THE DEVELOPMENT

OF

STANDARD ENGLISH SPEECH

IN OUTLINE

BY

J. M. HART

NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY

1907

COPYRIGHT, 1907,

BY HENKY HOLT AND COMPANY

PREFACE.

This little book is the outcome of lectures which have been delivered for some years past to our students of Middle English. In preparing the manuscript for publication and in reading proof I have got much help of every sort from Assistant Professor C. S. Northup and Dr. B. S. Monroe. As a whole, then, the book may be said to represent Cornell aim and method.

The book presupposes : (1). Students who have some knowledge of Old English, although this knowledge need not be extensive nor profound. Cook's First Book in Old English, or Bright' s Anglo-Saxon Reader (the general features of the grammar, with the reading of a few of the simpler prose texts), will be quite enough. (2). A thoroughly trained teacher, one conversant with Old and Middle English prose and verse, and equally conversant with grammatical and phonologi- cal investigation.

Further, this book is not a history of the lan- guage, not even in the barest outline, but merely an

iii

2207298

iy PKEFACE.

attempt to show how the Englishman or American of to-day has come by his pronunciation. Only where there was need of explaining apparent incon- sistencies of pronunciation have I touched upon grammatical forms. And in handling the extremely difficult problem of Palatalization, §§ 19, 20, I have felt constrained to go even beyond the limits of Old English grammar and introduce theories which belong in strictness to comparative grammar. Here the teacher's guidance is indispensable. On my part I have given, I trust, theory enough and data enough for fairly logical deduction.

For the most profitable use of this book I would recommend two other works. The one is Skeat's Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language (ed. of 1901), an inexpensive and most convenient book for ready reference. It is not wholly free from errors, the author does not always exhibit the courage of his best knowledge. Never- theless the book is a model of concise scholarship. The other work is O. F. Emerson's Middle English Reader, which offers the best collection of texts, the fullest annotation, and the fullest glossary. Of Professor Emerson's Grammatical Introduction my praise must be slightly qualified. With the purely grammatical part (declension, conjugation, &c. ) I

PEEFACE. V

have no fault to find ; but the author's treatment of the phonology is open to two criticisms. In the first place he tries to explain many phenomena which the beginner can afford to ignore ; in treating such an amorphous speech as Middle English, certainly amorphous until the coming of Chaucer, one should concentrate one's energies upon the most general phenomena and leave the rest to time. In the second place, Professor Emerson starts with Middle English sounds and harks back to Old English. This, it seems to me, is both awkward and unnatural. Surely no student in 1906 will begin his study of the language with Middle English, a procedure barely pardonable in the autodidacts of 1806.

Towards Kluge and other German scholars my attitude has been in places decidedly conservative, not to say rebellious. Although my obligations to Kluge' s Geschichte der englischen Sprache are self- confessed on almost every page of this book, I must protest against his use of certain terms involving serious misconceptions. I mean the terms Ruckkehr and Ruckumlaut. They invite one to believe that k once palatalized to ch "goes back" to k, that u once umlauted to y "goes back" to u. Nothing of the sort ever happened or ever could have happened ! Next, in nearly all phonological dis-

vi PKEFACE.

cussions there is too much Ormulum ; the work of Brother Orm is viewed as if it were the norm of twelfth-century speech. This is to overlook the patent fact that it represented only one small dis- trict. Lastly, I am more than puzzled by the air of confidence with which the German school blocks out mediaeval England in squares like a checker- board and assigns each bit of writing, from Laya- mon's Brut to the "Alliterative Poems," to its. particular little square. I must confess to being deplorably deficient in this sense of the fourth dimension.

A word or two upon some peculiar signs and abbreviations used in these pages.

* denotes an assumed form. Either a form which may well have existed in the historical language, but which has accidentally not been preserved ; e. g., *drop, *dropp, § 12. Or a purely conjectural form which philological theory postulates for pre- historic times in explanation of historical forms ; e. g., *layion, *layip, &c., p. 73.

[] denotes phonetic spelling, the vowels having the so- called Continental value.

i is both phonetic and grammatical ; it represents a genuine semi- vowel which may function either as a pure vowel i or as a pure consonant y.

PREFACE. vii

6 represents the peculiar English diphthongal sound in law, saw, call, taught.

9 is used, somewhat loosely, to indicate any indis- tinct vowel sound outside of the regular scale : o-e-i-o-w, o-^u. In a strictly phonetic treatise I should have used more than one character ; for the present book the 9 seemed enough.

6 represents a k in the first stage of palatalization ; the complete palatalization of k is represented by ch or [£[]. The corresponding voiced palatal, the j of joke, the g of giant, is here represented by [dIJ] ; the usual sign might be confounded with an O. E. d*.

G. T. (General Teutonic) is a safer abbreviation than Germ. (Germanic), which might be mistaken for German, the language of Germany proper. General Teutonic is that purely hypothetical form of speech which lies back of English, German, Scandinavian, Gothic.

Sievers refers to An Old English Grammar, by Eduard Sievers. Translated and Edited by Albert 8. Cook. Third edition.

J. M. HART.

CORNELL UNIVERSITY,

November 20th, 1906.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

GENERAL REMARKS.

PAGE

§ 1. INTRODUCTION. English; Danish; French, . . 1 § 2. NOMENCLATURE. Old, Middle, Modern ; Northern, Midland, Southern ; Standard, . . 3

CHAPTER II.

VOWEL CHANGES. 1. VOWEL-LENGTHENING.

§ 3. BEFORE CONSONANT GROUPS: -Id, -nd, -mb, . . 6 § 4. IN OPEN STRESSED SYLLABLES, 11

2. VOWKL-SHOBTENING.

§ 5. EARLY SHORTENING, 13

§ 6. LATER SHORTENING, .... _»_^i^. « . . 18

§ 7. CERTAIN TERMINATIONS, 20

3. CHANGES IN VOWEL QUALITY.

§ 8. LEVELLING, 22

§ 9. THE VOWEL e, 25

§ 10. THE VOWEL a, 28

ix

x TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PAGE

§ 11. OPEN-SYLLABLE LENGTHENING OF O. E. a, . 29

§ 12. O. E. o (close) , 31

§13. O. E. i, i; u, u, 33

4. DlPHTHONGIZATION.

§ 14. DiPHTHONGING OF 1, U, 34

§ 15. DlPHTHOBTGING BEFORE ff ; h ; W, . . . . 37

§ 16. DIPHTHONGING BEFORE I and r, 44

CHRONOLOGICAL SURVEY OF VOWEL CHANGES. § 17. SURVEY OF §§ 3-16 ; CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE, . 46

CHAPTEK III.

CONSONANT CHANGES.

1. Loss AND INTRUSION ; VOICING, Ac. § 18. hi-, hr-, hw-; en-, gn-; -s; ch-j, &c., 49

2. PALATALIZATION.

§ 19. PALATALIZATION OF Jc, 56

§ 20. PALATALIZATION OF gr, 68

THE DEVELOPMENT

OF

STANDARD ENGLISH SPEECH

CHAPTER I. GENERAL REMARKS.

§ 1. Introduction. — The history of the growth of modern English pronunciation is complicated. Certain features are puzzling ; some are obscure and — even in the best light of our present knowledge — appear arbitrary. The chief features, however, admit of systematic explanation and can be mastered by all who will take the pains.

By way of comparison, it may be said that the development of modern English pronunciation is more difficult to account for than the pronunciation of any other modern Teutonic speech, e. g. , German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish. This difficulty may be explained in part as the result of foreign influences.

For a century and a half before the Norman inva- sion, say from 880 to 1030, England was raided and in many places even occupied by Scandinavian in- vaders, usually called Danes, though probably the Norwegians were more numerous than the Danes proper. The distinction is of no value in this place, for in the ninth and tenth centuries the difference

1

2 GENERAL REMARKS.

between Danish and Norwegian speech must have been almost imperceptible. At any rate, for a cen- tury and a half certain parts of England, chiefly along the east coast between the Wash and the Tyne and running back at least half way to the west coast, were officially designated the Danelagh, or land of the Dane Law.

"With the conquest of the whole of England by William of Normandy and his immediate successors, English speech was again subjected to a foreign in- fluence, namely, French. This French influence was of much longer duration, was more extensive, inas- much as it affected the whole island, and also more intensive. French influence affected not merely Eng- lish speech but English ways of living and thinking.

Still, after making ample allowance for Danish and French influences, many if not most of the changes in English speech since 950 can be regarded only as the result of innate causes. Evidently the language had certain tendencies of its own in certain directions, quite irrespective of Danes and Normans.

On the other hand, it is interesting to note that one feature of modern English pronunciation, the diphthonging of [I] to [at], of [u] to [aw], is par- alleled in Mod. High German. We pronounce in English, just as in German, mine and house, mein

NOMENCLATURE. 3

and halts. This diphthongization, however, though parallel in the two languages, was wholly indepen- dent. In Germany it began in the twelfth century and was completed in the fifteenth. In England it began in the fifteenth century but was chiefly an affair of the sixteenth. In Scandinavian speech there has been no diphthongization ; the old pronun- ciation mm and hus still survives.

§ 2. Nomenclature. — In its chronology the .an- guage is divided into three periods : Old (O. E. ), Middle (M. E.), and Modern (Mn. E.), or— as some prefer — New (N. E.).

By O. E. is meant the language from the earliest recorded monuments (fragments and glosses, some of the seventh century) down to the year 1100 or per- haps somewhat later, say 1120.

By M. E. is meant the language between 1100 (or 1120) and 1500 (approximately).

By Mn. E., the language since 1500.

In its topographical distribution the language is described as Southern, Midland, and Northern.

The Southern division comprises those forms spoken south of the Thames and in a few counties to the north and west of the Thames, namely, Gloucester- shire and parts of Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

4 GENERAL EEMAEKS.

Midland English comprises those forms spoken between the Thames and a line drawn somewhat irregularly between the Wash and the Humber and running N. "W. to the west coast above Liverpool.

Northern English comprises those forms spoken in the Lowlands of Scotland, and in Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland, Yorkshire, Durham, and the northern parts of Lincoln, Nottingham, and Lancashire.

These two classifications, the chronological and the topographical, overlap each other in every stage of the language ; that is to say, O. E. had its North- ern form (called Old Northumbrian), its Midland (called Mercian), and its Southern (called West- Saxon, of which Kentish was a variety). M. E. had its Northern, Midland, and Southern forms. And Mn. E. also exhibits the same general varieties.

Concerning Mn. E. , however, there is this addi- tional phenomenon to be noted, namely, the existence of the so-called standard or literary speech, which is used in varying degrees of purity by the cultivated classes throughout Great Britain and forms the basis of American speech.

This standard or literary English was in its origin Midland, One variety of Midland speech was trans- ferred in the fourteenth century to the court and to

NOMENCLATURE. 5

the administrative, legal, cultivated, and fashionable circles of London. Here it was further developed and permanently established in the fifteenth century. From London as a centre this standard and conven- tional speech has spread as above indicated. It is not, however, the speech of the lower and uneducated classes of the city of London ; their speech, called Cockney English, is a variety of the Southern dialect.

CHAPTER II. VOWEL CHANGES.

These are of three general kinds : 1. Vowel- lengthening. 2. Vowel-shortening. 3. Change in the quality of the sound.

1. VOWEL-LENGTHENING.

§ 3. Before Consonant Groups. — An originally short vowel in a stressed syllable (stem syllable) was lengthened before certain consonant groups. This lengthening took place in late O. E.

1. A short vowel was lengthened before -Id.

Exceptions: u and its umlauted sound y (some- times written i in O. E. and u, ui in M. E. ) were not lengthened. Thus, O. E. byldan, M. E. bulden, Mn. E. build, is still short.

Caution. The -Id must be a genuine old group ; for instance, feld, feld (Mn. E. field, § 9). The vowel was not lengthened when the I and the d were originally in separate syllables in O. E. and subsequently brought together through syncope of an intermediate vowel. 6

VOWEI^LENGTHENLNG. 7

Thus, contrast O. E. cald, cdld (genuine old group), M. E. CQld, Mn. E. cold (§ 10) with late O. E. called, calld, pret. of W. S. ceallian, from Danish kalla (§16. 1).

Further caution. It is all-important to determine which dialect form of the vowel was lengthened. Inasmuch as most of our O. E. texts are written in the Southern (West-Saxon) dialect, the student must reconstruct many words in their Midland-Mercian form. This means that the peculiar West-Saxon ' broken ' and umlauted vowels must be reconstructed according to the Mercian type.

Illustrations of vowel- lengthening. These are given both for vowels that do not need reconstructing and for vowels that do.

Without reconstruction.

feld (e in all O. E. dial. ) feld, § 9.

did (i in all O. E. dial.) did, §§ 14, 19.

gold, § 12.

With reconstruction.

eald, W. S. ; aid, Merc. ; aid, § 10. wieldan, W. S. ; weldan, Merc. ; weldan, § 9. (Mn. E. weld, ' to beat metal together, ' is borrowed from Swedish).

8 VOWEL CHANGES.

2. i, u, and y (i-umlaut of w) are lengthened before -nd. Examples :

O. E. bindan blndan ; M. E. binden ; Mn. E. bind, §14. hund hund ; M. E. hund ; Mn. E. hound, § 14. gecynd gecynd ; M. E. i-cunde ; Mn. E. kind, § 14.

In M. E. the O. E. u is usually written ou but has the value of [u].

3. i and a are lengthened before -mb. Examples : climban cllmban ; M. E. cllmbe ; Mn. E. climb,

§§ 14, 18. 1. c. cam6 cam6 ; M. E. cgrafc ; Mn. E. comb, §§ 10, 18. 1. c.

