VOWEL CHANCES IN MIDDLE ENGLISH AND EARLY NEW ENGLISH

Unstressed Vowels

§ 365. Extensive changes of vowels are one of the most remarkable features of English linguistic history. A variety of changes affected vowels in stressed syllables; the modification of unaccented vowels was more uniform and simple. It is convenient to begin the description of vowel changes with unstressed vowels, for they will be found in many examples given for other purposes and should therefore be made clear in advance. It should be borne in mind, however, that the boundaries between stressed and unstressed vowels were not static: in the course of time a vowel could lose or acquire stress, as in many words stress was shifted; consequently, the vowel would pass into the other group and would be subjected to other kind of changes.

§ 366. In ME and NE the main direction of the evolution of unstressed vowels was the same as before; even in the pre-written period un­stressed vowels had lost many of their former distinctions, namely their differences in quantity as well as some of their differences in quality (§ 131). The tendency towards phonetic reduction operated in all the subsequent periods of history and was particularly strong in unstressed final syllables in ME.

In Early ME the pronunciation of unstressed syllables became in­creasingly indistinct. As compared to OE, which distinguished five short vowels in unstressed position (representing three opposed phonemes [e/i], [a] and [o/u]). Late ME had only two vowels in unaccented syl­lables: [ə] and [i], which are never directly contrasted; this means that phonemic contrasts in unstressed vowels had been practically lost.

Cf. some OE words with their descendants in Late ME and NE:

(The last two examples, OE talum and bodiʒ show also the fate of consonants in final syllables: -um > -en; -iʒ > -i.)

The occurrence of only two vowels, [ə] and [i], in unstressed final syllables is regarded as an important mark of ME, distinguishing it on the one hand from OE with its greater variety of unstressed vowels, and on the other hand from NE, when the ME final [ə] was dropped.

This final [ə] disappeared in Late ME though it continued to be spelt as -e. The loss of [ə] started in the North, spread to the Midlands, and reached the Southern areas by the 15th c. In the London dialect of Chaucer's time it was very unstable and could be easily missed out be­fore a following initial vowel or when required by rhythm (see the pas­sage from Chaucer in § 361). When the ending -e survived only in spell­ing, it was understood as a means of showing the length of the vowel in the preceding syllable and was added to words which did not have this ending before: cf. OE stān, rād and ME stoon, stone, rode (NE stone, rode). (Sometimes it was added even to words where length was already indicated by another device, e.g. OE hūs, ME house.)

§ 367. It should be remembered though that while the OE unstressed vowels were thus reduced and lost, new unstressed vowels appeared in borrowed words or developed from stressed ones, as a result of various changes, e.g. (he shifting of word stress in ME and NE, vocalisation of [r] in such endings as writer, actor, where [er] and [or] became [ə]. Some of the new unstressed vowels were reduced to the neutral |ə] or dropped, while others have retained certain qualitative and quantita­tive differences, e.g. [ɔ] and [ei] in consecrate, disobey after the shift of stress. (Note also diverse unaccented vowels in the following modern words: ad'versely [æ]; al'ternant [ɔ:]or [ɔ]; direct; fidelity [ai] or [i]).

These developments show that the gap between the stressed and unstressed vowels has narrowed, so that in ME and NE we can no longer subdivide the vowels into two distinct sub-systems — that of stressed and unstressed vowels (as was done for OE — see § 134).