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Changes in Pronunciation
S(caps)ome sounds in English have not had any changes like others. For example, the short /e/ has remained unchanged since the Old English times. The O.E bẻdd is still bed today; whereas the â in O.E stân (store) became a sound like /:/כ as in law towards the end of Old English, and later changed to ō similar to its current pronunciation o (store). Changes in pronunciation, however, varied according to regions.
Changes in consonant sounds had been insignificant compared to changes in vowel sounds. Though some voiced consonants in Old English became voiceless or occasionally lost in Middle English, consonants have remained fairly as stable as they been in Old English (O.E). The w sound was almost generally lost in Middle English (M.E) where they had been pronounced in Old English; O.E swâ became sō (so) and O.E hwâ changed to hō (who) in Middle English.
Most short vowels in Old English, like è, ì, ô, ú, passed on to Middle English unchanged. The long ý developed as the short ý. The O.E brýd became brìde (M.E) and bride in modern English; O.E fýr became fīre (M.E) and fire in modern English. The quality Old English vowels did not change much in passing to Middle English but their length was considerably altered. Old English long vowels, for example, were shortened early in the Middle English period when followed by double consonants. Compare Middle English grèt with Old English grẻat.
All Middle English long vowels went through extensive alteration in passing to Middle English, but short vowels that occur where syllables are accented remained fairly stable. Short vowels like a and u went through important changes. M.E a became / æ/ in the 16th century, pronounced as cat, thank, mat, flax, almost returning to the Old English ǽ as in at, apple, back. The u in Middle English became what is known as unrounding in M.E. The vowel was pronounced as u as in full or pull. In early modern English u became u as in cut, but, sun, love. As far as short vowels are concerned, a modern speaker of English will have no difficulty in understanding the English of any period in history. But this situation is quite different when we consider long vowels. The notable change in pronunciation involving long vowels is known as The Great Vowel Shift.
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 1:
1. Compare some vowel sounds in Middle English with those in Modern English.
2. Compare changes in vowel sounds with those of consonant sounds in both Old and Middle English.
3.2 The Great Vowel Shift
The Great Vowel Shift affected the seven long vowels in English. In Middle English they were ī, ệ, ệ Ộ, ộ ữ. Ī pronounced as i: e.g. / fi:f / became /fair/ five ệ pronounced as e e.g. /me:də/ became /mi:d / mead ệ pronounced as ε: e.g. /kl ε:nə / became /kle:n/ clean ặ pronounced as a : e.g. /na:mə / became / ne:m/ name Ộ pronounced as :כ e.g. /gכ :tδ / became /go:t/ goat ộ pronounced as o: e.g. /ro:tδ/ became /ru:t/ root û pronounced as u: e.g. /du:n/ became /daun/ down Notice that i and u became diphthongs ai and au. And you can see that most of the vowels had almost acquired their present pronunciation by the 16th century, through the Great Vowel Shift. You will also notice that the Middle English ệ has changed to /i:/. In the early modern period (of Shakespeare) ệ was pronounced as in lane, or name but now it sounds as lean, clean, bean. The change occurred at about the end of the 17th century. The Great Vowel Shift is responsible for the random use of vowel symbols in English spelling. Spelling had already become fixed before the shift and therefore did not change when the quality of the long vowels changed. As a result, vowel symbols no longer correspond with the sounds they once represented in Old English.
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 2 Describe the influence of the Great Vowel Shift to modern pronunciation.
3.3 Some Features of Grammar
The English grammar of the late 16th century and early 17th century is marked by some characteristics which had since disappeared, especially the few parts of speech that retained their old forms. We shall examine some of them.
The Noun: The only inflections in the noun were, as we mentioned in Unit 3 of Module 2, those marking the plural and possessive singular. There were, however, a few nouns like sheep, and swine with unchanged plurals. In the 16th century, some old weak plurals like – n survived. Most of them gave way to the – s plural, such as fon (foes) kneen (knees)fleen (fleas). Shakespeare, for example, had some forms like eyen (eyes), shoon (shoes), and kine,. Some mixed plurals like children, oxen, brethren, and some internal change of vowels like mice, feet, survived.
