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History of English

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This article deals with the history of the English language.

Old English

Main article: Old English language

Around the mid-fifth century and onward, the islands of Britain were invaded by Germanic tribes, primarily the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. Their Anglo-Saxon dialects developed into Old English. The most commonly used words today derive from those early Anglo-Saxon roots, but English vocabulary has also been greatly influenced over time.

The introduction of Christianity added the first wave of Latin and Greek words to the language.

Later, it was influenced by Scandinavian invaders who spoke Old Norse, which was probably mutually comprehensible with Old English. Various internal developments within Old English had already been reducing the role of inflections for some time, but the contact with Old Norse accelerated this process, especially in the Northern dialects.

It has been argued that the Danish contribution continued into the early Middle Ages.

The Old English period ended with the Norman conquest, when the language was influenced, to an even greater extent, by the Norman-speaking Normans.

The use of Anglo-Saxon to describe a merging of Anglian and Saxon languages and cultures is a relatively modern development. According to Lois Fundis, (Stumpers-L, Fri, 14 Dec 2001) "The first citation for the second definition of 'Anglo-Saxon', referring to early English language or a certain dialect thereof, comes during the reign of Elizabeth I, from a historian named Camden, who seems to be the person most responsible for the term becoming well-known in modern times."

Old to Middle English

The Norman conquest had a significant impact on English, changing the spelling, and introducing many new words.

English continued to be the language of the common people, but initially it ceased to be the language of courts and officialdom. While the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle continued until AD 1154, most other literature from this period was in Old French or Latin.

Various contemporary sources suggest that within fifty years most of the Normans outside the royal court had switched to English, with French remaining the prestige language largely out of social inertia. For example, Orderic Vitalis, an historian born in 1075 and the son of a Norman knight, said that he only learnt French as a second language.

English literature starts to reappear circa AD 1200, when a changing political climate, and the decline in Anglo-Norman, made it more respectable. By the end of that century, even the royal court had switched back to English. Anglo-Norman remained in use in specialised circles for a while longer, but it had ceased to be a living language.

In the meantime, the Normans learning English introduced many new words to the language, and French spelling conventions.

Middle and Modern English

Main articles: Middle English and Modern English

By about the time of the Renaissance, the language had evolved into what is known as Middle English, which Modern English speakers can understand with a little difficulty. From the late 15th century, the language changed further into what is described as Modern English; the change is often dated from the Great Vowel Shift.

English has continued to assimilate foreign words, especially Latin and Greek, even to the present time. As a result of this history of assimilation, English today is commonly believed to have the largest vocabulary of any language in the world. As there are many words from different languages the risk of mispronunciation is high. Vestiges of the older forms of English remain in a few regional dialects, notably in the West Country.

In 1755 Samuel Johnson published the first significant English dictionary.

Historic English text samples

Old English

Beowulf lines 1 to 11, approximately AD 900 

Hwæt! We Gar-Dena   in geardagum,
þeodcyninga,        þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas     ellen fremedon.
Oft Scyld Scefing   sceaþena þreatum,
monegum mægþum,     meodosetla ofteah,
egsode eorlas.      Syððan ærest wearð
feasceaft funden,   he þæs frofre gebad,
weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah,
oðþæt him æghwylc   þara ymbsittendra
ofer hronrade       hyran scolde,
gomban gyldan.      þæt wæs god cyning!

Which can be translated as: 

Lo, praise of the prowess of people-kings
of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped,
we have heard, and what honor the athelings won!
Oft Scyld the Scefing from squadroned foes,
from many a tribe, the mead-bench tore,
awing the earls. Since erst he lay
friendless, a foundling, fate repaid him:
for he waxed under welkin, in wealth he throve,
till before him the folk, both far and near,
who house by the whale-path, heard his mandate,
gave him gifts: a good king he!

(translation by Francis Gummere)

Middle English

From The Canterbury Tales by Geoffry Chaucer, 14th century 

Here bygynneth the Book of the Tales of Caunterbury

 Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote
 The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
 And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
 Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
 Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
 Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
 The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
 Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,
 And smale foweles maken melodye,
 That slepen al the nyght with open eye-
 (So priketh hem Nature in hir corages);
 Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages

Early Modern English

From Othello by William Shakespeare, 1603 

   Iago: Though in the trade of Warre I have slaine men,
         Yet do I hold it very stuffe o'th' conscience 
         To do no contriu'd Murder: I lacke Iniquitie 
         Sometime to do me seruice. Nine, or ten times
         I had thought t'haue yerk'd him here vnder the Ribbes.

