion was Kentish and everywhere else was West Saxon. Mercian and Northumbrian are often grouped together as "Anglian".

The biggest differences occurred between West Saxon and the other groups. The differences occurred mostly in the front vowels, and particularly the diphthongs. (However, Northumbrian was distinguished from the rest by much less palatalisation. Forms in Modern English with hard and where a palatalised sound would be expected from Old English are due either to Northumbrian influence or to direct borrowing from Scandinavian. Note that, in fact, the lack of palatalisation in Northumbrian was probably due to heavy Scandinavian influence.)

The early history of Kentish was similar to Anglian, but sometime around the ninth century all of the front vowels ''æ'', ''e'', ''y'' (long and short) merged into ''e'' (long and short). The further discussion concerns the differences between Anglian and West Saxon, with the understanding that Kentish, other than where noted, can be derived from Anglian by front-vowel merger. The primary differences were:
*Original (post Anglo-Frisian brightening) ''ǣ'' was raised to ''ē'' in Anglian but remained in West Saxon. This occurred before other changes such as breaking, and did not affect ''ǣ'' caused by i-umlaut of ''ā''. Hence, e.g., ''dǣlan'' "to divide" < ''*dailijan'' appears the same in both dialects, but West Saxon ''slǣpan'' "to sleep" appears as ''slēpan'' in Anglian. (Note the corresponding vowel difference in the spelling of "deal" < ''dǣlan'' vs. "sleep" < Anglian ''slēpan''.)
*The West Saxon vowels ''ie/īe'', caused by i-umlaut of long and short ''ea'', ''eo'', ''io'', did not appear in Anglian. Instead, i-umlaut of ''ea'' and rare ''eo'' is spelled ''e'', and i-umlaut of ''io'' remains as ''io''.
*Breaking of short to ''ea'' did not happen in Anglian before and a consonant; instead, the vowel was retracted to . When mutated by i-umlaut, it appears again as ''æ'' (vs. West Saxon ''ie''). Hence, Anglian ''cald'' "cold" vs. West Saxon ''ċeald''.
*Merger of ''eo'' and ''io'' (long and short) occurred early in West Saxon, but much later in Anglian.
*Many instances of diphthongs in Anglian, including the majority of cases caused by breaking, were turned back into monophthongs again by the process of "Anglian smoothing", which occurred before ''c'', ''h'', ''g'', alone or preceded by ''r'' or ''l''. This accounts for some of the most noticeable differences between standard (i.e. West Saxon) Old English and Modern English spelling. E.g. ''ēage'' "eye" became ''ēge'' in Anglian; ''nēah'' "near" became Anglian ''nēh'', later raised to ''nīh'' in the transition to Middle English by raising of ''ē'' before ''h'' (hence "nigh" in Modern English); ''nēahst'' "nearest" become Anglian ''nēhst'', shortened to ''nehst'' in late Old English by vowel-shortening before three consonants (hence "next" in Modern English).

As mentioned above, Modern English derives mostly from the Anglian dialect rather than the standard West Saxon dialect of Old English. However, since London sits on the Thames near the boundary of the Anglian, West Saxon, and Kentish dialects, some West Saxon and Kentish forms have entered Modern English. For example, "bury" has its spelling derived from West Saxon and its pronunciation from Kentish (see below).

The Northumbrian dialect, which was spoken as far north as Edinburgh, survives as the Scots language spoken in Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland. The distinguishing feature of Northumbrian, the lack of palatalisation of velars, is still evident in doublets between Scots and Modern English such as ''kirk'' / "church", ''brig'' / "bridge", ''kist'' / "chest", ''yeuk'' / "itch" (OE ''ġyċċan'' < PGmc ''jukjaną''). (However, most of the phonetic differences between Scots and Modern English postdate the Old English period: see Phonological history of Scots for more details.)

