The sources of NE plural forms of the noun.

OE singular and plural.

They were well distinguished formally in all the declensions, very few homonymous forms.

The pers. pronoun of the 1^st and 2^nd pers – 3 numbers: sg, pl and dual. Eg: ic (sg) – wit (dual) – wē (pl).

ME the noun preserved the formal distinctions of 2 numbers. Late ME –es.

The –es under went several phonetic changes:

· the voicing of fricatives;

· the loss of unstressed vowels in final syllables.

Eg:

1. after a voiced consonant/vowel: stones OE > stoυəz > stæυnz

2. after a voiceless cons.: bookes [bo:kəs] > bu:ks > bυks.

3. after affricative [s, z, ∫], [t∫], [dg]: di∫əs > di∫iz;

The ME –en- last its productivity in NE: oxen, brethren, children.

Some nouns with homonymous form of number: sheep, deer, swine.

The gram. of former root –st has survived only as exceptions: man – men, tooth – teeth.

Forms like “data”, “antennae” have come from other languages.

The OE demonstrative pronouns. The rise of the articles in English.

Demonstrative pronouns:

1. 2 of them:

a. prototype of “that” (sē (m), þæt (n), sēo(f));

b. prototype of “this” (þes(m), þēos(n), þis(f));

2. sē simple, sg, m, Nom;

þis – emphatic, sg, m, Nom (именно этот)ж

3. were used as noun determiners and through agreement with the noun, indicated its number, case and gender. They can help to distinguish between gender: Eg: þæm lande – n; þæ‾re heorde –f.

4. Dem. pron. became unchangeable. In OE there were 5 cases: Nom, Dat, Gen, Acc, Instr.

5. Its declension disappeared in ME. Traces of its Instr. case are found: Eg: the more the better followed by the comparative degree.

The ind. article developed from numeral ‘ān’ and often preserves traces of its meaning: Eg: a steaching time saves night.

In ME the OE demonst. pron. lost most of their inflected forms. Dem pron sē, sēo, þæt led to the formation of the def article.

In OE texts these pron were used as noun determiners with a weakened meaning (as Mod def art).

I-mutation and its traces in Modern English.

I-mutation influenced short and lond vowels. It took place in all Germanic languages except Gothic. It’s a case of regressive assimilation with the vowel ‘I’ or semivowel ‘y’. It took place in the 6^th cent.

Condition of i-mutation – presence of y [й]:

Eg: ky‾ning → OE cyning

fy‾llian → OE fy‾llan

fōti → foēt (foot – feet)

Traces in Mod words:

mouse – mice; goose - geese

foot – feet; blood - bleed

tooth – teeth;

I-mutation – both syntactic and paradigmatic change (structure of the word changes, produces a new phoneme).

Before Mutated

α -→ e sala – sellan → sale

α:

α: → æ lar - læ‾ran → teaching

o → e dohtor – dehter → daughter

o: → e: bōc → bēc

u → y full – fyllan

u: → y: mūs → my‾s

ea, eo→ ie eald – ieldra → old – ilder

ea:, eo: → ie: gelēafa – gelīefan – believe.

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<== попередня сторінка	\|	наступна сторінка ==>
Major vowel changes in NE.	\|	The OE noun system.

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