In Mn. E. limb, which has a short i, the final b is not found in O. E. ; it is an accretion in late M. E. ; consequently there was no -m b to lengthen the i.

Exceptions to Vowel- Lengthening.

The principle of vowel-lengthening did not apply in forms where the root was increased by a suffix, or in forms where the consonant group was immediately followed by r or I. Thus :

O. E. tyndre is Mn. E. tinder (short t). O. E. elder (Mercian) is Mn. E. elder (short e). O. E. cildru (pi. of did), Scotch childer, stand- ard children.

VOWEL-LENGTHENING. 9

Contrast under, wonder, hinder, with ivund (wound}, be-hlnd.

The suffixes -en of the past participle and -an of the infinitive, however, did not prevent lengthening. Thus:

O. E. bindan blndan ; M. E. bmden ; Mn. E. bind [ai].

O. E. bunden bunden ; M. E. bounden ; Mn. E. bound [au].

For the infinitive in -icm (2nd class weak) see §56.

The lengthenings mentioned in 1. 2. 3 took place in O. E. They were fully established by 1000 A. D. Inasmuch as many O. E. texts are later than 1000, the student of O. E. should accustom himself to pronounce blndan, bunden, f eld, gecynde, did, etc., except in very old texts such as the Pastoral Care, Orosius, the Parker Chronicle. Certainly the length- enings should be introduced in reading the texts of Aelfric.

The lengthenings are general ; they became per- manent in all M. E. and, with certain qualitative changes — to be discussed hereafter — have passed into standard Mn. E.

There were in O. E. and M. E. other lengthenings

10 VOWEL CHANGES.

which did not become generalized and consequently did not pass into standard Mn. E. Thus, from the spelling in the Ormulum we know that Orm pro- nounced :

hard (O. E. hord).

cerd (O. E. ard, eard, see § 3).

swerd (0. E. sweord*).

forth (O. E. /or«).

erfte (O. E. eort5e).

Orm's bcern denotes lengthening of O. E. barn, beam ; his barrn must be the Danish barn, borrowed.

Orm's peculiar spelling enables us to determine usually the vowel quantity in the words used by him. For words not used by him, we have no such clue. Further, it is by no means clear that other writers in other dialects had the same lengthenings. This ques- tion is for the special student of M. E. ; the student who desires to know merely the history of standard Mn. E. need concern himself merely with the general lengthenings discussed in 1. 2. 3 of this section. It is quite certain that the other lengthenings did not exist in Chaucer's language. Only one or two traces have survived in standard Mn. E. Thus, O. E. bard, beard ; Mn. E. beard [I~] , § 9.

Occasionally a dialect form in Mn. E. illustrates

VOWEL-LENGTHENING. 11

the difference between dialect and standard in his- torical evolution. Thus, O. E. wald ' forest ' was wald in Mercian ; in Southern (Kentish) it was weald. The form wald wald has given rise to wold, see § 10, a word still used in poetry. Whereas the

*

form weald became weld, see § 9 ; this word sur- vives in the ' "Weald ' [wild] of Kent.

§ 4. Lengthening in Open Stressed Sylla- bles.— A short O.E. a, e, o in an open stressed syllable was lengthened.1 This lengthening took place much later than the one discussed in § 3. It began in the 13th century and consequently is characteristic of the M.E. period. For example :

O.E. O.E. O.E. O.E.

macian mete 'food' stelan hopian

M.E. M.E. M.E. M.E.

maken mgte stolen hqpen

Mn.E. Mn.E. Mn.E. Mn.E.

make meat steal hope

Even such O.E. monosyllables as he, me have been lengthened to he, me, now spoken [/u, ml] , § 9.

Orm's spelling (the Ormulum is of about the year 1200) indicates that he still pronounced the vowels short. Thus he writes (v for short, ' for long) :

1 An open syllable is one which ends in a vowel. Where a single consonant occurs between two vowels, it goes with the second vowel. Thus nia-cian} me-te.

12 VOWEL CHANGES.

t&kenn ' to take ' ; h%te ' hatred ' ; but tdkenn, O.E. tacen 'token'

Unfortunately Orm, though persistent in his use of the double consonant to mark vowel-shortness, is anything but persistent in his use of the signs w and ' ; he uses them only occasionally.

For other texts the student' s chief reliance is upon the rimes. Whenever in poetry we discover that the rime-couplet is composed of syllables one of which had in O. E. a long vowel and the other a short, we are safe in inferring that the poem was composed after lengthening had taken place, i. e., after 1250. Thus, Qre (O.E. are 'mercy') rimes with -lore (O. E. -lore ' lost ') ; see § 10.

In general the question of open-syllable lengthen- ing in M. E. presents more difficulties than the O. E. lengthening before consonant groups. One striking difficulty is to account for the subsequent change which took place in the quality of the lengthened vowel. See §11.

Not infrequently we find in M. E. a lengthening due to the dropping of a single consonant followed by vowel crasis ; and occasionally such a lengthening survives in Mn. E. Thus, O. E. maced, M. E. malced, maad, Mn. E. made ; O. E. taken, Mn. E. la' en, pp.

VOWEL-SHORTENING. 13

Lengthening in open syllables, as a process of the late thirteenth century, necessarily affected Danish loan-words ; for these were all introduced before 1200. Thus : Danish taka ; O. E. tacan ; M. E. taken ; Mn. E. take.

Some exceptions are difficult to explain. Thus, O. E. hZofon is still short in Mn. E. Perhaps this is due to the heavy suffix -on. The O. E. deofol is d&vil (short e) in Mn. E. Orm writes heojfness, heffness (short e) but deofless, defless (long e"). See § 7. M. E. roten, Mn. E. rotten (from Scand. rotinri) has remained short ; whereas, O. E. brocen, M. E. and Mn. E. broken, has been lengthened.

2. VOWEL-SHORTENING.

Under this heading are treated two processes sim- ilar in method and result but distinct in time. The second process is in the main probably a century or two later than the first.

§ 5. Early Shortening. — This took place in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, i. e., in the border period between O. E. and M. E. Since the Danish loan-words were introduced mainly in the tenth and eleventh centuries, they have been affected like the native words.

14 VOWEL CHANGES.

The process is best understood when the words affected are arranged in the following groups.

a. Compound words. — A long vowel is usually shortened when in the composition two consonants are brought together. For example :

O. E. wisdom Mn. E. wisdom.

Danish husbonde Mn. E. husband.

O. E. gosling Mn. E. gosling.

O. E. crlstendom Mn. E. [&mnefom.]

O. E. clcenllc Mn. E. cleanly.

O. E. Eddmund Mn. E. Edmund.

O. E. hldfmcesse Mn. E. Lammas.

O. E. Stratford Mn. E. Stratford.

The Ormulum is not always in accord with standard speech. Thus, although Orm writes wiss- dom (short i), laffdi^, 'lady' (short a, O. E. hlcef- dtje), he retains long a in larspell.

b. Words ending in a suffix or other termination prominent enough to bear a secondary stress in O. E.

It is necessary to bear in mind that such suffixes and terminations not only shortened an originally long vowel but kept an originally short vowel short before the lengthening consonant groups mentioned in § 3. The remarks in § 3, Exceptions, are pecu- liarly applicable here. Thus the suffixes -an (infini-

VOWEL-SHOBTENING. 15

tive), -en (past participle), did not prevent the lengthening of a short vowel before a consonant group ; still less did they shorten a long vowel. But the heavy infinitive ending -ian (O. E. ) of the second weak class did shorten a long vowel, as in

O. E. hdlgian Mn. E. to hallow,

contrasted with

O. E. halig Mn. E. holy.

As examples of suffixes and other terminations shortening a long vowel or keeping a short vowel short, may be noted :

O. E. cerende Mn. E. errand.

O. E. cild(e)ru Mn. E. childer, children.

(contrast O. E. did did, Mn. E. child).

Perhaps we should be safe in holding that all O. E. words of three syllables, of which the first syllable contained a long vowel, have shortened that vowel ; as in O. E. fireotene, Mn. E. thirteen, metathesis for threten.

c. Before certain consonant combinations.

1. Before ht, whether the hi was an original group and formed an integral part of the root or stem, or was formed from the juxtaposition of a stem ending in a guttural followed by an inflectional syllable beginning with a dental. Thus :

16 VOWEL CHANGES.

O. E. leoht late O. E. and early M. E. Uht. O.E. sohte " " " sohte.

O. E. brohte " " " brtfite.

O. E. tcehte, tahte, " " " tiehte, tahte.

See § 15 B.

2. Before -ft. For example : O. E. sofa M. E. s6jie. and before ss from t5s and is from ds. Examples :

O. E. btiss M. E. btiss. O. E. milts M. E. m/lltse.

Contrast

O. E. bllZe Mn. E. blithe [ai] ; O. E. milde Mn. E. mild [ai] .

Also before other O. E. ss. Thus :

O. E. Icessa M. E. ttsse. and before -$8. Thus :

O. E. stfftan, late O. E. seofiSan M. E. sffiS&n. O. E. cy%% M. E. ktth.

O. E. rwaSSw M. E. ivrath.

3. In the preterite and pret. part, of weak verbs, whenever syncope has taken place. Thus :

VOWEL-SHOKTEMNG. 17

O. E. cepan, cepte, M. E. k&pte (keppte, Orm. ) (note Scottish Jceepit, unsyncopated. ) O. E. heran, herde, M. E. herde. O. E. clcedde (Dan. kleifta), M. E. cl&dde.

(compare claftian, claSede, Mn. E. clothed, unsyncopated).

The old reduplicating verbs : slcepan, ondrcedan, wepan, swapan have, by the side of strong preterite forms, also weak preterites ; these latter have been shortened. Thus :

sUpte, -drcedd, w&pte, swZpte.

The operation or non-operation of syncope will account for such parallel forms in M. E. as dealt (short), dealed (long).

Syncope will also account for the present tense drat (Chaucer), for O. E. drcsdeH*.

4. There are other shortenings, less uniform and consequently less easy to classify ; they seem to belong to this period ; at any rate, to the thirteenth century.

a. Before st :

O. E. breost Mn. E. breast,

(but O. E. preost Mn. E. priest). O. E. fistor Mn. E. foster. O. E. dust Mn. E. dust. O. E. fyst Mn. E. fist.

18 VOWEL CHANGES.

On the other hand, in many French words and even in English words, a short a before st has been lengthened into [g], like the change discussed in §11. For example, paste, taste, waste, haste 'hurry,' pronounced & in Chaucer's day, are now pronounced [/>|s<], &c.

b. Before se (sA) :

O. E. wyscan Mn. E. wish.

O. E. ficesc Mn. E. flesh (flash in Orm. )

§ 6. Later Shortening. — Some shortenings are to be set down as late M. E., possibly early Mn. E. Some took place after the changes in vowel quality mentioned in §§ 9, 10, 12 ; others took place before.

If there are any general principles governing this later shortening, they have not yet been discovered. For the present these changes seem arbitrary and inconsistent. For example :

O. E. Mn. E.

death death [£] .

hce$ heath [I] .

dead dead [£] .

lead (metal) lead \e\.

Icedan ' to conduct ' lead [I] .

deaf deaf [either 2 or t] .

VOWEL-SHOETENING.

19

O. E.	Mn. E.
heafod	head [£].
Gdf	leaf [TJ.
fiod	flood [si].
god	good [ft] .
fod	food [u] .
ofter	other [a] .
boc	book [&] .
bosm	bosom [&, or u]
hceftSu	health [8].
gendg	enough [9] .
ruh (ruhh Orm. )	rough [a].
stlf	stiff [«].
flf, M. E. five	five [ai] .
duce	duck [9] .
seoc	sick [i].
monafi	month [si] .
teon	ten [«].

In late M. E., especially in certain texts of the fourteenth century, there is a marked tendency to shorten the vowel and gemmate the consonant in comparative and superlative forms. For example, in Piers Plowman, derrest (deor), herre (heah), gretter (great), sonnest (sona). O. E. linen, M. E. linnen, linen, has become Mn. E. linen.

20 VOWEL CHANGES.

The change of [u] to [9] in such words as flood, rough, duck, &c., is very late (eighteenth century). See § 15 B.

§ 7. Certain Terminations. — Certain suffixes present many difficulties and require special treat- ment.

a. -tig, Mn. E. -ty. This was originally an inde- pendent word used to form compounds. In Gothic tigus was used and declined as an ordinary noun, meaning a 'decade,' a unit of ten. In English it shortened a long stem vowel in accordance with § 5 a.

O. E. twentig Mn. E. twenty.

Krltig thirty.

This numeral suffix is mentioned here merely to dis- tinguish it more precisely from the following.

b. -ig, Mn. E. -y. This syllable, even in O. E., stood for at least two different formations.

1. In the O. E. popig 'poppy,' Ifig 'ivy,' bodig ' body,' hunig ' honey, ' it is a noun-suffix which has not yet been explained. The word Ifig ' ivy ' is to be put in a class by itself ; the usual etymology treats it as lf-heg, the -heg being explained as the old form of the Mn. E. ' hay. ' The etymology is anything but satisfactory.

VOWEL-SHOBTENING. 21

The other three words are equally puzzling. Popig is supposed to be borrowed from the Latin papdver; yet why papdver or evenpdpaver should become popig no one seems to know. In hunig the suffix -ig appears to come from an earlier -ang, -eng ; the stem hun- is still unexplained. The word bodig has not yet been explained in either of its syllables.

2. -ig as an adjective suffix is very frequent. It stands for a G. T. -ag, which is found in Gothic. Thus O. E. hdlig is Gothic hailag-s.

