The OE vowel system (monophthongs and diphthongs). Major changes.

Unstressed vowels were weakened and dropped. Stressed vowels underwent some changes: splitting – 1 phoneme split into several allophones which later become separate phonemes (e.g. a à {a, ã, æ}); merging – separate phonemes become allophones of one phoneme and then disappear and are not distinguished any more as separate phonemes (e.g. a: à (o:, æ:)

In PG there were no diphthongs. There was just a sequence of two separate vowels. Diphthongs appeared in OE: some (usually long diphthongs) – as a result of merging of two vowels: a + u → ea; e + u → eo; (i + u → (io:) (dialectal variant).

Others (usually short diphthongs) – as a result of the influence of the succeeding and preceding consonants (breaking of [æ, e]).

Palatal Mutation/i-Umlaut Mutation – a change of one vowel to another one under the influence of a vowel in the following syllable.

Palatal mutation (or i-Umlaut) happened in the 6th -7th c. and was shared by all Old Germanic Ls, except Gothic (that’s why later it will be used for comparison).

Palatal mutation – fronting and raising of vowels under the influence of [i] and [j] in the following syllable (to approach the articulation of these two sounds). As a result of palatal mutation:

• [i] and [j] disappeared in the following syllable sometimes leading to the doubling of a consonant in this syllable;

• new vowels appeared in OE ([ie, y]) as a result of merging and splitting: a, o, æ → e; a: → æ:; ŏ/ō → ĕ/ē; ŭ/ū → ŷ/ỹ (labialised) (new!); ĕă/ēā, ĕŏ/ēō → ĭě/īē (new!)

Traces of i-Umlaut in Modern English: 1. irregular Plural of nouns (man – men; tooth – teeth); 2. irregular verbs and adjectives (told ←tell; sold ←sell; old – elder); 3. word-formation with sound interchange (long – length; blood – bleed).

OE Vowel System (symmetrical, i.e each short vowel had its long variant).

The length of vowels was phonologically relevant (i.e. served to distinguish words): e.g. (OE) is (is) – īs (ice); col (coal) –cōl (cool); god (god) – gōd (good), etc.

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