| Phonological History Of English Consonants |
Article Index for Phonological History |
Website Links For History |
Information AboutPhonological History Of English Consonants |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT PHONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF ENGLISH CONSONANTS | |
| phonology | |
| historical linguistics | |
| english phonology | |
| splits and mergers in english phonology | |
| scottish english | |
|
See Also: English consonant cluster reductions H-cluster Reductions
Y-cluster Reductions
Other initial cluster reductions
Final cluster reductions
PHONOLOGICAL HISTORY OF NG NG coalescence NG coalescence (or the singer-finger split) is the name given to a sound change in the history of English by which word-final was deleted after in words like ''sing''; this sound change happened around the end of the 16th Century . As a result of NG coalescence, Middle English ''sing'' came to be pronounced . As well as in word-final position, NG coalescence was applied also in cases where a Verb ending in ''-ng'' was followed by a vowel-initial Suffix , so ''singing'' and ''singer'' also underwent the change. Otherwise, word-internal ''-ng-'' did not undergo coalescence and the pronunciation was retained, as in ''finger'' and ''angle''. Additionally, in adjectives ending in ''-ng'' the is retained when the Comparative and Superlative suffixes are added, so ''younger'', ''strongest'', etc., do not show coalescence. As a result of the differing effects of this sound change word-internally, the words ''finger'' and ''singer'' do not rhyme in most accents of English, although they did in Middle English. Some accents, however, do not show the full effects of NG coalescence as described above, and in these accents ''sing'' may be found with , the suffix ''-ing'' may be pronounced , and pairs like ''singer'' and ''finger'' may rhyme. This is particularly associated with English English accents in an area of northern England and the Midlands, including the cities of Birmingham (see Brummie ), Manchester , Liverpool (see Scouse ), Sheffield and Stoke On Trent . It is also associated with some American English accents in the New York area. Some of the accents of these areas may be considered to lack the Phoneme , as the sound can be thought of as an Allophone of before or . (Wells 1982) In some accents of the west of Scotland and Ulster , NG coalescence is extended to word-internal position, so that ''finger'' is pronounced . G-dropping G-dropping is a popular name for the substitution of or (spelt ''-in’'', ''-en'') for (spelt ''-ing'') in the English Present Participle and Gerund due to the orthographical changes. Except in dialects which do not show NG Coalescence , no sound is actually dropped; a different one is simply used (the Alveolar Nasal instead of the Velar Nasal ). The substitution is an old one in English, and derives from the generalisation of one pronunciation to what were two different Morphemes in Old English : the present participle ''-ende'' and the gerund ''-inge''. The orthography of the merged form, ''-ing'', reflects a derivation from the Old English gerund, but the pronunciation is also an old one. It is currently a feature of colloquial and non-standard speech of all regions, and stereotypically of Cockney , Southern American English and African American Vernacular English . Historically, it has also been used by members of the educated upper-class, as reflected by the phrase ''huntin’, fishin’ and shootin’''. That this pronunciation was once regarded as standard can also be seen from old rhymes, as for example, in this couplet from John Gay 's 1732 pastoral, Acis and Galatea, set to music by Handel: Shepherd, what art thou pursuing, Heedless running to thy ruin? Which was presumably pronounced "shepherd, what art thou pursuin', heedless runnin' to thy ruin" although this would sound very odd in an opera today. Such a rhyme would today be appropriate only in a comic context. In the poetry of Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), participles consistently rhyme with words in {Link without Title} : But Weston has a new-cast gown On Sundays to be fine in, And, if she can but win a crown, 'Twill just new dye the lining. The pronunciation with {Link without Title} only became standard in the nineteenth century. The use of a colloquial pronunciation which derives from a different word from the standard is not uncommon; ''’em'' or ''em'', a colloquial form of ''them'', derives from Old English ''him'' of the same meaning, whereas ''them'' was a borrowing from Old Norse ''þeim''. H-DROPPING AND H-ADDING H-dropping H-dropping is a colloquial term used to describe the omission of initial in words like ''house'', ''heat'', and ''hangover'' in many dialects of English , such as Cockney and Estuary English . The practice is generally stigmatised. The same phenomenon occurs in many other languages, such as Serbian , and Late Latin , the ancestor of the modern Romance