The Adjective: Since the adjective lost its inflectional endings that marked gender, number, and case distinctions, the only forms it retained during the 16th and 17th centuries were the comparative and superlative degrees. The two common endings -er (comparative) and – est (superlative) with the adverb more and most had been in use since the Old English period. Shakespeare used double comparative or superlative such as more large, most boldest; or most unkindest. These are no longer in use today. In modern times only one syllable (monosyllable) words take the –er, -est suffixes like fine-finer-finest; tall-taller-tallest etc. Words with more than one syllable take more and most e.g. beautiful -more beautiful -most beautiful; active -more active -most active; careful -more careful l-most careful etc.
The Pronoun: As we have said earlier, it was during the 16th century that the pronouns thou, thy, thee were dropped except where the Authorised Version or Shakespeare is still read. You was substituted for ye, while its was introduced as the possessive of it. During the Middle English, the singular forms thou, thy, and thee were used among friends and colleagues and for addressing superiors. In the 16th century ye, your, you became pronouns of direct address irrespective of rank or closeness, while the singular forms disappeared. However, the Authorised Version of the Bible and Shakespeare still used them.
The formative of its as a possessive marker was one interesting thing of the early modern period. However, his was still used as the proper form of the possessive. E.g. if the salt has lost his savor; little candles throw his beams etc.
Another development of the pronoun in the 16th century was the use of who as a relative pronoun. In Old English, there were no relative pronouns; rather, definite articles (sệ, sệo, þœt) were used as relative. Sometimes the article þe was added (sệ, þe, which, that), and sometimes þe was used alone. In Middle English, this was replaced by þœt (that). In the 15th century, which and that began to be alternated. It was not until the 16th century that the relative pronoun who came into use.
The Verb: Verbs were commonly used without auxiliaries in interrogative statements. A question in Shakespeare’s Macbeth says Goes the king hence today? Normally, we would say: Is the king going out today? Or Does the king go out? Another noticeable difference is the omission of progressive forms. It is common to hear or read: Where goes he? or What do you read? Rather than where are you going? or what are you reading? The increase in the use of progressive forms is a modern development.
Impersonal use of verbs was much more common in the 16th and 17th centuries. A construction like it pleases me not, it dislikes me, it repents me, are familiar expressions in Shakespeare and the King James Bible, which in more recent English have been replaced by personal constructions like It doesn’t please me; I don’t like it or I repent.
The regular ending of the third person singular –eth, was universal right from the 14th century and all through the Middle English period, thus goeth, giveth, lieth, saith, doth, speaketh became the standard forms. Forms like goes, gives, lies, says, does are also a modern development of English. This, however, made some occasional appearances in the 15th century.
We also mentioned in Unit 5 of Module 1 that some Old English strong verbs were lost during the Middle English period and some became weak verbs. Those that remained became subject to functions in the past tense and past participle. Verbs like hide, crow, crowd, flay, dread, etc. developed weak forms. While a number of weak forms became strong, e.g. blowed, growed, shined, shrinked, and swinged. Some of these verbs have also undergone changes in modern English.
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 3
(i) Describe some features of the pronoun during the 16th century. (ii) Write some verbs that may be referred to as having weak forms in Middle English.
Conclusion
Some of the changes that were characteristic of the 16th century actually started earlier. Sound changes were climaxed by the Great Vowel Shift, which provided the foundation for modern English pronunciation. Changes in some forms of grammar, as we have seen in this Unit, were expected as a part of the ongoing development process of the language, which became more radical with the emergence of Standard English.
Summary
Sound changes have been important in the process of development of the English language. Changes occurred more with vowel sounds than with consonants. And except for notable changes in the sounds of i and u, other vowels did not change much from Old English. The most important change in the English sound system is the Great Vowel Shift, which affected some seven long vowel sounds and changed them from Middle English pronunciation to modern pronunciation. Changes in grammar were those characteristic of Renaissance English. The –s plural marker was generally adopted, with some few mixed plurals. Adjectives lost their inflections and retained only the –er and –est markers for comparative and superlative degrees. For pronouns, ye, your, and you replaced the singular thou, thy, and thee and became pronouns for direct address irrespective of the status of the addresses or the relationship between addressee and the addresser. Impersonal use of verbs, the scarcity of progressive forms, the –eth ending of verbs and the weakening of some strong verbs and vice versa were the general features of verbs in the 16th century. All the features of grammar and pronunciation, as we have seen in this Unit, were further developed but became the strong foundation for modern-day English.
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