Othello: 'Tis better as it is.

Modern English

From the United States Declaration of Independence, 1776, by Thomas Jefferson 

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to
dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to 
assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which
the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the
opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel
them to the separation.

Sound changes

Within each section, changes are in approximate chronological order.

NOTE: In the following description, abbrevations are used as follows:

The time periods for many of the following stages are extremely short due to the extensive population movements occurring during the early AD period, which resulted in rapid dialect fragmentation:

Late Proto-Germanic period (c. AD 0–200)

This includes changes in late Proto-Germanic, up to the appearance of Proto-West-Germanic c. AD 200:

  • Early i-mutation: /e/ is raised to /i/ when an /i/ or /j/ follows in the next syllable.
    • This occurs before deletion of any unstressed vowels; hence PIE /bereti/ > PG /bereθi/ > /beriθi/ > Goth baíriθ /beriθ/ "(he) carries".
    • The /i/ produced by this change can itself trigger later i-mutation. Hence WG /beriθ/ > /biriθ/ > OE /birθ/ "(he) carries".
  • a-mutation: /u/ is lowered to /o/ when a non-high vowel follows in the next syllable.
    • This is blocked when followed by a nasal followed by a consonant, or by a cluster with /j/ in it. Hence PG /gulda/ > OE/NE gold, but PG /guldjanan/ > OE gyldan > NE gild.
    • This produces a new phoneme /o/, due to inconsistent application and later loss of unstressed /a/ and /e/.
  • Loss of /n/ before /x/, with nasalization and compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel.
    • The nasalization was eventually lost, but remained through the Ingvaeonic period.
    • Hence PrePG /tongjonom/ > PG > /θankjanan/ > OE þencan think, but PrePG /tonktoːm/ > PG /θanxtoːn/ > /θãːxtoːn/ > OE þóhte > NE thought.
  • Loss of final /n/, with nasalization (eventually lost) of the preceding vowel. Hence PrePG /dʱogʱom/ > PG /dagam/ > PN /daga/ > WG /dag/ "day (acc. sg.)".
  • Pre-nasal raising: /e/ > /i/ before nasal + consonant. PrePG /bʱendʱonom/ > PG /bendanan/ > /bindanan/ > OE bindan > NE bind (Latin of-fendō).
    • This post-dated lost of /n/ before /x/.
    • This was later extended in PreOE times to vowels before all nasals; hence OE niman "take" but OHG neman.
  • /ei/ > /iː/ (c. AD 100). The Elder Futhark of the Proto-Norse language still contain different symbols for the two sounds.
  • Vowels in unstressed syllables were reduced or eliminated. The specifics are quite complex and occurred as a result of many successive changes, with successive stages often happening hundreds of years after the previous stage. Some specifics of the initial stage:
    • Final-syllable short vowels inherited from Proto-Germanic were generally deleted. Hence Goth baíriθ /beriθ/ "(he) carries" < PG /bereθi/ (see above).
      • This operated universally only in words of three syllables or more. In words of two syllables, final-syllable /a/ and /e/ were deleted, but /i/ and /u/ were unaffected following a short syllable (i.e. one with a short vowel followed by a single consonant.) Hence PG /dagaz/ > Goth dags "day (nom. sing.)" (OE dæg), PIE /woida/ > PG /waita/ > Goth wáit "(I) know" (OE wát), PIE /woide/ > PG /waite/ > Goth "wáit" "(he) knows" (OE wát); but PIE /sunus/ > PG /sunuz/ > Goth sunus "son (nom. sing.)" (OE sunu), PIE /peku/ > PG /fehu/ > Goth faíhu /fehu/ "cattle (nom. sing.)" (OE feohu), PIE /wenis/ > PG /weniz/ > /winiz/ > OHG wini "friend (nom. sing.)" (OE wine), PIE /poːdi/ > PG /foːti/ > PreOE /føːti/ > OE fét "foot (dat. sing.)".
      • Final-syllable /a/ and /e/ were protected in words of two syllables by following /r/ and /ns/. Hence PG /fader/ > NE father; PG /stainans/ > Goth stáinans "stone (acc. pl.)".
      • Final-syllable /a/ and /e/ in two-syllable words were still present in Proto-Norse. PN /dagaz/, Goth dags "day (nom. sg.)". PN /daga/, Goth dag "day (acc. sg.)".
    • Final-syllable long vowels were shortened.
      • But final-syllable /oː/ becomes /u/ in NWG, /a/ in Gothic. Hence PG /beroː/ > early OE beru "(I) carry", but Goth baíra; PG /geboː/ > OE giefu "gift (nom. sg.)", but Goth giba.
    • Middle-syllable vowels of all types were unchanged; likewise in monosyllables, since they were stressed.
    • "Extra-long"' vowels were shorted to long vowels. There is a great deal of argument about what is exactly going on here.
      • The traditional view is that a circumflex accent arose (as in Ancient Greek) when two adjacent vowels were contracted into a single long vowel in a final syllable. This circumflexed vowel then remained long when other long vowels shortened.
      • A newer view holds that "overlong" (tri-moraic) vowels arose from the contraction of two vowels, one of which was long. Furthermore, final-syllable long vowels remained long before certain final consonants (/z/ and /d/).
      • The reason why such theories are necessary is that some final-syllable long vowels are shortened, while others remain. Nominative singular /-oːn/ shortens, for example; likewise first singular /-oːn/ < /-oːm/; while genitive plural /-oːn/ < /-oːm/ remains long. Both of the above theories postulate an overlong or circumflex ending /-ôːn/ in the genitive plural arising in the vocalic (PIE /o/ and /aː/, PG /a/ and /oː/) declensions, arising from contraction of the vocalic stem ending with the genitive plural ending.
      • Other examples of vowels that remain long are a-stem and ó-stem nominative plural /-ôz/ < early PIE /-o-es/ and /-aː-es/; PrePG ablative singular /-ôd/, /-êd/ (Gothic ƕadrē "whither", undarō "under"); /ō/-stem dative singular PG /gibâi/ > Goth gibái "gift" (but /a/-stem dative singular PG /stainai/ > Goth staina "stone").