Usually the -ig adjective does not shorten the stem vowel. Thus O. E. hdlig, Mn. E. holy. There is, however, one exception at least ; O. E. cenig is Mn. E. any [£]. Orm's anig is ambiguous. Perhaps the shortening of cenig is due to the influence of many.

c. Some other suffixes need more investigation than they have yet received.

1. The -en of the pret. part and the -ian of the weak infinitive have been already mentioned, § 5 b. There is, however, another -en used as an adjective termination, for example in O. E. hcefien. This -en does not shorten the stem.

2. The suffixes -el, -ol, -et seem to have the capacity of shortening a long vowel or keeping a short vowel short, contrary to the principle discussed in § 4. For example :

22 VOWEL CHANGES.

O. E. deofol Mn. E. devil (still long

in Orm). O. E. hof Mn. E. hovel.

bremel « *6romtf) bramble.

rynel runnel.

bueet bucket.

cemet emmet, ant.

3. For the effect of suffixes of comparison, see § 6, end. The M. E. and Mn. E. pronunciation of such words as brcegen, flcegel, &c. , can be explained only in connection with the general diphthongization before the consonants g, h, w. See § 15.

3. CHANGES IN VOWEL QUALITY.

It is impossible to discuss in this place all or even most of the changes which have taken place in the quality of the vowels. We must content ourselves with looking at a few of the most significant.

§ 8. Levelling. — 1. The distinction between ce and a in O. E. ceased to be maintained. In M. E. we find in general only a, for instance O. E. woes, M. E. was ; though occasionally we find ce, and in a few instances the ce survives as e in M. E., for

CHANGES IN VOWEL QUALITY. 23

instance creft, foet in Kentish. Thus O. E. dwges (gen. sing. ) and dagos (nom. ace. pi. ) are in M. E. dages for both ; yet in dialect forms the old value of dagos survived in the now archaic daws ; compare also dawn, O. E. dagenian, § 15. The ordinary plural days has evidently been modelled upon the singular day.

This levelling of a, ce to a usually takes place even where the ce is a shortening of O. E. OB ; though not infrequently the ce is found as e in M. E. and Mn. E. For example :

O. E. clcensian M. E. clcensien, clansian ;

Mn. E. cleanse. O. E. fadde M. E. ledde, ladde ;

Mn. E. led.

2. O. E. eo for G. T. a also appears as a in M. E. Here we must bear in mind the dialectic differences in O. E.

In W. S. a was regularly ea before I -J- cons, and r -j- cons.

In Northumbrian a remained a in both situations.

In Mercian a remained a before l-\- cons, but became eo before r -\- cons. Consequently we find :

W. S. feallan North, fallan Merc, fallan W. S. wearm North, warm Merc, wearm.

24 VOWEL CHANGES.

Since standard Mn. E. is derived from Mercian, we should expect to find Mercian wearm appearing as wcerm, werm in M. E. In reality we find warm in M. E. The explanation seems to be this. The vowel sign ea in O. E. did not represent a sound e -\- a, but a sound ce -J- a or perhaps CK> ; the stress being on the ce. This ce became a like the ce in 1.

3. O. E. eo for e before h and before r -f- cons, is levelled to e in M. E. For example :

O. E. feohtan M. E. fehten.

4. O. E. ea and ce (except when shortened to a, see 1) become |. For example :

O. E. beam M. E. bgm. tear tgre.

~eac |&(e).

sprmce spgche.

deed d$de.

street strgte.

(Compare Eadmund, Edmund; Stratford, § 5 a).

5. O. E. eo became e in M. E. For example :

O. E. frebsan M. E. fresen leaf lef

debp dep

,EL QUALITY. 25

steopfader, Mn. E. step-

} vowel written e in were carefully distin- period and even well >ne is the open or un- ich meme ; in modern n I . The other is the snch bonte. Modern it with the sign $ ; necessary, sounds is not only .. illustrates an important point .~iy of the language. Although M. E. did ... ,„ mark the distinction in writing, it kept the sounds apart. Thus Chaucer seldom makes the sounds rime. When, on the border line between M. E. and Mn. E. , printing was introduced into England, the early printers established the practice (though not a very consistent one) of using ea for the open sound and ee or ie for the close sound. Hence we get the spellings teach, O. E. t&cean ; deep, O. E. deop ; field, O. E. feld, see § 3. 1.

O. E. e in a few words, such as the adverb her, was an original close e.

24 VOWEL CHANC

Since standard Mn. E. is derive* should expect to find Mercian wcerm, werm in M. E. In re? M. E. The explanation set vowel sign ea in O. E. did e -f- «> but a sound ce -f- a or being on the ce. This ce beca

3. O. E. eo for e before h levelled to e in M. E. For

O. E. feohtan M. "

4. O. E. ed and ce (e:

see 1) become g. For

O. E. beam M. E. bgm. tear tgre.

eac p(e).

sprcece spgche.

dcsd dgde.

street strgte.

(Compare Eadmund, Edmund; Stratford, § 5 a).

5. O. E. eo became e in M. E. For example :

O. E. frebsan M. E. fresen leof lef

debp dep

CHANGES IN VOWEL QUALITY. 25

(Note the shortening in steopfceder, Mn. E. step- father, § 5a).

§ 9. The Vowel e. — The vowel written e in M. E. had two sounds, which were carefully distin- guished throughout the M. E. period and even well into the Mn. E. time. The one is the open or un- rounded vowel, like the French meme ; in modern grammatical books it is written f . The other is the close or rounded e, like the French bonte. Modern grammarians usually designate it with the sign £ ; the subscript dot, however, is not necessary.

The distinction between the two sounds is not only important in itself but illustrates an important point in the history of the language. Although M. E. did not mark the distinction in writing, it kept the sounds apart. Thus Chaucer seldom makes the sounds rime. When, on the border line between M. E. and Mn. E. , printing was introduced into England, the early printers established the practice (though not a very consistent one) of using ea for the open sound and ee or ie for the close sound. Hence we get the spellings teach, O. E. tcecean ; deep, O. E. deop ; field, O. E. feldf see § 3. 1.

O. E. e in a few words, such as the adverb her, was an original close e.

26 VOWEL CHANGES.

O. E. e, the i-umlaut of 6, was close.

O. E. e produced by lengthening before -Id was close.

O. E. ce was open £ in M. E.

O. E. 8 lengthened in open syllable, see § 4, was open | in M. E.

Old Mercian e, the i-umlaut of ea (the W. S. form was ie), was close e in M. E.

Examples.

0. E. metan M. E. meten Mn. E. meet (verb).

mite m%te meat.

sttlan st$le deal.

her an (W. S. hieran) hear.

M. E. heren.

In the matter of chronology, M. E. e went over to the [I] sound in late M. E. ; the change was com- plete by the end of the fifteenth century, as in the words deep, feel, and in the pronouns me, he, &c. ; see § 4. Whereas the M. E. f still remained open and did not become e, [I] until near the end of the seventeenth century. Shakespeare, in 1 Hen. IV, ii, 4, 264, lets Falstaff say : "If reasons were as plentiful as blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon compulsion." Falstaff pronounces

CHANGES IN VOWEL QUALITY. 27

reason with an evident pun on raisin. The O. French reson, borrowed in early M. E. , was already somewhat rounded but not wholly ; since Shake- speare's day it has been fully rounded into e [I]. But the Fr. raisin is still pronounced r&sin. In the days of Shakespeare the two words were still enough alike to justify Falstaffs pun.

The open f survived, for the most part, in Dry- den's day. In fact, something like it is found even in Pope, in foreign words borrowed with the | sound. Thus Pope, Rape of the Lock, m, 296, rimes tea with obey. Obey, Fr. obeir, is still pronounced obei, but t g has become [ti] .

Recognition of the fact that g remained open in the seventeenth century will explain the most striking peculiarity of the English pronunciation in Ireland. The English language was firmly implanted in Ireland by the great colonizing efforts of Queen Elizabeth and Oliver Cromwell. Now the Eliza- bethan and Cromwellian colonists still pronounced tgch, spgch, clgn, and this was the pronunciation which the Irish learned from them. Since that time all Englishmen have changed to [tlch, splch, cliri], and the educated Irish have partially learned to make the change ; but the uneducated Irish still cling to the older f .

28 VOWEL CHANGES.

§ 10. The Vowel a. — An O. E. a, whether originally long or the result of the lengthening of a before Id (see § 3. 1), became g in M. E. The change took place in the first half of the thirteenth century ; consequently it affected Danish and Latin words borrowed in O. E.

O. E. aid, did Mn. E. old. stdn stone,

papa pope,

frd (Danish) fro (adverb).

Orm wrote before the change ; consequently we find in the Ormulum : an, stdn, got (one, stone, goaf). But in the poem entitled On God Ureison (thirteenth century) we find such rimes as : one, trone (0. E. an, Fr. trone) verses 21-22 ; ore, uerlore(n) (O. E. are, forloreri) verses 73-74. See §4.'

In some MSS. the vowel is written oa. Sometimes we find two forms of the same word, the one original O. E., the other Danish. Thus :

1Our Mn. standard pronunciation of the numeral [wan] was originally dialectic and is found in the dialectic pronun- ciation of such words as oath, oak, oats; see Wright, Engl. Dial. Grammar, § 123. The earlier Q sound, however, sur- vives— partially rounded — in only, atone.

CHANGES IN VOWEL QUALITY. 29

O. E. Icen, M. E. Igne ; Dan. Ian, M. E. l$ne, Mn. E. loan. In some instances the O. E. itself has two different vowels. For example :

O. E. ddl, Mn. E. dole ; O. E. dcel, Mn. E. deal. O. E. -had, Mn. E. -hood; O.E. -hed, Mn. E. -head. (Compare knighthood and godhead. )

The M. E. vowel developed from the O. E. a was an open g. In the word O. E. brad, M. E. brqd, Mn. E. broad, the sound has remained wide open to the present day. In most words, however, it has been rounded as we now hear it in road, boat. Thus g (O. E. a) and g (O. E. o in open syllable, § 4) are now equivalent in sound, as in the rime pope, hope.1

When preceded by w the Q became fully rounded, in most words, after Chaucer's time, and like the original close o passed over into the [u] sound, as in two, who, [tu, hu] • ooze, O. E. ivase. But in so (O. E. swd), woe (O. E. wa), the o sound remains.

§ 11. Open-syllable Lengthening of O. E. a. — In § 4 it was said that O. E. a in an open syllable

1 The peculiar New England pronunciation of such words as coat, boat, may be a modified survival of the old open sound, but shortened.

30 VOWEL CHANGES.

was lengthened in M. E. This lengthened vowel must have had a peculiar quality of sound, neither the a nor the e nor the o. It has always been writ- ten and printed a ; yet it must have had an e value. This e, however, can not have resembled the e in stelan, which has become [I] in Mn. E., whereas O. E. faran, M. E. fare is pronounced [/if] in Mn. E. The [g] sound is common in the sixteenth century ; whether earlier, we do not know. At any rate it must have differed from the e in tgche ; for the latter has become [I] .

The lengthening of a to [g] is later than the change of O. E. a to o. This is evidenced by the treatment of French words borrowed at various times in the M. E. period. In French words having the French accent on the syllable containing the a, the a was lengthened. Thus age, sage, grace became age, sage, grace, Mn. E. [jj] . Some of these words must have been introduced quite late, certainly after the O. E. a had become M. E. [g] . In fact it is evident that the conversion of a, a to [|] did not take place before the fifteenth century. In Chaucer's language such words as face, grace, age have the [a], not the [f] sound.

It is very important to note the part played by the French accent. Why do we pronounce face [g] but chapel ? The word face had the accent on the a in

CHANGES IN VOWEL QUALITY. 31

French and also from the start in M. E. But chapel was borrowed with the accent chapel and continued for some time to be pronounced chapel in English. By the time the accent became chapel the principle — or impulse — of lengthening had ceased to operate. This will account for the short a in cabin, cattle, marry.

§ 12. O. E. o (close). — O. E. o remained 5 until the fifteenth century, when it was still farther rounded into an u sound. This it-sound (00) never was a perfectly pure u ; for it has not been diphthonged into au. See § 14.

The tendency to change o into oo has affected even French words ; for instance, faux pas, sometimes pronounced foopah.

Examples.

O. E. dom	Mn. E. doom.
col	cool.
gos	goose.
id%	tooth.

mona moon.

It must be borne in mind, however, that in many O. E. words the o was shortened in early M. E. Where this shortening took place before ht there

32 VOWEL CHANGES.

was a peculiar diphthonging of the oht. See § 5 c, § 15.

There are other shortenings less easy to account for. Thus :

O. E. 6Ser, broftor, modor, all now with the [si] sound. See § 6.

In certain words the oo has been shortened in Mn. E. to the u sound. For example, foot (versus food), book, good. In bosom the vowel is either short or long.

In glove, blood, flood, and some others, the vowel has become [&] ; see § 6. This [9] is found also in some words which had an O. E. u, or an O. E. u, in open syllable in M. E. For example :

O. E. abufan Mn. E. above,

dufe dove,

lufu love.

O. E. o when lengthened in open syllable became Q. Examples :

O. E. Krotu M. E. Srgfe Mn. E. throat, hopian hypien hope,

dropa drgpe.

Chaucer, Tr. and Or., I, 941, rimes drgpe with hype. The modern drop can not be this word but must come from O. E. *drop, or *dropp.

CHANGES IN VOWEL QUALITY. 33

Thus O. E. o lengthened and O. E. a have come together in vowel-quality. This is indicated by the Mn. E. spelling : throat (O. E. ftrotu); road (O. E. rod).

