Sound Interchanges

§ 251. Sound interchanges in the roots of related words were frequent, and nevertheless they were used merely as an additional feature which helped to distinguish between words built from the same root. Sound interchanges were never used alone; they were combined with suffixation as the main word-building means and in many cases arose as a result of suffixation.

Genetically, sound interchanges went back to various sources and periods.

§ 252. The earliest source of root-vowel interchanges employed in OE word-building was ablaut or vowel gradation, inherited from PG and IE.

Vowel gradation was used in OE as a distinctive feature between verbs and nouns and also between verbs derived from a single root. The gradation series were similar to those employed in the strong verbs:

ridan v — rād n [i: ~ a:] (like Class 1 of strong verbs), NE ride, raid

sinʒan v — sonʒ n [i ~ a ] (like Class 3 of strong verbs), NE sing, song

sprecan v — sprǣce n [e ~ æ:] (see Class 5 of strong verbs)

beran v — bǣre n — the same; NE speak, speech, bear, bearer.

In the following pairs both words are verbs; the weak verbs given in the second column are derived from the strong verbs with the vowel grade of the Past sg:

findan — Past sg fand — fandian, NE find, 'find out'

sittan — Past sg sæt — settan, NE sit, set

drincan — Past sg dranc — drencan, NE drink, drench.

(The two latter verbs, settan and drencan were built with the help of the stem-suffix -i, therefore the vowels of the Past tense stems were narrowed; (heir earlier forms were *sætjan, *drankjan — see weak verbs of Class 1, § 205.)

§ 253. Many vowel interchanges arose due to palatal mutation; the element [i/j] in the derivational suffix caused the mutation of the root-vowel; the same root without the suffix retained the original non-mulated vowel, e.g.;

a) nouns and verbs: dōm— dēman from the earlier *dōmjan (NE doom — deem); fōd — fēdan (NE food — feed); bōt — bētan and also bettre ('remedy', 'improve', NE better);

b)adjectives and verbs; full — fyllan (NE full — fill); hāl — hælan ('healthy' — heal), cf. Gt fulljan;

c) nouns and adjectives: long — lenʒpu (NE long, length), stronʒ — strenʒpu (NE strong — strength); brād — brǣdpu (NE broad — breadth); the nouns were originally derived with the help of the suffix -in, which was later replaced by -pu.

§ 254. Vowel interchanges could also go back to Early OE breaking, or to several phonetic changes, including breaking. Cf. beran — bearn (NE bear, 'child', dial, barn) — breaking has modified the vowel [æ] which developed from the Germanic [a] by splitting; the original vowel interchange [e ~ a] is a case of ablaut.

§ 255. The use of consonant interchanges as a distinctive feature in word-building was far more restricted than the use of vowels. Like most vowel interchanges consonant interchanges arose due to phonetic changes: Verner's Law, rhotacism, hardening of [ð] and the Early OE splitting of velar consonants (see relevant paragraphs). Cf. the following pairs:

risan — rǣran (NE rise, rear) — Verner's Law + rhotacism

dēap — dēad (NE death, dead) — Verner's Law + hardening

talu — tellan (NE tale, tell) — gemination of consonants

sprǣc [k'] — sprecan [k] (NE speech — speak) — splitting of velar consonants.

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