Summary of vowel developments

NOTE: Another version of this table is available at Phonological history of English#Through Middle English. This covers the same changes from a more diachronic perspective. It includes less information on the specific differences between the Anglian and West Saxon dialects of Old English, but includes much more information on the Proto-Indo-European changes leading up to the vowels below, and the Middle English vowels that resulted from them.

NOTE: This table only describes the changes in accented syllables. Vowel changes in unaccented syllables were very different and much more extensive. In general, long vowels were reduced to short vowels (and sometimes deleted entirely) and short vowels were very often deleted. All remaining vowels were reduced to only the vowels , and , and sometimes . ( also sometimes appears as a variant of unstressed .)

Changes leading up to Middle and Modern English

For a detailed description of the changes between Old English and Middle/Modern English, see the article on the phonological history of English. A summary of the main vowel changes is presented below. Note that the spelling of Modern English largely reflects Middle English pronunciation. Note also that this table presents only the general developments. Many exceptional outcomes occurred in particular environments, e.g. vowels were often lengthened in late Old English before ; vowels changed in complex ways before , throughout the history of English; vowels were diphthongised in Middle English before ; new diphthongs arose in Middle English by the combination of vowels with Old English ''w'', ''g'' > , and ''ġ'' ; etc. The only conditional development considered in detail below is Middle English open-syllable lengthening. Note that, in the column on modern spelling, ''CV'' means a sequence of a single consonant followed by a vowel.

Note that the Modern English vowel usually spelled ''au'' (British , American ) does not appear in the above chart. Its main source is late Middle English /au/, which come from various sources: Old English ''aw'' and ''ag'' ("claw" < ''clawu'', "law" < ''lagu''); diphthongisation before ("sought" < ''sōhte'', "taught" < ''tāhte'', "daughter" < ''dohtor''); borrowings from Latin and French ("fawn" < Old French ''faune'', "Paul" < Latin ''Paulus''). Other sources are Early Modern English lengthening of before ("salt, all"); occasional shortening and later re-lengthening of Middle English ("broad" < < ''brād''); and in American English, lengthening of short ''o'' before unvoiced fricatives and voiced velars ("dog, long, off, cross, moth", all with in American English, at least in dialects that still maintain the difference between and ).

As mentioned above, Modern English is derived from the Middle English of London, which is derived largely from Anglian Old English, with some admixture of West Saxon and Kentish. One of the most noticeable differences among the dialects is the handling of original Old English . By the time of the written Old English documents, the Old English of Kent had already unrounded to , and the late Old English of Anglia unrounded to . In the West Saxon area, remained as such well into Middle English times, and was written ''u'' in Middle English documents from this area. Some words with this sound were borrowed into London Middle English, where the unfamiliar was substituted with . Hence:
*"gild" < ''gyldan'', "did" < ''dyde'', "sin" < ''synn'', "mind" < ''mynd'', "dizzy" < ''dysiġ'' "foolish", "lift" < ''lyft'' "air", etc. show the normal (Anglian) development.
*"much" < ''myċel'' shows the West Saxon development.
*"merry" < ''myriġ'' shows the Kentish development.
*"build" < ''byldan'' and "busy" < ''bysiġ'' have their spelling from West Saxon but pronunciation from Anglian.
*"bury" < ''byrġan'' has its spelling from West Saxon but its pronunciation from Kentish.
Note that some apparent instances of modern ''e'' for Old English ''y'' are actually regular developments, particularly where the ''y'' is a development of earlier (West Saxon) ''ie'' from i-mutation of ''ea'', as the normal i-mutation of ''ea'' in Anglian is ''e''; for example, "stern" < ''styrne'' < ''*starnijaz'', "steel" < ''stȳle'' < ''*stahliją'' (cf. Old Saxon ''stehli''). Also, some apparent instances of modern ''u'' for Old English ''y'' may actually be due to the influence of a related form with unmutated ''u'', e.g. "sundry" < ''syndriġ'', influenced by ''sundor'' "apart, differently" (cf. "to sunder" and "asunder").

Notes

References

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Old English Phonology
English phonology
Phonology
Sound laws