Proto-West-Germanic period (c. AD 200–400)

This includes changes up through the split of Ingvaeonic and High Germanic (c. AD 400):

  • Unstressed diphthongs were monophthongized. /ai/ > /æː/, /au/ > /oː/.
    • Results were different in Gothic. Diphthongs remained except for absolutely final diphthongs stemming from PIE short diphthongs, which became short /a/.
    • Hence PIE /sunous/ > PG /sunauz/ > Goth sunáus, but > PWG /sunoː/ > OE suna "son (gen. sing.)"; PIE /nemoit/ > PG /nemait/ > /nimait/ > Goth nimái, but > PWG /nimæː/ > OE nime "(he) takes (subj.)"; PIE (loc.?) /stoinoi/ > PG /stainai/ > Goth staina, but > PWG /stainæː/ > OE stáne "stone (dat. sing.)"; PIE (loc.?) /gʱebʱaːi/ > PG /gebâi/ > Goth gibái, but > PWG /gebæː/ > OE giefe "gift" (dat. sing.).
  • /æː/ becomes /aː/ [ɑː].
  • Elimination of word-final /z/.
    • Note that this change must have occurred before rhotacization, as original word-final /z/ did not become /r/.
    • But it must have occurred after the North-West-Germanic split, since word-final /z/ was not eliminated in Old Norse, instead merging with /r/.
  • Rhotacization: /z/ > /r/.
    • This change also affected Proto-Norse; but in Proto-Norse, the date and nature are contested. /z/ and /r/ were still distinct in the Danish and Swedish dialect of Old Norse, as is testified by distinct runes. (/z/ is normally assumed to be a rhotic fricative in this language, but there is no actual evidence of this.)
  • West Germanic Gemination of consonants except /r/, when preceded by a short vowel and followed by /j/.
    • OE nominative plural /as/ (ME /s/), OS nominative plural /oːs/ may be from original accusative plural /ans/ (rather than original nominative plural /oːz/; cf. ON nominative plural /ar/), following Ingvaeonic nasalization/loss of nasals before fricatives.

Ingvaeonic and Proto-Anglo-Frisian period (c. AD 400–475)

This includes changes from c. AD 400 up through the split of the Anglo-Frisian languages from Ingvaeonic, followed by the split of pre-Old English from pre-Old Frisian (c. AD 475). The time periods for these stages are extremely short due to the migration of the Anglo-Saxons westward through Frisian territory and then across the English Channel into Britain, around AD 450.

  • Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law: Loss of nasals before fricatives, with compensatory lengthening. Hence PG /munθaz/ > NG mund but OE múþ, NE mouth.
    • An intermediate stage was a long nasal vowel, where nasal /ãː/ > /õː/. PIE /dontos/ > PG /tanθaz/ > OE tóθ "tooth". (NHG Zahn < OHG zant.)
  • Development of new /ɑ/-/æ/ distinction through Anglo-Frisian brightening and other changes:
    • Fronting of /ɑː/ to /æː/ (generally, unless /w/ followed).
    • Fronting of /ɑ/ to /æ/ (unless followed by a geminate, by a back vowel in the next syllable, or in certain other cases). Hence OE dæg /dæj/ "day", plural dagas /dɑɣɑs/ "days" (dialectal NE "dawes"; compare NE "dawn" < OE dagung /dɑɣung/). Gothic dags, plural dagós.
    • Change of /ai/ to /ɑː/. PG /stainaz/ > OE stán > NE stone.

Old English period (c. AD 475–900)

This includes changes from the split between Anglo-Saxon and Frisian (c. AD 475) up through historic early West Saxon of AD 900:

  • Breaking of front vowels
    • Most generally, before /x/, /w/, /r/ + consonant, /l/ + consonant (assumed to be velar [ɹ], [ɫ] in these circumstances), but exact conditioning factors vary from vowel to vowel
    • Initial result was a falling diphthong ending in /u/, but this was followed by Diphthong height harmonization, producing short /æ̆ɑ̆/, /ɛ̆ɔ̆/, /ɪ̆ʊ̆/ from short /æ/, /ɛ/, /ɪ/, long /æɑ/, /eo/, /iu/ from long /æː/, /eː/, /iː/. (Written ea, eo, io, where length is not distinguished graphically.)
    • Result in some dialects, for example Anglian, was back vowels rather than diphthongs. West Saxon ceald; but Anglian cald > NE cold.
  • /ɪ̆ʊ̆/ and /iu/ were lowered to /ɛ̆ɔ̆/ and /eo/ between 800 and 900 AD.
  • By the above changes, /au/ was fronted to /æu/ and then modified to /æa/ by Diphthong height harmonization.
    • PG /draumaz/ > OE dréam "joy" (cf. NE dream, NHG Traum). PG /dauθuz/ > OE déaþ > NE death (Goth dáuθus, NHG Tod). PG /augoː/ > OE éage > NE eye (Goth áugō, NHG Auge).
  • /sk/ was palatalized to /ʃ/ in almost all circumstances. PG /skipaz/ > NE ship (cf skipper < ON, where no such change happened). PG /skurtjaz/ > OE scyrte > NE shirt, but > ON skyrt > NE skirt.
  • /k/, /ɣ/, /g/ were palatalized to /ʧ/, /j/, /ʤ/ in certain complex circumstances, described in detail on the Old English page.
    • This change, or something similar, also occurred in Frisian.
  • Back vowels were fronted when followed in the next syllable by /i/ or /j/, by i-mutation (c. 500 AD).
    • i-mutation affected all the Germanic languages except for Gothic, although with a great deal of variation. It appears to have occurred earliest, and to be most pronounced, in the Schleswig-Holstein area (the home of the Anglo-Saxons), and from there to have spread north and south.
    • This produced new front-rounded vowels /œ/, /øː/, /ʏ/, /yː/. /œ/ and /øː/ were soon unrounded to /ɛ/ and /eː/, respectively.
    • All short diphthongs were mutated to /ɪ̆ʏ̆/, all long diphthongs to /iy/. (This interpretation is controversial. These diphthongs are written ie, which is traditionally interpreted as short /ɪ̆ɛ̆/, long /ie/.)
    • Late in Old English (c. AD 900), these new diphthongs were simplified to /ʏ/ and /yː/, respectively.
    • The conditioning factors were soon obscured (loss of /j/ whenever it had produced gemination, lowering of unstressed /i/), phonemicizing the new sounds.
  • More reductions in unstressed syllables:
  • Palatal diphthongization: Initial palatal /j/, /ʧ/, /ʃ/ trigger spelling changes of a > ea, e > ie. It is disputed whether this represents an actual sound change or merely a spelling convention indicating the palatal nature of the preceding consonant (written g, c, sc were ambiguous in OE as to palatal /j/, /ʧ/, /ʃ/ and velar /g/ or /ɣ/, /k/, /sk/, respectively).
    • Similar changes of o > eo, u > eo are generally recognized to be merely a spelling convention. Hence WG /jung/ > OE geong /jung/ > NE "young"; if geong literally indicated an /ɛ̆ɔ̆/ diphthong, the modern result would be *yeng.
    • It is disputed whether there is Middle English evidence of the reality of this change in Old English.
  • Initial /ɣ/ became /g/ in late Old English.

