A historical phonology of English / Donka Minkova.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Minkova, Donka, 1944- author.

Series:

Edinburgh textbooks on the English language. Advanced

Edinburgh textbooks on the English language--Advanced

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English language--Phonology, Historical.

English language.

Physical Description:

xiv, 424 pages.

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, [2014]

Summary:

Books in this series provide readers with a detailed description and explanation of key areas of English Language study. The authors presuppose a basic working knowledge of the topic and explore aspects of the linguistics of English for an intermediate or advanced student readership. A Historical Phonology of English, Donka Minkova, A thorough and fascinating exploration of the evolution of English phonological structure, this book traces the history of individual sounds and their representation through Old, Middle, Early Modern and Present Day English. Written in an engaging and accessible style, the book covers the sounds of English, consonantal histories, Middle English dialects, vowel quality and quantity in Early Modem English, the English stress system and Early English verse forms to demonstrate how the present form of the language is indebted to its past. Students will benefit from the book's: Clear language and structure, Setting of linguistic findings into historical, literary and social contexts, Explanations of Modem English's phonological features in terms of its development. Additional exercises, references and suggestions for further reading are available on the book's webpage: www.euppublishing.com/page/ETOTELAdvanced/Minkova. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Periods in the history of English 1

1.1 Periods in the history of English 2

1.2 Old English (450-1066) 2

1.3 Middle English (1066-1476) 9

1.4 Early Modern English (1476-1776) 15

1.5 English after 1776 17

1.6 The evidence for early pronunciation 20

2 The sounds of English 24

2.1 The consonants of PDE 24

2.1.1 Voicing 26

2.1.2 Place of articulation 27

2.1.3 Manner of articulation 29

2.1.4 Short and long consonants 31

2.2 The vowels of PDE 32

2.2.1 Short and long vowels 35

2.2.2 Complexity: monophthongs and diphthongs 37

2.3 The syllable: some basics 39

2.3.1 Syllable structure 39

2.3.2 Syllabification 40

2.3.3 Syllable weight 43

2.4 Notes on vowel representation 45

2.5 Phonological change: some types and causes 46

3 Discovering the earliest links: Indo-European - Germanic - Old English Foot-Podium, Tooth-Dental, Hill-Culminate, Three-Triple 54

3.1 Family matters: Indo-European - Germanic - Old English 54

3.2 The Indo-European family of languages 55

3.3 The Germanic branch of Indo-European 59

3.4 Some pre-Old English segmental and prosodic changes 61

3.4.1 Grimm's Law, or the First Germanic Consonant Shift 61

3.4.2 Some IE vowel changes in Germanic 68

3.4.3 Early prosodic changes: stress and syllable weight in Germanic 69

3.4.4 Lengthening of final vowels in stressed monosyllables 70

3.4.5 West Germanic (Consonant) Gemination (WGG) 71

4 Consonantal histories: Old English Kirk-Church, Day-Dawn, Say-Saw-Saga, Skirt-Shirt, Shrift-Script, Dish-Disk-Discus, Loaf-Loaves Vs Serf-Serfs, Elf-Elf-Elven, Bath-Baths-Bathe, Belief-Beliefs-Believe 74

4.1 The consonants of OE 74

4.1.1 Singletons 74

4.1.2 Geminates 76

4.2 Sound-to-spelling correspondences of the consonants in OE 81

4.2.1 The 's of OE 82

4.3 Palatalisation and affrication of velars in OE 84

4.4 Morphophonemic alternations: fricative voicing. Close enough to CLOSE the door? 88

5 Consonantal developments in the second millennium 'And wot 'ave we 'ere, guv' nor?', which-witch, though-Tough, Far-Fa, Bridgestowe-Bristol, Write-Right, Iamb-Iambic, Gigolo, Mature-Gocha, Better-Bedder, Mus Go 99