Did O. E. o before Id become o or g ? The usual opinion is that it became g. Yet there are objections to this view. The only word in question is gold (gold in Mn. E. ). This pronunciation may be ex- plained, however, by assuming that gold, an isolated form, has been influenced by the very numerous words in -old from O. E. -aid, such as cold, bold, told, sold. Further, the word as a proper name is written Gould, Goold. This oo sound presupposes M. E. o. Finally, the pronunciation goold survived in the speech of old-fashioned persons in the early part of the nineteenth century.

§ 13. O. E. t, /; u, u. — These vowels remained unchanged throughout the M. E. period. The lengthening of i and u, y before nd is O. E. See §3.2.

The vowels i, u, y are not lengthened in open syllables.

All through the M. E. period -and even in Mn. E. there is a curious interchange of i and e. Thus we find Mn. E. hinge, singe, springe, for M. E. henge,

34 VOWEL CHANGES.

senge, sprenge, see § 20, D. 2 ; also Mn. E. wing for M. E. weng. But in drench, wrench, and other words, the M. E. e remains. In the Ayenbite (four- teenth century) the Mn. E. word sin is written zenne (initial z for s is Southern dialect).

4. DlPHTHONGIZATION.

Under this heading are treated several groups of phenomena differing widely in their chronology and in their phonetic value.

§ 14. Diphthonging of *, u. — Every I, whether long in O. E., or lengthened according to § 3. 2, or borrowed in M. E. from a foreign language, has become [ai] in Mn. E.

O. E. y (i- umlaut of w) has also become [at].

This diphthonging process began in the fifteenth century, and continued through the sixteenth.

The change affected also the peculiar I developed in late M. E. before h or g. See § 15.

The modern pronunciation of the diphthong is [ai] . But this is only the latest stage ; it must have been preceded by such earlier stages as [ei] and perhaps [oi].

DIPHTHONGIZATION. 35

Examples.

O. E. mm Mn. E. mine, findan, findan find,

fyr fire,

bryd bride.

Note also the very late diphthonging of either,

neither. These were in O. E. cegfter, *ncegfter; in

•3

M. E. Cither, neither. See § 15, ^ In the eigh- teenth century the pronunciation vacillated between [g] and p]. The pronunciation [ai] crept in late in the eighteenth century.

In like manner O. E. u has become [aw] ; the intermediate stage was [era] .

Examples.

O. E. hus Mn. E. house.

mu$ mouth,

bunden, bunden bound.

This change of u to [aw] is not parallel at every point with the change of I to [ai]. It has not affected foreign words, for example, Judas, sure or even the English words youth, uncouth. In youth, and in Judas, sure, and other words under French influence, the vowel did not have the pure [u] sound but was rather an [t'w]. The distinction is

36 VOWEL CHANGES.

illustrated by the O. E. sur, which had a pure u and which is now pronounced sour [aw] ; with it com- pare the Fr. stir, which is the Mn. E. sure [ Jiwr] . Note also the Mn. E. duke, tube, pronounced cor- rectly with [iu] , not with [u] .

The very late M. E. oo from O. E. 5 did not have the pure u sound either ; for it has not been changed to [aw]. See § 12.

The diphthonging of u to [aw] took place after the fifteenth century. In fact, there is evidence that the earlier u sound survived in the speech of old- fashioned persons as late as the end of the seven- teenth century. Thus, in Farquhar's Love and a Bottle (1698), Act 2, Scene 2, Rigadoon says :

' ' Zoons is only used by the disbanded officers and bullies ; but zauns is the beaux' pronunciation."

In this connection it is worthy of note that the ordi- nary pronunciation of wound 'injury,' is [u] ; we pronounce [ait] only in poetry ; similarly wind, ' air, breeze,' has \ai\ only in poetry ; in prose the pro- nunciation is wind.

In sound 'noise,' from French son, we have the [aw] ; also in the verb sound ' to test the depth, ' French sonder. In these words, however, the [aw] may be due to the analogy of sound l healthy, ' O. E.

DIPHTHONGING. 37

sund, sund, and sound ' arm of the sea, ' O. E. sund, sund.

§ 15. Diphthonging before g ; h ; w.

A. Before g.

1. O. E. ce, M. E. a, before g produced [afj. This, [at] probably survives in the London Cockney pronunciation of day, daisy, may, &c. In Chaucer, however, and in modern standard English since Chaucer, the \ai\ has been levelled to \ei\ ; Chaucer and all modern poets rime way (O. E. weg*) and day (O. E. dceg~).

Examples.

O. E. brcegen Mn. E. brain,

fagen fain,

flcegel flail,

wcegen wain.

(Mn. E. wagon is from the Dutch. )

2. O. E. e before g produced [ei] .

Example : weg, Mn. E. way.

3. O. E. ce before g produced |i, which survived quite late in Mn. E. , but in the eighteenth century went over to [I] in such words as O. E. ce^er. Dr. Johnson pronounced either \£i\; but in his day

38 VOWEL CHANGES.

the pronunciation had already become [t] and was even becoming [a{] . See § 14.

N. B. O. E. eceg is Mn. E. key grceg gray

4. O. E. e (whether original or the Mercian i-umlaut of ea) and ea before g produced ei, which at the end of the M. E. and beginning of the Mn. E. period went over to \i\ and was still later diph- thonged to [at] .

Examples.

O. E. cage M. E. ege (a) Mn. E. eye.

tegan (W. S. tiegan) M. E. tegen tie.

degan M. E. degen die.

deagian M. E. deyen dye.

It is worthy of note that the Scottish pronunciation of eye ' oculus ' and die ' mori ' is still [i, dl~\ .

5. O. E. eo ; I, I ; y, y before g produced early M. E. ei, late M. E. [I] , which has been diphthonged to [at] in Mn. E.

•

Examples.

O. E. lebgan ' mentiri ' Mn. E. lie.

dreogan ' to endure ' (Scotch) dree,

flebgan fly.

nigon nine,

ligeft lieth.

DIPHTHONGING. 39

dryge dry.

tigofta tithe.

6. O. E. a before g produced the peculiar ou, aw sound (§) ; see § 20 B. For example :

O. E. lagu (Danish) Mn. E. law.

dragan draw,

sagu (a saying) saw.

O. E. a before g produced gw, o.

O. E. agan Mn. E. owe (verb).

O. E. o before g produced QW, o.

boga Mn. E. bow 'arcus.'

O. E. ug, ttg produced M. E. uw, Mn. E. [au] . O. E. bugan Mn. E. (to) bow.

fugol Mn. E. fowl.

It is to be noted, however, that where in O. E. the g was final, it became h. Consequently words ending in g belong in subsection E.

B. Before h.

1. O. E. eh, eoh ; Mercian eh, ceh (W. S. eah), became M. E. eig h eih, Mn. E. [I] . For example : O. E. feoh Mn. E. fee.

O. E. seh (Mercian) Chaucer seigh.

Mn. E. dialect see (for saw~). See No. 5.

40 VOWEL CHANGES.

2. O. E. eoh has become even [at] in Mn. E. O. E. SeoA M. E. />e&, frh Mn. E. thigh.

3. O. E. ceh before t of the weak preterite and preterite participle was shortened to ahte, elite : see § 5. c. 1 ; § 8. These became M. E. eighte, aughte. In Chaucer the eighte forms are still found. In Mn. E. we have only aught forms.

Examples.

O. E. rcshte (pret. of rojcetm) M. E. rehte, rahte ; Chaucer reighte, raughte ;

Mn. E. raught [&] .

O. E. tcehte Mn. E. taught.

M. E. caeche (French cacher') Mn. E. caught.

The modern distraught is a corruption of the French distrait, after the analogy of straught, old pret. of stretch.

4. O. E. eah became M. E. eigh, later [I], still later diphthonged to [at] . For example :

O. E. heah; in Chaucer heigh\ei\ ; Mn. E. high. Chaucer also pronounces [i] , to rime with Emilie.

5. O. E. ah (Mercian for W. S. eah~) became augh [&] . For example :

O. E. sah (preterite) M. E. saugh Mn. E. saw.

DIPHTHONGING. 41

See No. 1, remarks on eh. Chaucer has both saugh and seigh.

O. E. dhte was shortened to ahte and also became aughte.

O. E. ahte, ahte Mn. E. ought.

6. O. E. ah became M. E. Qugh Mn. E. owe. O. E. dah Mn. E. dough.

7. O. E. o/ii, shortened to oht (§ 5, c. 1), became ou [&] ; O. E. sohte, sohte, Mn. E. sought.

8. O. E. oA. ; uh, uh ; iiht, uht. Theoretically all these sounds must have been ugh or ugh in M. E. But in point of fact they have been so strangely developed in Mn. E. as to resist every attempt at classification. Thus :

O. E. genog, genoh Mn. E. enough [9]. toh tough [9].

ruh rough [9].

]nruh, \>urh through [u].

ploh plough [era].

bog, boh bough [au].

In such words as genog, toh, ruh we may assume that the h sound went over to the / sound, and before this / the vowel was shortened like the e in deaf; see § 6. The change of [u] to [a] is not peculiar to this class of words ; it is a very late process

42 VOWEL CHANGES.

(eighteenth century), occurring in but, us, punch, flood, &c. See § 6.

C. Before w.

1. O. E. aw before a vowel became the peculiar Mn. E. ou, aw [§] .

O. E. clawu Mn. E. claw.

2. O. E. aw before vowel became M. E. QU. O. E. ow before vowel became M. E. ou. In Mn. E. both sounds are o.

O. E. cnawan Mn. E. know,

growan grow.

3. O. E. eow, law, cew became M. E. g, ew [iu] . O. E. eowu M. E. gwe Mn. E. ewe.

sceawian M. E. shgwen

Icewed Mn. E. leivd.

4. O. E. eow, lw, lw became M. E. eu, ew [iii\ . O. E. cneow Mn. E. knew.

In Mn. E. the words in both No. 3 and No. 4 are pronounced with an [iu] sound, or even with an [iu]. There is no Mn. E. verb shew with [_iu]. The verb show, even if written shew, is pronounced sho. This o must go back to an O. E. sc(e)awian, in which the O. E. stress [ea] has been shifted to the Danish ed [ia] . See No. 2.

DIPHTHONGING. 43

D. Two other phenomena, very curious, are best treated in this connection.

1. Not infrequently we get in M. E. an ei diph- thong in the preterite and pret. part, of verbs the stem of which ends in a ch sound. Thus O. E. cwencan, pret. cwencte, has in M. E. a pret. queynte ; O. E. blencan has a M. E. pret. bleynte. Thus far no explanation of the phenomenon has been found. If we assume, for example, that blen- can is from *blankion, the preterite should be either *blanlde, *blanhte (syncope of the i, t) OT*blenchte (c palatal according to § 19). See Sievers, § 407. In other words, if j, i is syncopated, the stem vowel should not be umlauted to e, ei; if i, i remains, the c should be fully palatalized.

2. In some words the O. E. consonant / between vowels, pronounced v in O. E., has gone over to a w sound and produced diphthonging.

O. E. hafoc Mn. E. hawk,

ceafol jowl.

In this last word the initial ch has become j ; see § 18. 4).

The diphthonging before g, h, and to is a difficult problem in the history of English vowels. Many of the features appear arbitrary.

Of Chaucer's pronunciation in particular it may

44 VOWEL CHANGES.

be said that the h and gh are not yet silent letters. The h closely resembled the German ch ; the gh probably resembled the German g in sagen, as that word is spoken in Midland Germany.

§ 16. Diphthonging before I and r.

1. The vowel a before I final, or before II, I plus consonant (except the Id discussed in § 3), was diph- thonged subsequent to the fourteenth century into an ou, aw [§] sound. Some of the changes took place in the sixteenth century. Chaucer still has the original pure a sound. For example :

alle Mn. E. all (§). falle fall,

talke talk,

balled ' thin -haired ' bald.

With the last word compare

O. E. bald, bald M. E. b$ld Mn. E. bold.

In such words as talk, chalk, &c., the I has become silent In calf the I is silent but the a is not diph- thonged.

A similar diphthonging has taken place in the American pronunciation of certain words, for ex- ample, swamp, wasp.

2. The vowel o before I plus consonant (except

DIPHTHONGING. 45

O. E. Id ; see § 3 and § 12) became after Chau- cer's time o.

folk Mn. E. folk,

bolt bolt.

Before k the I has become silent, like the I in chalk. 3. The vowel changes before r can scarcely be reduced to a system. At this point the pronunciation usual in America differs from that in England. The difference shows itself in two directions.

a. In England the r when final or before a con- sonant is not spoken as a consonant but is reduced to a mere 'glide', with the value of 9. For ex- ample, water pronounced [wQt 9] .

b. In England the e often, if not usually, becomes a. For example, the word clerk may be pronounced cladk.

Examples.

O. E. beorcan (of a dog) M. E. berke

Mn. E. bark, ba&k.

(The pronunciation has coincided with that of M. E. barke of a tree, and of bark ' vessel,' from the French barque. )

O. E. steorra M. E. sterre star,

feor fert ferre far.

clerk [cbrk, cloak.]

46 VOWEL CHANGES.

birce birche [torch, bdch.~\

brid brid, bird \b&rd, bdd.~\

cursian curse [cars, cas.]

The vowel o before r final or r plus consonant has become [&].

O. E. for Mn. E. for

fort) forth

With these compare the following :

M. E. moral Mn. E. moral O. E. sorg M. E. sorwe Mn. E. sorrow sdrig M. E. syry Mn. E. sorry

CHRONOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE CHANGES

IN §§ 3-16. §17.

1. The earliest change was that in § 3, namely, the lengthening before certain consonants. This took place before 1000 and is wholly O. E.

