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UNIT 12. PHONETICS OF THE NEW ENGLISH PERIOD
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| UNIT 12. PHONETICS OF THE NEW ENGLISH PERIOD
§ 1. Vowels The two outstanding changes in the vowel system from Middle English to Modern English are: the loss of many final vowels in unstressed syllables, especially the vowel e , and, changes in the long vowels of stressed syllables, called the ― great vowel shift ǁ . a) The loss of final vowels may have begun in late Middle English, but the process was completed only in early Modern English. The various endings, all reduced to the neutral e in Middle English, have entirely disappeared in Middle English, though the e is often kept in spelling. E.g.: OE ME NE Cēpan [ ‗ ke:pan] kēpe(n) [ ΄ k ə :p ə ] keep nama [‘nama] nāme [ ΄ na:m ə ] name (e – silent) b) The so-called ― great vowel shift ǁ consists in a series of changes, which affected the long vowels in Middle English and gradually transformed them into quite different sounds in Modern English. All the long vowels came to be pronounced with a greater elevation of the tongue and closing of the mouth, so that those that could be raised ( ā, ē, open ē, ō, open ō ) were raised, and those that could not, without becoming consonantal ( i, u ), became diphthongs. The effect of the shift can be seen in the following comparison of Chaucer‘s and Shakespeare‘s pronunciation: Middle English Chaucer Shakespeare Modern English ā open ē ē ī open ō ō ū [ ΄ na:me] [ ΄ kle:n ə ] [ ΄ me:de] [ ΄ fi:f] [ ΄ go:t ə ] [ ΄ r ɔ :t ə ] [ ΄ du:n] [ne:m] [kle:n] [mi:d] [faiv] [g ɔ :t] [ru:t] [ ΄ daun] name clean meed five goat root down Thus: [a:] > [ei] [e:] > [e] > [i:] [e:] > [i:] [o:] > [ou] [ ɔ :] > [u:] [u:] > [au] The ― great vowel shift ǁ is the most revolutionary and far-reaching sound change during the history of the language and naturally took a long time to complete. 38 Another vowel change which affected a large group of words is syncope. Syncopy is the loss of a vowel within a word. This has taken place in different inflectional endings of large classes of words in English. E.g., the Possessive Singular and the Plural of nouns ended in -es in Middle English. The syncopation of -e in most words has since reduced this -es to -s, the common form of the Possessive Singular and of the Plural. Similar syncopation had taken place in the -ed ending of weak verbs, except those ending in -t or -d . In the -en жүктеу/скачать 0,78 Mb. Достарыңызбен бөлісу:
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