The OE consonant system.

1. Hardening (the process when a soft consonant becomes harder)– usually initially and after nasals ([m, n]):

[ð] → [d]; [v] → [b]; [γ] → [g]

2. Voicing (the process when a voiceless consonant becomes voiced in certain positions) – intervocally and between a vowel and a voiced consonant or sonorant

[f, q, h, s] à [v, ð, g, z] e.g. wulfos (Gothic) – wulf[v]as (OE) (wolves)

3. Rhotacism (a process when [z] turns into [r])

e.g. maiza (Gothic) – māra (OE) (more)

4. Gemination (a process of doubling a consonant) – after a short vowel, usually happened as a result of palatal mutation (e.g. fullan (OE) (fill), settan (OE) (set), etc.).

5. Palatalisation of Consonants (a process when hard vowels become soft) – before a front vowel and sometimes also after a front vowel

[g, γ, k, h] à [g’, γ’, k’, h’] e.g. c[k’]ild (OE) (child); ecζ[gg’] (OE) (edge), etc.

6. Loss of Consonants: sonorants before fricatives (e.g. fimf (Gothic) – fīf (OE) (five)); fricatives between vowels and some plosives (e.g. sæζde (early OE) – sæde (late OE) (said)); loss of [j] – as a result of palatal mutation (see examples above); loss of [w] (e.g. case-forms of nouns: sæ (Nominative) – sæwe (Dative) (OE) (sea).

10/ 11. Great Vowel Shift – the change that happened in the 14th – 16th c. and affected all long monophthongs + diphthong [au]. As a result these vowels were: diphthongized; narrowed (became more closed); both diphthongized and narrowed.

ME Sounds → NE Sounds: [i:] → [ai]; [e:] → [i:]; [a:] → [ei]; [o:] → [ou]; [u:] → [au]; [au] → [o:].

This shift was not followed by spelling changes, i.e. it was not reflected in written form. Thus the Great Vowel Shift explains many modern rules of reading.

Short Vowels ( ME Sounds→ NE Sounds): [a] → [æ] (that [qat] →that [ðæt], man [man] → man [mæn]); [a] → [o] after [w]!! (was [was] → was [woz], water [‘watə] → water [‘wotə]); [u] → [Λ] (hut [hut] → hut [hΛt], comen [cumen] → come [cΛm]).

There were exceptions though, e.g. put, pull, etc.

Vocalisation of [r]: It occurred in the 16th – 17th c. Sound [r] became vocalised (changed to [ə] (schwa)) when stood after vowels at the end of the word. Consequences: new diphthongs appeared: [εə], [iə], [uə]; the vowels before [r] were lengthened (e.g. arm [a:m], for [fo:], etc.); triphthongs appeared: [aiə], [auə] (e.g. shower [‘∫auə], shire [‘∫aiə]).

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