2. Next in time was the earlier shortening dis- cussed in § 5. Most of these shortenings took place in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, in the border period between O. E. and M. E. At any rate, the shortening of O. E. a, ce to a was earlier than the change of a to q, or of ce to g. This accounts for O. E. hdlig, M. E. hijlig, versus O. E. hdlgian, M. E. h&lwe, Mn. E. hallow. See § 8. 1.

DIPHTHONGING. 47

3. Next was the change of a to Q. See § 10. This took place in the first half of the thirteenth century.

4. Next was the lengthening of a, e, o in open syllables. See § 4. The change was not earlier than the second half of the thirteenth century. Certainly the a could not have been lengthened before a became Q ; since in that case we should have had an Mn. E. verb */ore, instead of the peculiar fare [/fr] which is discussed in § 11 and which must be the lengthen- ing of some peculiar a or ce.

5. Still later — in the main, at least — are the diph- thongings discussed in § 15. It is impossible to determine accurately the sequence in which these various diphthongings took place. Some of them are very early ; notably the diphthonging of e and ce, a before g. This is very early M. E. and even late O. E. In general the diphthonging tendency was at work all through the M. E. period.

6. The change of e (close) to [£]. This took place in the fifteenth century. See § 9.

7. The change of o (close) to oo [u] ; also in the fifteenth century. See § 12.

8. The diphthonging of I, y to [at]. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. See § 14.

9. The diphthonging of u to [aw] . In the six- teenth and seventeenth centuries. See § 14.

48

VOWEL CHANGES.

10. The change of g (open) to [t] . In the six- teenth and seventeenth centuries. See § 9.

11. The changes before I and r. See § 16. These can not be dated with accuracy ; certainly they were later than Chaucer. Probably they were not simul- taneous but scattered through the fifteenth and six- teenth centuries. Some were of the seventeenth.

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF PRINCIPAL VOWEL CHANGES.

9TH-10TH C.	11TH-12TH C.	13TH C. 1st half 2dhalf.	14TH C.
Early Lengthening : a, e, i -f- Id, i, u, y + nd, i, a + mb, §3.	Early Shortening : in compounds, before suffixes, before cons, groups,	a to Q § 10.	Length- ening of a, e, o in open syll., §4.	Period of Chaucer, Gower, Church Plays ; no marked
	§ 5-			changes.

15TH C.	16TH C.	17TH C.	18TH C.
e to 1, § 9,	i, y	M to [au]	Spread
o to «, § 12,	to	§14.	of the
a to g in open	[at'],	gtop]	9
syllable, §11.	§ 14.	§9.	sound, § 15 B 8,
			§6.

CHAPTER III. CONSONANT CHANGES.

In general the consonant system of O. E. remained through M. E. and into Mn. E. That is to say, a consonant has usually in Mn. E. the sound which it had in 0. E.

There are, however, two groups of changes. In the first group is placed the loss or on the other hand the intrusion of a consonant. With this phenomenon we may consider, for the sake of convenience, the phenomenon of voicing a consonant originally un- voiced, and some other changes.

The second group comprises the changes involved in the palatalization of c [Jt] into ch [£[] and g into

Loss AND INTRUSION ; VOICING, &c.

§18.

1. a. The initial hi-, hr-, hn- of O. E. became in M. E. 1-, r-, n-. This dropping of the h began about 1000 and was complete by the middle of the four- tenth century. Thus we get :

49

50 CONSONANT CHANGES.

O. E. hldf Mn. E. loaf,

hleapan leap,

hrof roof,

hrcefn raven,

hnecca neck,

hnutu nut.

O. E. hw- is written wh- in M. E. and in Mn. E., but the sound is still hw-, at least in America ; in England the usual pronunciation is w-. Thus the Englishman usually confounds

whales and Wales, while wile,

which witch.

O. E. hwd, now written who, is pronounced [hu] . See § 10.

O. E. hdl is now written whole (the writing dates from the sixteenth century) but the w is not sounded.

In the extreme Northern (Scottish) dialect hw- is written qu-, quh- ; the pronunciation is [x^], the x having the value of the German ch in auch.

b. O. E. en-, gn-. Both c and g are silent in Mn. E. en-, however, was still pronounced di- late in the seventeenth century ; gn- retained the gr-sound during the sixteenth century, but lost it early in the seventeenth.

LOSS AND INTRUSION: VOICING. 51

c. In final -mb the b is silent ; e. g., climb, comb.

2. -s. Final s, in such words as is, his, as, was, was still s in Chaucer's speech, although it had the sound of [z] in the Southern dialect. The sound of [z] became general in the fifteenth century, although in the sixteenth the -s sound survived when followed by a word beginning with s or sh.

In goose, mouse, us, hence, thence, the s sound remains.

The -s in the plural of nouns and in the 3d sing. of verbs remains s when preceded by an unvoiced consonant, but has acquired the [z] sound when pre- ceded by a vowel, by a consonant not spoken although written, or by a voiced consonant. Compare :

days with lips

bows hats

bougJis backs

sighs sights

In French words intervocalic s has the sound of z. For example, poison, cousin, reason. But where the word is written -ce-, the s sound remains ; as in face, grace. (For the g sound, see § 11.)

In many word-couplets the difference between s and \z\ marks the distinction between noun and verb. Thus :

52 CONSONANT CHANGES.

Noun. Verb.

excuse excuse.

use use (but use 'to be in

habit of,' with s).

grease grease ; [s] is also heard.

house house.

glass glaze.

grass graze.

3. In certain circumstances the [s] sound has become J. The phenomenon is chiefly noticeable in Lathi-French words ending in -tion, -tient. As long as these words were spoken with the French accent on the -on, -ent, the t was pronounced s, as in Chau- cer. For example :

patient pron. pa-si-ent. salvation salva-si-oun.

When, however, at the end of or soon after the Chaucerian period, the accent was wholly removed from the termination, the [s\ went over to [J] :

pg\9nt salvffin (f, see § 11).

Note further the change of the s-sound to [ J ] in cherish, perish, nourish, &c. Chaucer still rimes cherice, [s] , with vice. Also note the change of the 2-sound to [z h\ in leisure, pleasure, treasure, dzure, &c., originally accented plezure, azure, &c.

LOSS AND INTRUSION ; VOICING. 53

In question, combustion, &c., the st has become

M3-

4. The ch sound [<J], whether developed from k in English words according to the palatalizing process discussed in § 19 or borrowed from the French, has frequently gone over to thejf sound [df]. Thus :

M. E. cndwleche Mn. E. knowledge

pertriche (Fr.) partridge.

cabbache (Fr. dial.) cabbage.

Cartridge, from Fr. cartouche, is found only in Mn. E. Sausage, from Fr. saucisse, is hard to explain.

It is to be noted that in these words the ch, j sound is in a syllable which has ceased to be stressed. There are some words, however, in which the ch of a stressed syllable has become [dj]. Thus :

O. E. on cer M. E. on cher, char Mn. E. ajar.

On cer means 'on the turn.' It is to be noted that we pronounce char woman, a woman hired not regu- larly but for some special turn of work.

O. E. ceaft M. E. chavel, chaul Mn. E. jowl.

The etymology of jaw, chaw is obscure.

5. Intrusion of a consonant. Some of these changes are M. E. ; others are Mn. E.

54 CONSONANT CHANGES.

a. A p is inserted between m and t. For example : O. E. cemtig M. E. empti Mn. E. empty.

In this word the p is both sounded and written. In many Mn. E. words the p is sounded but not written, as in dream' t. It is interesting to note that the form drempte occurs six times in the M. E. poem of Genesis and Exodus (thirteenth century) ; also the form dempt, p. p. of demen 'to judge' occurs once. The p survives in the name Dempster, but not in the com- mon noun deemster. In like manner the Fr. som- metier has developed into Mn. E. sumpter.

In M. E. a p was inserted between m and n, as in Chaucer's Sompnour (Fr. somenour), dampned (Fr. damne), solempne (solenne), nempnen (O. E. nem- Twm). These forms have not been retained in Mn. E.

b. A b sound has been developed between m and r, as in Mn. E. slumber, O. E. slumerian (Germ. schlummerri). In Mn. E. thumb, O. E. ftuma (Germ, daumeri), the b has become silent inMn. E. ; but is still spoken in thimble, O. E. ftymel.

c. A d sound has been developed between n and r, as in Mn. E. thunder, O. E. ftunor (Germ. Don- Tier). In kindred, O. E. cynrceden, M. E. cunrede, the intrusive d is Mn. E.

d. An r has been developed in certain Fr. words,

LOSS AND INTRUSION; VOICING. 55

for example : philosopher (Fr. philosophe), lavender (plant-name); and an I in principle (Fr. principe).

O. E. has, late M. E. hqrs, is Mn. E. hoarse (compare Germ. heis-er~). Also O. E. brydguma, M. E. brldgume, is Mn. E. bridegroom.

In Mn. E. we find the following intrusive con- sonants :

e. A t after s in such forms as

M. E. againes Mn. E. against.

in middes amidst, midst.

whiles whilst.

betwix betwixt.

O. E. hces behest.

In the vulgar onst, oneet the same tendency has not been recognized in the standard speech. O. E. anefen is Mn. E. anent.

f. A d after n.

M. E. boun (Icel. btiinri) Mn. E. bound

(ready to go ; see busk, § 19 A). Ignen (O. E. Icenan) lend,

rounen (O. E. runiari) round

(to whisper). hlne (O. E. hina*) ? hind

(servant). sounen (Fr. suner) sound.

56 CONSONANT CHANGES.

But in swoon, swoun (M. E. swoyneri) and drown (M. E. drunen, droune') the d has not been accepted in standard speech. Also a d between n and /.

M. E. spinel Mn. E. spindle.

(O. E. dwlnari) ? Mn. E. dwindle.

PALATALIZATION.

This is undoubtedly the most puzzling feature in the development of English speech. The study will become somewhat easier :

1. If we distinguish carefully between Ic and g. Both consonants have been palatalized, but in differ- ent ways.

2. If we recognize the fact that palatalization was essentially and originally a process of the Southern dialect, that it extended to and affected the Midland dialect but not universally, and that it never affected the extreme Northern dialect. Inasmuch as standard Mn. E. is a development of Midland, the k and g are palatalized to the extent to which they were palatalized in Midland. According as the Mid- land dialect of M. E. was under the influence of the Southern, we get palatalized forms ; according as it leaned to the Northern dialect, we get k and g unpalatalized.

PALATALIZATION. 57

Palatalization of Jc. §19.

O. E. k was a genuine stop and not a spirant. It acquired a strong palatalizing tendency, however, very early ; in fact the language was beginning to speak Jc even before it had left its home on the Conti- nent, that is, before it was introduced into England.

A, sk. Initial sk- was turned into [s^] in early O. E., and into the sh [ J] sound in late O. E. For example :

O. E. scip Mn. E. ship.

sc(e)arait shame.

sc(e)al shall.

sc(e)arp sharp,

scene sheen.

sc(e)ort short,

scyttan shut,

scrincan shrink,

scrud shroud.

This conversion of initial sc~ to sh- is so regular that when we find a Mn. E. word spoken with initial sk we assume that it is a loan-word. Thus : sky, skin, skirt, skulk, scum are borrowed from Danish. The origin of skull is unknown, it is not found in O. E. Scotch, Scottish are probably a survival of the Keltic

58 CONSONANT CHANGES.

or Kelto-Latin sk- initial ; skipper is Dutch ; skirmish isthe French (e^scarmouche, scorn is the Fr. (e~)scarn ; school is the Latin schtila with the medieval long vowel (sclidla).

It is interesting to compare doublets. Thus :

ship (O. E. scip~) vs. skipper (Dutch). shirt (0. E. scyrte) skirt (Dan. skyrta').

Final -sk presents some difficulties. Usually it has become -sh. Thus :

O. E. disc (Latin discus) M. E. dish, fisc fish,

flcesc flesh,

fersc fresh.

But when -sk- was followed by a syllable containing a guttural vowel, the syllabication was -s-k, unpa- latalized. For example :

O. E. askian Mn. E. ask.

(Here the -ian is guttural, see B. )

In some words the s and k were metathesized before the palatalization became fixed ; in such words we get x, ks. Thus :

( asce ashe(s\

O. E. <

(. acse oxen (dialect).

miscan, *micsan mix.

PALATALIZATION. 59

0. E. wascan ' lavare ' should have yielded M. E. *wasken, Mn. E. *wax. In fact we do find an O. E. waxan ; but in M. E. and Mn. E. we find only sh forms.

Bask and busk are Scandinavian words. Bask is Icelandic baftask (bcffia #ik~) 'to bathe one's self.' Buslc is Icelandic buask (bua die) 'to prepare one's self, be ready.' Compare bound, Icelandic buinn (§ 18. 5. /). Husk is still unexplained ; probably it is Low German hus(i}ke(n),

B. Palatalization before -i, -i. Here should be borne carefully in mind :

1. That the i, i, if it appears at all in O. E., appears as an -e ; only in the oldest texts do we find an occasional -i. See Sievers, § 44.

2. That -i merely palatalizes the c (&); whereas j both palatalizes and geminates. The -i, however, becomes -i after a long stem (that is, a stem contain- ing an original long vowel or a short vowel before two consonants ; see Sievers, § 45. 8). For example, *banki became benc 'bench' ; ftakyzn (short stem) became fteccan (with gemination) ' to thatch ' ; but *taikion, *takion (long stem) became tcecan 'to teach. '

The difference between i and i will explain the numerous -c- and -cc- verbs of the first weak class.

60 CONSONANT CHANGES.

Examples of Palatalizing before i, $.