Up through Chaucer's English (c. AD 900–1400)

  • Vowels were lengthened before /ld/, /mb/, /nd/, /rd/, probably also /ng/, /rl/, /rn/, when not followed by a third consonant.
    • This probably occurred around AD 1000.
    • Later on, many of these vowels were shortened again; but evidence from the Ormulum shows that this lengthening was once quite general.
    • Remnants persist in the Modern English pronunciations of words such as child (but not children, since a third consonant follows), field (plus yield, wield), climb, find (plus mind, kind, bind, etc.), fiend, found (plus hound, bound, etc.).
  • Vowels were shortened when followed by two or more consonants, except when lengthened as above.
    • This occurred in two stages, the first stage affecting only vowels followed by three or more consonants.
  • Inherited height-harmonic diphthongs were monophthongized by the loss of the second component, with the length remaining the same.
  • /æː/ and /ɑː/ became /ɛː/ and /ɔː/.
  • /æ/ and /ɑ/ merged into /a/.
  • /ʏ/ and /yː/ were unrounded to /ɪ/ and /iː/.
  • /ɣ/ became /w/ or /j/, depending on surrounding vowels.
  • New diphthongs formed from vowels followed by /w/ or /j/ (including from former /ɣ/).
    • Length distinctions were eliminated in these diphthongs.
    • Diphthongs also formed by the insertion of a glide /w/ or /j/ (after back and front vowels, respectively) preceding /x/.
    • Many diphthong combinations soon merged.
  • Trisyllabic laxing: Shortening of stressed vowels when two syllables followed.
    • This results in pronunciation variants in Modern English such as divine vs divinity and south vs. southern (OE súðerne).
  • Middle English open syllable lengthening: Vowels were usually lengthened in open syllables (13th century), except when Trisyllabic laxing would apply.
  • Remaining unstressed vowels merged into /ə/.
  • Initial clusters /hɾ/, /hl/, /hn/ were reduced by loss of /h/.
  • Voiced fricatives became independent phonemes through borrowing and other sound changes.
  • /sw/ before back vowel becomes /s/; /mb/ becomes /m/.
    • Modern English sword, answer, lamb.
    • /w/ in swore is due to analogy with swear.

Up through Shakespeare's English (c. AD 1400–1600)

  • Loss of most remaining diphthongs.
    • /ai/ (and former /ɛi/, merged into /ai/ in Early Middle English) became /ɑː/ before the Great Vowel Shift.
    • /ou/ (and former /ɔu/, merged into /ou/ in Early Middle English) and /ei/ became /oː/ and /eː/ after the shift causing the pane-pain and toe-tow mergers.
    • /au/ became /ɔː/ after the shift.
    • /eu/ became /iu/, then /juː/ after the shift.
    • /oi/ remained.
    • A few regional accents, including some in Northern England, East Anglia, South Wales, and even Newfoundland, monophthongization has not been complete, so that pairs like pane/pain and toe/tow are distinct. (Wells 1982, pp. 192–94, 337, 357, 384–85, 498)
  • /x/ (written gh) lost.
    • Previously distinguished as [ç] after front vowels, [x] after back vowels.
    • [ç] and sometimes [x] lost with compensatory lengthening of previous vowel. /nɪxt/ [nɪçt] > /niːt/, later > /naɪt/ "night" by the Great Vowel Shift.
    • [x] sometimes becomes /f/, with shortening of previous vowel (but /ɔːx/ becomes /af/ not /ɔf/).
    • Inconsistent development of [x] combined with ambiguity of ou (either /ou/ or /uː/ in Early Middle English) produces multi-way result for words spelled ough. Compare Modern English through /θɹuː/, though /ðou/, bough /bau/, cough /kɒf/ or /kɔːf/, rough /ɹʌf/.
    • Some northern English accents show slightly different changes, for example night as /niːt/ and in the dialect words owt and nowt (from aught and naught). Also, in Northern England Middle English /ɛi/ and /ɛix/ are often kept distinct, so that way [weː] is distinct from weigh [wɛɪ] and late [leːt] does not rhyme with eight [ɛɪt]. Wells 1982, pp. 192–94, 337, 357, 384–85, 498. See Yorkshire dialect and accent.
  • Great Vowel Shift; all long vowels raised or diphthongized.
    • /ɑː/, /ɛː/, /eː/ become /ɛː/, /eː/, /iː/, respectively.
    • /ɔː/, /oː/ become /oː/, /uː/, respectively.
    • /iː/, /uː/ become /əi/ and /əu/, later /ai/ and /au/.
    • New /ɔː/ developed from old /au/ (see above).
    • Note that /ɔː/, /oː/, /uː/, /au/ effectively rotated in-place.
    • /ɛː/, /eː/ are shifted again to /eː/, /iː/ in Early Modern English, causing merger of former /eː/ with /iː/; but the two are still distinguished in spelling as ea, ee.
  • Loss of /ə/ in final syllables.
  • Initial clusters /wr/, /gn/, /kn/ lose first element; but still reflected in spelling.
  • Doubled consonants reduced to single consonants.