Languages . Interestingly, both French and Spanish acquired new initial {Link without Title} in mediæval times, but these were later lost in both languages in a "second round" of h-dropping. Many dialects of Dutch also feature h-dropping, particularly the south western variants. H-dropping in English is found in all dialects in the Weak Form s of Function Word s like ''he'', ''him'', ''her'', ''his'', ''had'', and ''have''; and, in most dialects, in all forms of the Pronoun ''it'' — the older form ''hit'' survives as the strong form in a few dialects such as Southern American English and Scots . Because the of unstressed ''have'' is usually dropped, the word is usually pronounced in phrases like ''should have'', ''would have'', and ''could have''. As a result, the contractions ''should've'', ''would've'', and ''could've'' are often Misspelt as ''should of'', ''could of'', and ''would of''. H-adding The opposite of h-dropping, so-called h-adding, is a Hypercorrection found in typically h-dropping accents of English. A classist stereotype, commonly found in literature from late Victorian times to the early 20th century, holds that some lower-class people consistently drop ''h'' in words that should have it, while adding ''h'' to words that should not have it. An example from the musical '' My Fair Lady '' is, "In 'Ertford , 'Ereford , and 'Ampshire , 'urricanes 'ardly '''h'''ever 'appen". In practice, however, it would appear that h-adding is more of a stylistic prosodic effect, being found on some words receiving particular emphasis, regardless of whether those words are h-initial or vowel-initial in the standard language. Words borrowed from French frequently begin with the letter ''h'' but not with the sound . Examples include ''hour'', ''heir'', ''hors d'oeuvre'' and ''honest''. In some cases, Spelling Pronunciation has introduced the sound into such words, as in ''humble'', ''hotel'' and (for most speakers nowadays) ''historic''. Spelling pronunciation has also added to the Commonwealth pronunciation of ''herb'', , while American English retains the older pronunciation . ELIMINATION OF VELAR FRICATIVES IN ENGLISH Taut-taught merger The taut-taught merger is a process that occurs in most dialects of English that causes to be dropped in words like ''thought'', ''night'', ''daughter'' etc. This process occurs in all dialects of present English. The phoneme was previously distinguished as after front vowels, after back vowels. and sometimes was lost in most dialects with compensatory lengthening of the previous vowels. > , later > "night" by the Great Vowel Shift . sometimes became , with shortening of previous vowel. Inconsistent development of combined with ambiguity of ''ou'' (either or in Early Middle English ) produced a multi-way result for words spelled ''ough''. Compare Modern English ''through'' , ''though'' , ''bough'' , ''cough'' or , ''rough'' . Some accents in Northern England show slightly different changes, for example ''night'' as and in the dialectal words ''owt'' and ''nowt'' (from ''aught'' and ''naught''). Also, in Northern England, the distinction between ''wait'' and ''weight'' is often preserved, so those speakers lack the wait-weight merger. Wait-weight merger The wait-weight merger is the merger of the Middle English sound sequences (as in ''wait'') and (as in ''weight'') that occurs in most dialects of English . (Wells 1982: 192–94, 337, 357, 384–85, 498) The main exceptions are in Northern England, for example in many Yorkshire Accents , where these sequences are often kept distinct, so that ''wait'' is distinct from ''weight'' and ''late'' does not rhyme with ''eight'' . The distinction between ''wait'' and ''weight'' is an old one that goes back to a diphthongization of Middle English before the fricative which was represented by ''gh'' in English. So in words like ''weight'' became and subsequently was lost as in Standard English, but the diphthong remained. ''Wait'' on the other hand is a Norman French loan word (which in turn was a Germanic loan) and had the Middle English diphthong that was also found in words like ''day''. This diphthong Merged with the reflex of Middle English (as in ''late'') and both ended up as in the accents of parts of northern England, hence the distinction ''wait'' vs. ''weight'' . Lock-loch merger The lock-loch merger is a phonemic merger of and that is starting to occur in some Scottish English dialects, making ''lock'' and ''loch'' homonyms as . Many other dialects of English have borrowed foreign and Scottish as , and so not all people who pronounce "lock" and "loch" alike exhibit the merger. The English spoken in Scotland has traditionally been known for having an extra consonant sound , but that is starting to disappear among some younger speakers in Glasgow . The observations of the merger happening were investigated by auditory and acoustic analysis for a sample of the children from Glasgow pronouncing words that traditionally have in Scottish English . ELIMINATION OF DENTAL FRICATIVES IN ENGLISH DIALECTS TH fronting TH fronting is a merger that occurs (historically independently) in Cockney , Newfoundland English , African American Vernacular English , and Liberian English (though the details differ among those accents), by which Early Modern English merge with . (Wells 1982: 96–97, 328–30, 498, 500, 553, 557–58, 635) Apparently, no accents with the merger completely merge the phonemes, because virtually all speakers of such accents know which words "should" have which sound; moreover, in many accents the two sounds appear in Free Variation . Where TH fronting is applied, pairs such as ''three''/''free'', ''slither''/''sliver'', and ''oath''/''oaf'' are homophonous. The use of the labiodental fricatives /f/ and /v/ for the dental fricatives and is a well known feature of the proverbial Cockney. It has recently been noted as spreading through non-standard accents in England (cf. Trudgill 1988, 43). TH fronting is one of the boundaries between Estuary English and Cockney . Although TH fronting 'pops up' occasionally in the middle and upper (middle) class English accents as well, there is still a marked social difference between working and middle class speakers. TH fronting can therefore serve as a 'boundary marker' between Cockney and Estuary English . TH fronting is still a feature of Cockney which is extremely rare in the other social English accents. TH fronting can (still) serve as a 'boundary marker' between Estuary English and Cockney . Furthermore, TH fronting is currently making its way into the middle class English accent and thus into Estuary English . Here's a sample of a speaker of the Cockney accent that has th-fronting:
''My dad came from Wapping and me mum came from Poplar. Me dad was one of eleven kids… and Wapping in them days really was one of the poorest parts of London. I mean they really didn't have shoes on their feet. I'm talking about seventy years ago now. Erm… and Poplar was… sli… just slightly a cut above Wapping; erm… you was either East End respectable or you was sort of East End villain, you know, and my family was respectable on both sides. But me father had a very tough time because his father died when he was nineteen, leaving him the only one working to bring up eleven brothers… ten brothers and sisters and on a Thursday night he'd sometimes go home and the youngest two would be crying in the corner and he'd say “What's the matter with them, ma?” “Oh, well, Harry, you know it's Thursday night, and you don't get paid till tomorrow.” and they literally didn't have any food in the house.'' In that recording ''father'' and ''brother'' are pronounced and ; ''Thursday'' is pronounced . TH stopping TH stopping is the realization of the and Liberian English , such pairs are merged (Wells 1982: 565–66, 635). WINE-WHINE MERGER The wine-whine merger is a Merger by which the sound Voiceless Labial-velar Fricative or sequence (spelled ''wh'') becomes Voiced Labial-velar Approximant ; it occurs in the speech of the great majority of English speakers. The resulting is generally pronounced like the original , but sometimes like the original or ; this may be due to Hypercorrection . The merger is essentially complete in England , Wales , the West Indies , Australia , New Zealand , and South Africa , and is widespread in the United States and Canada . In accents with the merger, pairs like ''wine''/''whine'', ''wet''/''whet'', ''weather''/''whether'', ''Wales''/''whales'', ''wear''/''where'', ''which''/''witch'' etc. are homophonous. The merger is not found in Scotland , Ireland (except in the popular speech of Dublin), and parts of the U.S. and Canada. The merger is not usually stigmatized except occasionally by very speech-conscious people. According to the Labov, Ash, and Boberg (2006: 49), while there are regions of the U.S. (particularly in the South and the Midwest) where speakers keeping the distinction are about as numerous as those having the merger, there are no regions where the preservation of the distinction is predominant (see map). Throughout the U.S. and Canada, about 83% of respondents in the survey had the merger completely, while about 17% preserved at least some trace of the distinction. The wine-whine merger, although apparently present in the south of England as early as the 13th century, did not become acceptable in educated speech until the late 18th century. While some RP speakers still use , most accents of England, Wales, West Indies and the southern hemisphere have only . Dictionaries usually transcribe the sound of the ''wh'' in words like ''whine'' in accents without the merger as , but some phonologists think that would be a better representation of the sound. INITIAL FRICATIVE VOICING Initial fricative voicing is a process that occurs in West Country where the fricatives are voiced to when they occur at the beginning of a word. In these accents, ''sing'' and ''farm'' are pronounced and . EXTERNAL LINK SEE ALSO
REFERENCES |
|
|