O. E. cycen (Latin coquina) Mn. E. kitchen,

cidan chide,

cinn chin,

bece (*bokion, long stem) beech,

drencan (*drankion, long stem) drench,

streccan (*strakion, short stem) stretch.

Caution. The student must be on his guard against a misapprehension. There are in O. E. many infini- tives (the 2d class weak) ending in -ian. This -ian, however, is not a palatal i but is merely the reduced form of an older and fuller -oian, a guttural, which does not palatalize the k. For example :

0. E. locian M. E. lokien Mn. E. look.

ftoncian fianlcien thank,

lician liken like,

liccian licken lick.

Most of the Mn. E. verb-forms in -k or -ck come from these O. E. -ian verbs.

C. Before other palatal vowels.

1. Before G. T. e, O. E. e or eo (broken).

O. E. ceorl Mn. E. churl.

2. Before G. T. eu, O. E. eo.

O. E. ceosan M. E. chesen.

PALATALIZATION. 61

Also the t-umlaut of this diphthong, O. E. w, I, y. O. E. els (select) M. E. chilse Mn. E. choice.

The Mn. E. was formerly pronounced [at], the normal diphthonging of [i] ; the present cfiQis may be due to the noun choice, Fr. choix. There are similar double vernacular sounds in join, boil, &c. [ai and yi] .

3. Before G. T. au, O. E. ea.

O. E. cedp M. E. cheap, chep Mn. E. cheap. Also the z-umlaut of the diphthong, O. E. w, I, y, g. O.E. cypan, cepan M.E. chgpen Mn.E. cheapen.

4. Before G. T. a, appearing in O. E. as ea, or i- Umlauted to e, ie, y.

At this point, however, the standard speech presents many inconsistencies. These may be explained by assuming that the Midland speech, while in the main under the influence of the Southern tendency to palatalize, nevertheless — in the districts towards the

North — borrowed Northern forms.

«

O. E. tetil M. E. chetel (obsolete) and

perhaps proper name Chettle. (kettle is probably a Northern form bor- rowed from Danish. )

62 CONSONANT CHANGES.

O. E. cealc Mn. E. chalk,

cearu, earn care,

cearig chary,

ceaf chaff,

ceaf or chafer,

ciele, cele chill,

cealf, calf calf.

Especially interesting is the treatment of the O. E. ceaster (Lat. castra). In the South and Midland the pronunciation is Chester ; in the North and in Scotland it is caster. Compare Dorchester with Lancaster. The curious pronunciation -cester (-sester*) seems to be a Norman blunder, giving to the c a French value.

D. After certain vowels.

1. After O. E. a?.

This phenomenon is greatly in need of further investigation. The Mn. E. back is O. E. bcec, M. E. bac, bach, and b<xch. The pronunciation batch is found in such names as Cumberbatch.

2. -ic in monosyllables has become -ich [-i£[] .

O. E. pic Mn. E. pitch,

die ditch.

(Mn. E. dike is probably a Dutch word. )

The O. E. pronoun ic became ich [t£[] in Southern

PALATALIZATION. 63

English ; this form is frequently used in the rustic speech of comic characters in the Elizabethan plays, especially in the formula : ich ill, ich ' II, for ' I will.' In normal M. E. and standard Mn. E. the pronoun is regularly I [a{] .

The terminations -lie, -lice (adj. and adv. ) appear as -lich, -lichein some M. E. texts, but in most as -li ; Chaucer has both lich and like. Mn. E. has regularly -ly ; although there are numerous -like compounds formed by analogy in the modern lan- guage. For example, homely and homelike.

The -lie has undergone great change in the follow- ing words :

O. E. *hmilik, hwilc Mn. E. which. *swalik, swilc such.

*a-%e-lic, celc each.

i

Intervocalic k preceded by i is sometimes palatal- ized, sometimes not. The palatalization usually de- pends upon the following vowel being a palatal.

O. E. sicol sickle,

cwicu quick,

cwice quitch-grass.

An O. E. cc is palatal if the gemination is due to an i [&j] ; if the gemination is the result of some other consonantal change, the cc is — kk. Thus :

64 CONSONANT CHANGES.

O. E. weccan (^wakion) M. E. wecchen (to arouse some one ; compare Germ, weekend.

Whereas in the following :

O. E. hnecca Mn. E. neck,

sticca stick,

pluccian pluck.

the cc [= kk] is probably from Ten : at all events it is not from lei.

Non- Palatalization of k.

The k is not palatalized in the following cases :

E. When it is in combination with another conso- nant, as, cl, en, cr, cw.

O. E. clcene Mn. E. clean,

clif cliff,

cniht knight,

cribb crib,

curie quick, quitch.

(SeeD.)

F. Before guttural vowels and their umlauts. 1. 5, u.

O. E. col cool,

cocc cock,

cu cow.

cuman come.

PALATALIZATION. 65

2. e (oe), the t-umlaut of o.

O. E. *koni cene keen.

*kopian cepan keep.

Note the difference between this last and the palatal |, (i-umlaut of ea), as in *keapion, cepen, M. E. chepe ; see C. 3.

3. ^ (later writing i~), the i-umlaut of it.

•

O. E. %ecynd Mn. E. kind,

cyftfi kith,

cyn kin.

Lat. coquina 0. E. cycen kitchen; see B.

4. e, the i-umlaut of a, o before nasal. Lat. cantium O. E. cenf Mn. E. Kent.

5. a, (G. T. ai) and its t-umlaut.

O. E. *kaiyi cceg Mn. E. key.

Note the difference between this and the palatal £ before the open | or e in 0. 3, 4. For example : Lat. cdseum, O. E. *c<Bsi *ceasi ciese, M. E. cese, Mn. E. cheese ; see Sievers, § 75. 2.

6. a which does not become ce in O. E. For example :

O. E. cald, cald, § 3. 1. Mn. E. cold, callian (Danish kalla) call.

66 CONSONANT CHANGES.

G. The oldest writing in England, the Runic, used different signs for palatal and non-palatal k. Thus h = k non-palatal ; $ = k palatal. Unfortu- nately the old Runic inscriptions are so few that they yield only a very scanty vocabulary.

Some of the older manuscripts used occasionally k before e, i, y to mark the non-palatal. Much more frequently an e or i was inserted between a palatal c and an a, o, u. For example: Sewc(e)cm, sec(e)cm, drencium (d. pi. ofdrenc).

This tendency to distinguish the c became stronger and stronger in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, by writing c (— k non -palatal) only before a, o, u ; Ic before e, i, y ; and cli to mark the palatal. After 1200 (e. g. in the Ormulum) the use of ch for the palatal became practically universal.

H. The k did not immediately become the ch [t J] sound. At first it was pronounced [ky] ; then [ty] ; last of all [tj] . For O. E. the pronunciation proba- bly never got beyond the 2d stage [ty] ; but in the Ormulum and in M. E. generally the sound is that oftheMn. E. ch [fj].

The tendency to pronounce ty as p|] is inherent in English and manifests itself in what are called modern vulgarisms. For instance, Tuesday pro- nounced Chiusday. In such words as feature the

PALATALIZATION. 67

[if] is common in American English ; the N. E. D. , however, gives the pronunciation ty. Parallel with the tendency to turn ty into [if] is the tendency to turn dy into [dj], as in the stage vulgarism juke for duke.

The change of s to [J] and z to zh, discussed in § 18. 3, may also be treated as a case of palataliza- tion. In all the words there mentioned the French vowel i after the consonant became y in consequence of the fixing of the strong English accent on the preceding syllable.

Levelling.

I. The O. E. paradigm, especially of the verb, pre- sented many striking contrasts now obliterated by levelling. For example :

ceosan[ty] ceos[ty] etmw[k] coren[k].

In infinitive and pret. sing, we have the palatalized [ky, ty~\, but in the pret. pi. and participle we have the original k. Further, the s has become r in pret. pi. and pret. part. M. E. h°.d an infinitive chesen, which goes back to ceosan. The Mn. E. infin. choose seems to go back to ceosan accented ceosan ; this accenting of the diphthong [eo] is Danish rather

68 CONSONANT CHANGES.

than English. The Mn. E. verb has introduced throughout the [£[] ; also the s for r.

Just the opposite has happened in the verb :

ceorfan cearf curfon corfen

M. E. and Mn. E. have only the k sound. Besides, the verb has become weak in Mn. E. carve, carved ; carf and corven, however, are found in Chaucer. Whereas O. E. ceowan ceaw cuwon cowen has intro- duced the [<J] throughout and is conjugated weak. In general, wherever in Mn. E. we find palatal forms where we might expect guttural, and vice versa, we may assume either a levelling in the paradigm, or a Midland mixture of Southern and extreme Northern forms, as in be-seech seek, or a borrowing, as in kit (Low German), Hit (Scandinavian).

Palatalization of g.

§20.

A. With two exceptions, for which see D, there was not in O. E. a voiced stop g corresponding to the unvoiced stop k. The O. E. 5 seldom had the value of the g in Mn. E. good, gate, gum. The single 5 designated a voiced spirant, that is, a sound like the Mn. German cli but voiced. And, like the German eh, it had two qualities, a guttural and a palatal.

PALATALIZATION. 69

The 5 was guttural when in combination with another consonant, as in ^Iced, %rafan, ^na^an ; or before a guttural vowel, d, o, u, y (t-umlaut of u), e (i-umlaut of o), as in gdi, %os, jwma, -&es. It was palatal before a palatal vowel, as I, e, y (=torte). It was also palatal when it stood at the end of a word immediately after a palatal vowel, as in O. E. he& ' hay, ' bodi^ ' body ' ; see § 7. Intervocalic 3 following a palatal and preceding a guttural vowel was guttural in the early stage of the language, as in bea^um, d. pi. of hta^ ; the syllabication being apparently bea-^um. In later O. E., however, the 5 in such circumstances became palatal.

The Greek y has been used by some philologists to mark the guttural spirant ; the 3 being retained for the palatal.

Concerning the pronunciation of 3 palatal and guttural, it may be said that :

1. The palatal 5 was not unlike the Mn. E. y in such words as yea, only thickened and buzzed ; it must have resembled the g in the Berlin pronun- ciation of geben, gabe, Gott.

2. The guttural y must have been an extremely rasping sound spoken deep in the throat, with the vocal chords very tense. The modern Anglo-Ameri- can throat is wholly unable to make the sound ; it

70 CONSONANT CHANGES.

may still be heard, however, in certain North Ger- man dialects and in Keltic speech.

The two sounds are found side by side in the same paradigm. For example :

•&eotan ^eat yuton yoten ' to pour, giessen. '

(Compare the paradigm of ceosan, § 19. I.) Where the palatal j has remained in M. E. it is written with a y.

O. E. gear, %er Mn. E. year. Zernan, pieman yearn.

•&ellan, -giellan yell.

%eldan, $ieldan yield.

IfiZ ivy.

For exceptions see F.

B. The y never became a stop (like the modern g in good} in the O. E. period ; the change took place in early M. E. The first text to mark unmis- takably the difference between the guttural spirant and the guttural stop is the Ormulum (1200). Orm used the sign tj for the stop, %h for the guttural spirant [y] , and 5 for the palatal spirant.

In the course of the twelfth century y became the stop [</] when in combination with other consonants

V W V %<

or at the beginning of a word before a, 5, u, y

PALATALIZATION. 71

(i-umlaut of u), e (t-umlaut of o). For example : — glad, %od — God, jos — goose, %es — geese.

At the end of a word, especially after r, the gut- tural spirant tended to become the unvoiced guttural spirant h (= German ch in ach, buch~). This tendency manifests itself in such O. E. forms as bo^h, slo^h, kna^k, burh^.

The intervocalic y became in M. E. a w sound. This w sound exerted a peculiar diphthonging effect on the preceding vowel; see § 15. A. For exam- ple: boya, 'bow'; c?cej, 'day', but dayas, 'daws;' dayenian, ' dawn. ' The conversion of y to w became so normal that the original signs for the sounds were sometimes confused in writing. For example, in the fourteenth-century poem called Patience, verse 67, soghe is written for the imperative of sow ' dissemi- nate,' O. E. sdwan.

C. In § 19. B, it was said that k was palatalized

v

to k, c and eventually to ch [£f] before j and i. In treating y we must discriminate between i and i. The i alone has the property of fully palatalizing and geminating the y to cj. The i merely turned the guttural spirant into a palatal spirant (partial pala- talization). For example, compare :

72 CONSONANT CHANGES.

O. E. *bruyia, bryc% Mn. E. bridge. *waywn, toecj wedge.

with *ruyis, ry&e rye (grain).

*luyis, ly&e lie 'falsehood.'

This general distinction between i and i is not difficult to apprehend ; but it is very difficult to apply, for the reason that in order to know whether the 5 was followed by an i or a i we must reconstruct the O. E. paradigm according to the most general principles of G. T. philology. Such reconstruction is occasionally needed in the declension of nouns and adjectives, but not often ; the chief field for recon- struction is the verb.

The determining principles of G. T. philology in this matter are :

1. After a long stem (see § 19. B. 2) the i becomes i under all circumstances; see Sievers, § 45. 8. For example, *beayion, bie&an, be%an, 'to bend.'

2. After a short stem the i :

a. Remains before a termination beginning with a guttural vowel (d, o, w).

b. Becomes i before a termination beginning with a consonant (usually rf).

c. Disappears before, or rather is absorbed in, a termination beginning with the palatal vowel i.

PALATALIZATION. 73

These several features are best illustrated by the reconstructed paradigm of a verb of the first weak class, lee&ean ( to lay. '

Infin. *layion lec%(e^a,n (full pal.)

Ind. pres. s. */ayjo, *layiu lec&e (full pal. )

*layiis, *layis le%is (part, pal.)