Up through American/British split (c. AD 1600–1725)

  • At some preceding time after Old English, all /r/ become /ɹ/.
    • Evidence from Old English shows that, at that point, the pronunciation /ɹ/ occurred only before a consonant.
    • Scottish English has /r/ consistently.
  • The foot-strut split: Except in northern England, /ʊ/ splits into /ʊ/ (inconsistently after labials), as in put, /ʌ/ (otherwise), as in cut.
  • Ng coalescence: Reduction of /ng/ in most areas produces new phoneme /ŋ/.
  • Palatalization of /tj/, /sj/, /dj/, /zj/ produces /ʧ/, /ʃ/, /ʤ/, and new phoneme /ʒ/ (for example measure, vision).
    • These combinations mostly occurred in borrowings from French and Latin.
    • Pronunciation of tion was /sjən/ from Old French /sjon/, thus becoming /ʃən/.
  • Long vowels inconsistently shortened in closed syllables. (Modern English head, breath, bread, blood, etc.)
  • The fleece merger (Wells 1982, 194-96): /ɛː/, /eː/ are shifted to /eː/, /iː/, causing merger of former /eː/ with /iː/.
    • Middle English /ɛː/ and /eː/ are still distinguished in spelling as ea, ee. (see, sea.)
    • /eː/ sometimes remained; hence great and meat no longer rhyme. (And threat rhymes with neither, due to early shortening, although all three once rhymed.) The merger is complete outside the British Isles and virtually complete within them. Some speakers in Northern England distinguish [ɪə] in the first group of words from [iː] or [əi] in the second group. Old-fashioned varieties of Hiberno-English and the West Country dialects preserve the Early Modern English /eː/–/iː/ contrast, but it is rare in these accents nowadays. A handful of words (such as break, steak, great) escaped the fleece merger in the standard accents and are thus have the same vowel as words like brake, stake, grate in almost all varieties of English.
  • Changes affect short vowels in many varieties before an /r/ at the end of a word or before a consonant
    • /a/ as in start and /ɔ/ as in north are lengthened.
    • /ɛ/, /ɪ/ and /ʌ/ merge, hence most varieties of Modern English have the same vowel in each of fern, fir, fur.
    • Also affects vowels in derived forms, so that starry no longer rhymes with marry.
    • Scottish English unaffected.
  • /a/, as in cat and trap, fronted to [æ] in many areas.
    • But backed, rounded, and lengthened to /ɔː/ before syllable-final (that is velar) /l/ ([ɫ]). Modern English tall, talk, bald, salt, etc. But /ɑ/ in -alm, /æ/ in -alf.
    • New phoneme /ɑ/ develops from /alm/ (calm /kɑm/) and in certain other words, for example father /fɑðə(ɹ)/.
    • Most varieties of northern English English, Welsh English and Scottish English retain [a] in cat, trap etc.
  • Loss of /l/ in /lk/, /lm/, /lf/ (see above).
  • Long mid mergers
    • Merger of /ɛː, oː/ (as in pane, toe) with /ɛi, ɔu/ (as in pain, tow). In the vast majority of Modern English accents these have been merged; whether the outcome is monophthongal or diphthongal depends on the accent. But in a few regional accents, including some in Northern England, East Anglia, South Wales, and even Newfoundland, the merger has not gone through (at least not completely), so that pairs like pane/pain and toe/tow are distinct.

After American/British split, up through 20th century (c. AD 1725–1900)

  • Split into rhotic and non-rhotic accents: loss of syllable-final /ɹ/ in some varieties, especially of English English, producing new centering diphthongs /ɛə/ (square), /ɪə/ (near), /ɔə/ (force), /ʊə/ (cure), and highly unusual phoneme /ɜː/ (nurse).

After 1900

Various changes, not yet complete

See also

Many specific changes have their own articles:

Other related pages:

References

  • Project Gutenberg's Beowulf translation by Francis Gummere
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