5.1 H-related histories: And wot 'ave we 'ere, guv'nor? 99

5.1.1 Phonetic and phonological properties of /h/ in PDE 99

5.1.2 The velar and glottal fricatives of OE 102

5.1.3 Initial glottal fricatives in ME and EModE: Able-Habilitate, Which-Witch, Whine-Wine 105

5.1.4 Non-initial glottal fricatives in ME: Though-Tough 112

5.2 R-related histories 115

5.2.1 Phonetic and phonological properties of the rhotics in PDE 115

5.2.2 Reconstructing the phonetics of in OE 116

5.2.3 Pre-consonantal /r/-loss 121

5.2.4 Post-vocalic /r/-loss 125

5.2.5 The other liquid: Bridgestowe-Bristol Historical parallels between /r/ and /l/ 128

5.3 Cluster simplification: Knight-Night, Write-Right, Iamb-Iambic 132

5.3.1 Initial : knight-night, Write-Right 132

5.3.2 Final

: Iamb-Iambic, Damn-Damnation, Singer-Linger 134

5.4 Other inventory changes: the adoption of /3/ 141

5.4.1 More alveolar palatalisations and affrications: s-, t-, d- + -j. gotcha, Injun 143

5.5 The glottal stop [?] and the alveolar tap [r] 145

5.5.1 The glottal stop 145

5.5.2 Voicing of [t] and tapping of [t] and [d]: Matter-Madder 147

5.6 Recent trends: [ts-, ∫m-, ∫l-, ∫t-]: Mash Potato, Manage Care, Stain Glass 148

6 The vowels in Old English: spelling, pronunciation. PDE alternations traced back to OE Foot-Feet, Full-Fill, Man-Men, Child-Children, Hound-Hundred 151

6.1 The vowel inventories of PDE and OE: a comparison 151

6.2 Orthography and the reconstruction of OE vowels 153

6.3 I-Mutation: Foot-Feet, Full-Fill, Sell-Sale 156

6.4 OE homorganic-cluster lengthening: Child-Children, Hound-Hundred 164

6.4.1 Are pre-cluster lengthenings prosodically incongruous? 169

6.5 The late OE vowel inventory in detail 171

6.5.1 The short vowels in late OE 171

6.5.2 The long vowels in late OE: street-Stratford 173

6.5.3 Diphthongs and diphthongoids 175

6.5.4 Unstressed vowels 179

7 The vowels in Middle English. Dialects. Spelling innovations. Vowel quality and quantity. PDE alternations traced back to ME Dizzy-Busy, Fury-Bury, Moon-Monday, Steal-Stealth, Game-Gammon, Grass-Graze 184

7.1 ME dialects 184

7.2 Notes on ME spelling (vowels): - , - , - , - 186

7.2.1 Letter-to-vowel correspondences in ME (single letters): sun-son, cone-come 187

7.2.2 Letter-to-vowel correspondences in ME (digraphs): beat-beet, road-rood 190

7.3 Qualitative changes in ME 192

7.3.1 Short vowels: dizzy-busy, fury-bury, merry-mirth 192

7.3.2 Long vowels: gae-go, Oake (Somerset) - Aike (East Riding of Yorkshire) 200

7.4 The diphthongal system of ME 204

7.5 Quantitative changes: why do they matter? 209

7.5.1 Shortenings: creep-crept, Moon-Monday, mouth-Portsmouth, leek-garlic 212

7.5.1.1 Pre-consonantal shortening: feed-fed, wide-width, sheep-shepherd 212

7.5.1.2 Trisyllabic shortening: holy-holiday, south-southern 216

7.5.1.3 Vowel shortening in unstressed syllables: but-about, leek-garlic 219

7.5.2 Lengthenings: game-gammon, graze-grass 220

7.5.2.1 ME open-syllable lengthening 221

7.5.3 Orthography and quantitative changes 225

7.6 Reduction and loss of unstressed vowels in ME 227

8 Vowel quality and quantity in Early Modern English and later moth-mother, dull-bull, lost-post, fear-bear, here-there, mood-stood-blood, dead-bead 234

8.1 Information glut. New sources of phonological reconstruction 234

8.2 Qualitative changes 236

8.2.1 Short vowels: quash-quack, wash-wax, god-egad, putt-put 236

8.2.2 The Great/Long/English Vowel Shift 248

8.2.2.1 Chronology and dating 252

8.2.2.2 Mechanism and causation 256

8.2.2.3 Further instability and enrichment: brew-new, do-due, aunt-haunt 267

8.3 The effect of phonotactics on long vowel shifting 271

8.3.1 Shortening in monosyllabic words: lead (Pb)-lead, v., deaf-leaf, mood-stood-blood 271

8.3.2 Vowels in relation to /r/: person-parson, tear, v. - tear, n., floor-poor 274

8.4 Continuity or reinvention 281

8.4.1 Canadian or long-vowel 'Raising': ice [Λis] - Eras [aiZ].

ISBN:

9780748634682

0748634681

OCLC:

827267060