*£aywt5, *layifi legift (part. pal. )

pi. *layion$, *layia$ feej(e)at> (full pal. )

Ind. pret. *layida, *layida le^i~)de (part, pal.)

Compare also, for the noun-formation :

O. E. *Jiayis, he%e, Mn. E. hay,

O. E. *hayia, hedge, Mn. E. hedge.

The O.E. paradigm of /ec;$(e)<m, like the paradigm of ceosan and ceorfan in § 19. I, contained dual con- sonants : the eg, an incipient j [d\~\ sound, and the half -palatalized 5, which in later English became a [?/] sound. This dualism, like that in § 19. I, has been removed by levelling. The forms with 5 en- croached upon and supplanted the cj [dj] forms. The levelling began in the Midland dialect of Early M. E. and has passed into standard Mn. E. It should be noted, however, that the Southern dialect of M. E. retained the dualism of cj, 5 quite late. Thus the Kentish dialect continued to say : infin.

74 CONSONANT CHANGES.

leggen [df], ich legge, he letif) ; we legge ; pret. he le%de, leide. The paradigm of see&ean 'to say' offers the same variety. Note the many ligg- forms [eZJ] (O.E. lic£(e)an 'to lie') in Chaucer ; alsoseggen we ' we say,' Tr. and Cr., iv, 194. The Mn. E. spell- ing to lay, I lay ; to say, I say ; laid, said is due to the tendency to prefer the writing ai, ay to ei, ey.

D. In A it was said that there were two excep- tions to the rule that O. E. had no genuine stop g sound.

1). The first exception consists of a small group of words, mostly nouns, usually written with 55 but sometimes with 05 or jc, in which the pronunciation was that of the Mn. E. g in good. These words are do&a 'dog,' fro&a 'frog,' clu&e 'bell, clock,' su^a, a bird-name, (hey-sugge in Chaucer is a sparrow), eamme&a 'earwig,' flo-g&ettan 'to fluctuate ' and one or two more ; see Sievers, § 216. 2. In these words the gemination is due not to a following i, but to a following n. See the remarks on kk, § 19, D. 2.

2). In the O. E. combination ng the g was a genuine stop ; see Sievers, § 215. The O. E. pronunciation was probably [rj#] as in finger, not the Mn. E. simple [rj] , as in singer. Thus the O. E. infini- tives were pronounced siq-gan, mrj-jraw, &c., and the stop g, unlike the spirant y, 5, was fully palatal-

PALATALIZATION. 75

ized by i no less than by i. For example, the deriva- tive verbs, first weak class, *sat)-glon, ^crat)-gion gave rise to M. E. senge, crenge [<7=df] . For the Mn. E. i in place of e in singe, cringe, see § 13.

E. In A it was said that the O. E. 5 before a palatal vowel (e, i) was half palatalized and became in Mn. E. a y, as in %er, year.

There is a group of exceptions, namely, a few very common words which have in Mn. E. g instead of y. They are: get (O. E. jefcm), give (O. E. ge/an), gift (O.E. -gift}, again (O. E. on^e^n), guest (O. E. %est ; the spelling with ue is in imitation of French).

The usual explanation is to say that the g is due to Danish influence, the original G. T. 5, whether guttural or palatal, becoming stop-^ in all Scandina- vian speech. To this view it may be objected that the words in question are among the commonest in our language, and there seems to be no very cogent reason why Englishmen in the M. E. period should have changed the pronunciation of such every-day words. Further, the spelling in the Ormulum fails to bear out the Danish theory. The Ormulum being that early M. E. document which shows the most extensive Danish influence, so extensive in fact as to call for special investigation, we should expect to find these words written regularly with a g (Orm's

76 CONSONANT CHANGES.

31). Yet this is precisely what we do not find. Orm uses much more frequently in these words 5 than g ; sometimes he vacillates between the two signs. In one word only do we find g (g) exclusively. This is the word gesst. As examples of vacillation we may note giferr, giferr (O. E. %ifre 'greedy), geggii and onn-%cen. Further we find regularly %ifenn, %ife ('gift'), %etenn. We find even "goten, p. p. of^eotan ' to pour, ' although this should have been goten ; see A. 2.

Especially significant are the two words %ate and gate in the Ormulum. The former is the O. E. •&eatu 'gate, opening,' and is a genuine English semi- palatal ; the other is an equally genuine Danish word and borrowed with an unmistakable Danish meaning, Icelandic gata, our Mn. E. gait. Both words have now g.

The evidence, then, goes to show that Orm, whose language is so highly colored with Danicisms, does not systematically turn initial English 5 into Danish g.

F. Concerning the stages of development in the cj, (full palatalization of jj as treated in C), it is safe to say that it was parallel with the change of Tc ; see § 19. H. That is, cj represents first a [gy] sound, then a [dy\ sound, and last a j [df] . In the O. E. period the sound did not get beyond the [dy]

PALATALIZATION. 77

stage. The [c?J] is early M. E. ; in the Ormulum the pronunciation is already [dj] . This is shown by Onn's use of the peculiar letter g in such words as legmen (O. E. lec&an), biggen (O. E. byc^an 'buy') and in the French or Latin-French words gyw (engin, 'device, machine'), Egippte, ma<gy (French mage, Latin magi"). This letter g, if not actually invented by Orm, was clearly used by him to mark the [d[] sound, whether of French or of English origin.

INDEX.

[The references are to pages ; g, 7, 5, g , o, are entered as one letter ; CB is entered as a + e ; J>, $, as t + A. ]

above, abufan 32 accent, see stress ach (German) 71 ocse 58 (Kff&er 35, 37 ci/c63 ^lf ric 9 cemc«22 cemtig 54

ordlO

oerende 15

again 75

againes, against 55

dgan 39

age 30

ah, ahte 41

ajar 53

aid 7, 28

all, alle 44

American 29, 44, 45, 50, 67

amidst 55

a?i 28

-an (infin. ) 9

anefen, anent 55

anig 21

ant 22

any 21

ardlO are 12, 28 as 51

osce, ashes 58 ask, askian 58 atone 28 oxen 58 Ayenbite 34 azure 52

bac, bach, back 62

backs 51

bcec, beech 62

bald, 'bold' 44

bald, balled ( ' thin haired ' )

44

*banki 59 bard ' beard ' 10 bark (of tree), bark (ship),

bark (of dog) 45 bask 59 batch 62 boSask 59 *beayion 72 beagiim 69 beam 24 beard 10 bece, beech <)0

79

80

INDEX. [References are to pages.

be%an 72 behest 55

benc, bench 59

beorcan, berke 45

Berlin 69

beseech 68

betwix, betwixt 55

blegan 72

biqven 77

blndan 8, 9

birce, birch 46

bird 46

*blankion 43

blencan, blenchte, bleynte 43

bliss, UiKe 16

blood 32

boat 29 note

boc 19

bodis, body 20, 21, 69

bog 41

boya 39, 71

bo^h, boh 71, 41

boil 61

*bokwn 60

bold 44

bolt 45

bonte 25

book 19, 32

bosm, bosom 19, 32

bough, boughs 41 , 51

bdun 55

bound (p. p. of 'bind') 9, 35

bound ( ' ready to go ' ) 55, 59

bow (to incline) 39

bow, bows ( ' arms ' ) 39, 51

brad 29

braegen, brain 22, 37

bramble 22

breast 17

bremel 22

brebst 17

brid 46

bride 35

bridegroom 55

bridge 72

bridgume 55

broad 29

brocen 13

brohle 16 broken 13 broKor 32 *bruyia, brycg 72 bryd 3~5 brydguma 55 buasfc 59 biicet, bucket 22 buch (German) 71 bu^an 39 build 6 buinn 55, 59 biilden 6 bunden 9, 35 fturAg 71 busk 59 but 42 byc%an 77 byldan 6

cabbache, cabbage 53 cabin 31

References are to pages.] INDEX.

81

cacche, cacher 40 cos 38, 65

cald 7, 65

calf 44, 62

called, callian 65

cdmb 8

Cantium 65

care 62

cartouche, cartridge 53

earn 62

carve 68

caseum 65

-caster, castra 62

cattle 31

caught 40

cea/62

ceaft, ceafol 43, 53

ceafor 62

cealc 62

ceaZ/62

ceallian 7

ceap 61

cear/68

cearig, cearu 62

ceos 67

*ceasi 65

ceaster 62

ceaw 68

cele 62

cene 65

ceorfan 68 ccor/ 60 ceosan 60, 67 ceowan 68

cepaw 61, 65

cepan (keep), cepte 17, 65

cese 65

-cester 62

l-etU 61

chafer 62

chaff 62

chalk 44, 62

chapel 30-31

char woman 53

chary 62

Chaucer 10, 17, 18, 25, 29, 30, 32, 37, 39, 40, 41, 43- 44, 48, 51, 52, 54, 63, 68, 74

chaul, chavel 53

chaw 53

cheap, cheapen 61

cheese 65

chep 61

chepe, chepen 61, 65

cherice, cherish 52

chesen 60, 67

Chester 62

eheiel, Chettle 61

chew 68

chide 60

child 7, 15

childer, children 8, 15

chill 62

chin 60

choice, choix 61

choose 67

Christendom 14

Chronicle, Parker 9

Church Plays 48

82

INDEX. [References are to pages.

churl 60	cool 31, 64
chiise 61	coquina 60, 65
cldan 60	coren 67
ciele 62	corf en 68
ciese 65	cousin 51
clld, cildru 7, 8, 9, 15	cow 64
cinn 60	cowen 68
els 61	*crangion 75
cl&dde 17	crasis 12
cZceree 64	cre/« 23
cl&nMc 14	crenge 75
clamsian, clansian 23	cri6664
cZdiSian 17	*cnn-jran 74
claw, cZaww 42	crlstendom 14
clean, den 27, 64	Cromwell 27
cleanly 14	cw64
cleanse 23	cuman 64
clerk 45	Cumberbatch 62
clif, clifl 64	ciinrede 54
cllmban 8, 51	curfon 68
clothed 17	curon 67
C(1i^^6 /~T	cursian, curse 46
- yf O	cuwan. 68
cnawleche 53	cweruxm, cwencte 43
cneow 42	cwice, CWICM 63, 64
cmfa 64	cycen 60, 65
coat 29 note	cyn 65
cocc, cock 64	cynrceden 54
Cockney 5, 37	*cypan 61
col 31, 64	cy^S 16, 65

cold 7, 65 comb 8, 51 combustion 53 come 64

compound words 14 consonant groups 6

deed 24

ctej, da^es 23, 37, 71

dagos 23, 71 dagenian 23, 71

References are to pages.] INDEX.

83

darjes 23 ddh41 daisy 37

damne, dampned 54

Danelagh 2

Danish (includes Icelandic, Norwegian, Scandinavian) 1, 2, 7, 10, 13, 14, 17, 28, 29, 39, 42, 55, 56-57, 59, 61, 67, 68, 75-76

daumen (Germ.) 54

dawn 23

daws 23

day, days 37, 51

dead, dead 18

dedf, deaf 18, 41

deagian 38

deal 29

dealed, dealt 17

deaft, death 18

dedeZI

deemster 54

deep 25, 26

degan 38

deman 54

Dempster 54

dempt 54

deofol 13, 22

deap 24, 25

deor, derrest 19

devil 13, 22

deyen 38

die 62

die ((mori')38

dike 62

disc, dish 58

distraught 40

ditch 62

dossa 74

dole 29

domSl

dormer (German) 54

doom 31

Dorchester 62

dough 41

dove 32

drcedd, drcedeft 17

dragan 39

*drankion 60

drat 17

draw 39

dream' t 54

dree 38

drempte 54

drencan, drench 34, 60

dreneium 66

drebgan 38

drop, *dropp 32

dropa, drope 32

droune, drown 56

drunen 56

dry 39

Dryden 27

dryge 39

duce, duck 19

dufe 32

duke 36, 67

dust, dust 17

Dutch 1, 37, 58, 62

dye 38

84

INDEX. [References are to pages.

eoc24	Farquhar 36
each63	faux pas 31
Eddmund 14, 24	feallan 23
edge 38	feature 66-67
edd 7	fee 39
eard 10	feel 26
earoicgo 74	fehten 24
Edmund 14, 24	feld 6, 7, 9, 25
e#e38	feohm
Egippte 77	feohtan 24
either 35, 37, 38	feor 45
ejie 24	/er, /erre 45
-eZ21	fersc 58
elder 8	field' 6, 7, 25
Elizabeth, Queen 27	/|f 19
emmet 22	Jindan 35
empti, empty 54	finger 74
-en (p. p.) 9, 21	fire 35
-en (adj. ) 21	ytsc, fish 58
English, divisions of 3	fist 17
enough 19, 41	five 19
eorSe 10	/cejci 25, 37
eowu 42	flcesc, flash 18, 58
errand 15	flail 37
er-SelO	flebgan 38
escarmouche, escarn 58	flesh 18, 58
-e«21	flod 19, 32
eu>e, ewe 42	flo^ettan 74
excuse 52	flood 19, 32
eye 38	fly 38
	fod 19, 32
face 30, 51	folk 45
ftegen, fain 37	food 19, 32
faUcm, fall 23, 44	foot 32
far 45	for 46
faran, fare (vb.) 30, 47	Jorloren 28

References are to pages,] INDEX.

85

fofS 10, 46	German 1, 2, 44, 50, 54, 55,
fostor, foster 17	59, 64, 68, 70, 71
fowl 39	gernan 70
/ra28	ges 69, 71
French 2, 18, 27, 30, 31, 35,	ges< 75
36, 40, 45, 51, 52-55, 58,	gefem 75, 76
61, 62, 75	gieZdan 70
freosan, fresen 24	•gidlan 70
fresh 58	giernara 70
fro 28	gt/e, gifenra 76
/roggo 74	gS/re 76
-ftl 6	S^ ^^
fugol 39	give 75
/yr35	gted, glad 69, 71
fyst 17	glass, glaze 52
	glove 32
y, & 3> & 9 69, 70, 76, 77	gnagan 69
gabe (German) 69	goat 28
gait, gata 76	god, God 71
got 28, 69	god 19
gate 68, 76	godhead 29
gear 70, 75	gold 7, 33
gea<70	good 19, 32, 68
geatu76	goold, Goold 33
geben (German) 69	goose, gos 31, 51, 69, 70, 71
geciynd 8, 9, 65	gosling 14
geese 71	yoten 70, 76
g«/an 75	Gothic 20, 21
jeggn 76	Gott (German) 69
geWara 70	Gould 33
ge&m 70	Gower 48
Genesis-Exodus 54	grace 30, 51
genog 19, 41	gra/an 69
geoton 70	grass, graze 52
ger 70, 75	grease 52

86

INDEX. [References are to pages.

great, gretter 19

growan 42

G. T. 72 (and Preface)

guest 75

gum 68

guma 69

yutm 70

-had 29 MVSu 19 hces 55

hafoc 43

*hayis 73 hailags 21

hdl%ian 15, 46 Mil's 15, 21, 46 hallow, AaJwe 46 has 55 haste 18 hats 51 hawk 43

hay ('hedge') 73 Al(pron.) 11, 26 head 19 -head 29 heafod 19 hedh 19, 40 health 19 hear 26 heath 18 heaven 13

hec%e 73

-hed 29

hedge 73

Ae5('hay')69

he&C hedge') 73

height

heiser (Germ.) 55

hence 51

henge 33

heqfon 13

her (adv.) 25

Aeran, herde 17, 26

herre 19

hey-sugge 74

faeran 26

high 40

hina, hlne, hind ('servant')

55

hinder 9 hinge 33 his (pron. ) 51

hlaf, hlafmcesse, hlcefdi$e 14, 50 hleapan 50 hndgh 71 hnecca 50, 64 hnutu 50 hoarse 55 Ao/22

Aoiis, holy 15, 21, 46 homely, homelike 63 honey, 20, 21 -hood 29

hopian, hope 11, 29, 32 hord 10 hors 55 hound 8

References are to pages.] INDEX.

87

house 35, 52	keep, keepit 17, 65
hovel 22	Keltic 57-58, 70
hrcefn 50	Kent 65
hrof 50	Kentish 4, 11, 23, 73
-ht 15, 31-32	kepteVJ
hund 8	kettle 61
Auru'g 20, 21	key 38, 65
hus 35-	kilt 68
hiisbonde, husband 14	kin 65
husk 59	kind 8, 65
hwa 50	kindred 54
MS 01	kit68
	kitchen 60, 65
I (pron. ) 63	kith 16, 65
-tan (infin.) 9, 15, 60	kleffia 17
ic, tcft(pron.) 62-63	knew 42
Icelandic (see Danish)	knight 64
ich'UGZ	knighthood 29
i-dinde 8	know 42
ife 20, 70	knowledge 53
-tg 20, 21	*koni 65
in mtddes 55	*kopian 65
Irish 27
is 51	laddeZZ
ivy 20, 70	lady 14
	Icedan, Icedde 18, 23
jaw 53	Ken, Zoinan 29, 55
Johnson, Saml. 37	Kessa 16
join 61	Eewed42
jowl 43, 53	lqffdi% 14
Judas 35	*layidat layis, &c., 73
*kaiyi 65	laid 74
kalla 7, 65	Lammas 14
*keapion 65	Ian 29
keen 65	Lancaster 62

88

INDEX. [References are to pages.

IdrspeH 14

lavender 55

law 39

ky 74

lead (vb.) 18

lead, lead (metal) 18

leaf, leaf 19

leap 50

lec%an, kcge, &c., 73, 77

led, kddc 23

leggen, Zeggen 74, 77 legis, le^tiS 73

leisure 52

Zei-574

lend 55

l$ne, tgnen 29, 55

Kof 24

leogan 38

koht 16

Zesse 16

lewd 42

-li, -Re 63

liccian 60

lic^ean 74

fictan 60

lichen, lick 60

lie (vb. mentiri) 38

lie (noun 'falsehood') 72

Ks<?S, lieth 38

ligg- 74

Kfa 16

fiA«, -like 60, 63

limb 8

Knew, linen 19

lips 51

Literary English 4-5

loaf 50

loan 29

facian, look 60

London 5, 37

tore ('lost') 12, (see also for-

loren, verlore) love, lufu 32 *luyis 72 -Iy63

mood, maced, modem 11, 12 made 12 mage, mayy 77 maken, maked 11, 12

marry 31

may 37

M. E. 3, 4

me (pron. ) 11, 26

meat 11, 26

meet (vb. ) 26

meme 25

Mercian 4, 7, 8, 11, 23, 26,

38, 39, 40 metan 26 mite 11, 26 micsan 58

Middle English 3, 4 Midland English 3, 4, 56, 62,

68, 73 midst 55

References are to pages.] INDEX.

89

iriilde, milts 16

min, mine 35

miscan, mix 58

Mn. E. 3, 4

mona, nwnafS, month, moon

19, 31 moral 46 modor 32 mouse 51 mu~S, mouth 35

*nceg$er 35

neck 50, 64

ng 74

neither 35

ncmnan, nempnen 54

New English 3

nigon, nine 38

Northern English 3, 4, 50,

56, 62, 68

Northumbrian 4, 23 Norwegian, see Danish nourish 52 nut 50

oak, oath, oats 28 note

obey 27

O. E. 3, 4

old 7, 28

Old English 3

on cer 53

On God Ureison 28

oncet 55

ondr&dan 17

one 28

ongegn 75, 76

only 28

onn%cen, 76

onst 55

ooze 29

Open Stress-Syllable 11, 29-

31

ore ('mercy') 12, 28 Ormulum 10, 11-12, 13, 14,

18, 19, 21, 22, 28, 66, 70,

75-77 Orosius 9 -ot 21

offer, other 19, 32 ough, ought 41 owe 39, 41

papa 28 papaver 21 Parker Chronicle 9 partridge 53 paste 18 Pastoral Care 9 Patience 71 patient 52 perish 52 pertriche 53 philosopher 55 pic 62

Piers Plowman 19 pitch 62 pleasure 52 ploh, plough 41 pluccian, pluck 64 poison 51 Pope 27 pope 28, 29

90

INDEX. [References are to pages.

papi-S, poppy 20, 21	said 47
prebst, priest 17	salvation 52
principle 55	*saj^-yion 75
punch 41	sang 46
	saucisse, sausage 53
qu-, quh- (Scotch) 50	saugh 40
question 53	saw ('saying') 39
queynte 43	saw (pret.) 40
quick, quitch- 63, 64	sdwcm 71
	say 74
rod 33	«c 18, 52, 57
rcecean, rcehte, rahte 40	Scandinavian, see Danish
raisin 26, 27	seaman 42
raughte 40	«ceaZ57
raven 50	sceamu 57
reason 26, 27, 51	scearp 57
rehte, reighte 40	sceaviian 42
reson 27	scene 57
road 29, 33	sceort 57
roof 50	schlummern (German) 54
roten, rotten 13	$chola, school 58
rough 19, 41	scip 57
rounen, round (vb. 'whisper' )	scorn 58
55	Scotch 8, 17, 38, 50, 57, 62
ruh, ruhh 19, 41	scrincan 57
runian 55	scrud 57
runnel 22	scyttan 57
*ruyis 72	secgean 74
Kunic 66	see (pret. 'saw') 39
ry%e, rye 72	seek 68
rynd 22	seggen 74
	seh, seigh ('saw') 39
sage 30	senge 34, 75
sac/en (German) 44	sebc 19
sagu 39	seoVSan 16
sah (pret. ' saw ' ) 40	-sester 62

References are to pages.] INDEX.

91

sh 18, 52, 57

Shakespeare 26, 27

shall 57

shame 57

sharp 57

sheen 57

sh$wen, shew 42

ship 57, 58

short 57

show 42

shrink 57

shroud 57

shut 57

sick 19

sicol, sickle 63

Sievers 43, 59, 65, 72, 74

sighs 51

sights 51

sin 34

sin-gan 74

singe 33, 75

singer 74

skin 57

skipper 58

skirmish 58

skirt 57, 58

skull 57

sky 57

skyrta 58

slcepan, slepte 17

slo^h 71

slumerian, slumber 54

so 29

s5/fe 16

soghe, 71

sdhtc 16, 41

solempne, solennc 54

somenour, sompnourZA

sommetier 54

son (Fr. 'noise') 36

sona, sonnest 19

«w£, sorwe, sorrow 46

|S0ry, sorry 46

Bought 41

sound (adj. 'healthy'; n.

'arm of sea' ; n. and vb.

'noise' ; vb. 'to test depth' )

36-37, 55 sounen 55 sour 36 Southern English 3, 34, 51,

56, 62, 63, 68, 73 sow (vb. ) 71 speche 24, 27 spr&ie 24 sprenge 34 -ss!6 -st!7 «<an28 standard English 4-5, 8, 10,

28, 37, 55, 56, 63, 73 star 45

stdan, steal 11, 26, 30 steopfceder, stepfather 25 steorra, sterre 45 sticca, stick 64 sfif, stiff 19 stone 28 street 24

Stratford, Stratford 14, 24 *ttrakwn6Q straught 40 streccan, stretch 40, 60

INDEX. [References are to pages.

stress, accent 6, 11, 29-31,	terminations 20
42, 52-53, 67	Teutonic 1 (and Preface)
strgte 24	ftakion 59
such 63	ftankien, thank 60
suffixes 14-15	thatch 59
swgso, 74	"Seccan 59
sumpter 54	A*s 40
sund 36	thence 51
suner (Fr. vb. ) 55	ftcncan 66
sur, ' sour ' 36	«6&A 40
t&r, 'sure' 35, 36	^e<23
swd 29	/IA, thigh 40
swamp 44	thimble 54
awdpan 17	thirteen 15
Swedish 1, 7	thirty 20
sweord, swerd 10	London 60
swepte 17	fireotene 15
sw/c 63	"Snfo'j; 20
swognen, swoon 56	•Sroto, throat 32, 33
syncope 16-17, 43	fruh, through 41

tacan (vb. 'take') 13 tdcen (n. ' token ' ) 12 tcBcan, tcehte, tdhte, taught 16,

25, 30, 40, 59 taken, ta'en 12 *tdkion 59 talk 44 taste 18 taught 40 tea 27

teach 25, 27, 30, 59 tear 24

•Surna, thumb 54 ftunor, thunder 54 />urh 41 •Kymel 54 fiejan, tie 38 -iig 20 tigofta 39

tinder 8 tithe 39

fegan 38 {eon, ten 19 tere2A

token 12 <6«, tooth 31 tough 41 treasure 52 trone (Fr.) 28

References are to pages.] INDEX.

93

tube 36	weld(yb.) 7
Tuesday 66	weldan 7
twentis, twenty 20	weng 34
two 29	wepan, wepte 17
-ty20	West Saxon 4, 7, 23, 26, 38,
tyndre 8	40
	whales 50
uncouth 35	which 50, 63
under 9	while 50
us (pron.) 41, 51	whiles, whilst 55
use 52	who 29, 50
	whole 50
verlore 28	wieldan, wield 7
	wile 50
tea 29	wind (n. 'air') 36
wjcejen 37	wing 34
wees 22, 51	wisdom 14
*wayion 72	wish 18
wagon, wain 37	witch 50
wold 11	woe 29
Wales 50	wold 11
warm 23, 24	wonder 9
was 22, 51	wound (n. 'hurt') 36
wascan 59	vn-ctitfSu, wrath 16
wdse 29	wrench 34
wash 59 *wasken 59	wyscan 18
wasp 44	-y 20, 21
waste 18	yea 69
water 45	year 70
waxan (vb. ' wash ' ) 59	yearn 70
way 37	yell 70
Weald 11	yield 70
wearm23, 24	youth 35
weecan, wecchen, wecken (Ger-
man) 64	zauns 36
wecg, wedge 72	zenne 34
u)«5 37	zoons 36

Alden's Specimens of English Verse

By RAYMOND M. ALDEN, Assistant Professor in Leland Stanford University, xiv + 459 pp. i6mo. (English Readings. ) $1.25.

This book is well adapted to the needs of the be- ginner because it treats of the rhetorical effectiveness of given forms for given purposes and because it furnishes, in convenient arrangement, an unusual quantity of material. This material consists of illus- trative passages, arranged for each point in chrono- logical order, and, in addition, a large number of brief comments by various critics.

Dr. Henry Van Dyke, Professor in Princeton University: — It seems to. me an excellent book, much needed and thoroughly well made. I venture to predict for it large usefulness.

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Lewis: The Principles of English Verse

By CHARLTON M. LEWIS, Professor in Yale University. 143 pp. i2mo. $1.25 net.

A discussion of the chief types of English verse and the general principles underlying verse-structure. The book is designed for students and general read- ers who enjoy poetry, but think they might enjoy it more if they found it less bewildering. English metres are very complicated in detail, but their fundamental principles are simple, and a knowledge of the fundamental principles is sufficient for sym- pathetic appreciation. The book avoids the usual text-book style, and will be found stimulating and useful to students for collateral reading. It contains, along with much that has been said before, some new ideas both on theory and on method.

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY

Publishers, New York City

"£ SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY

A 000054188 8

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