Template:English sound change examples
Revision as of 09:33, 14 September 2015 by imported>Espreon (Removed a couple of unneeded apostrophes; ", whereas" + additional sentence rather than keeping it wrapped up in parentheses)
The following table shows a possible sequence of changes for some basic vocabulary items, leading from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) to Modern English. The notation ">!" indicates an unexpected change, whereas the simple notation ">" indicates an expected change. An empty cell means no change at the given stage for the given item. Only sound changes that had an effect on one or more of the vocabulary items are shown.
one | two | three | four | five | six | seven | mother | heart | hear | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Proto-Indo-European | Template:PIE | Template:PIE | Template:PIE (fem.) | Template:PIE | Template:PIE | Template:PIE | Template:PIE | Template:PIE | Template:PIE | Template:PIE |
Pre-Germanic unexpected changes | >! dwóy | >! tríh₂s | >! petwṓr | >! pémpe | >! sepḿ̥d | >! meh₂tḗr | >! kérdō | |||
Sonorant epenthesis | sepúmd | |||||||||
Final overlong vowels | kérdô | |||||||||
Laryngeal loss | trī́s | mātḗr | kowsyónom | |||||||
Loss of final nonhigh vowels | pemp | |||||||||
Grimm's Law | twoi | þrī́s | feþwṓr | fémf | sehs | sefúmt | māþḗr | hértô | housjónom | |
Verner's Law | oinoz | þrīz | feðwōr | seβumt | māðēr | houzjonom | ||||
o > a, ō > ā, ô > â | ainaz | twai | feðwār | hertâ | hauzjanam | |||||
Final -m > -n | hauzjanan | |||||||||
m > n before dental | seβunt | |||||||||
Final -n > nasalization | hauzjaną | |||||||||
Loss of final -t | seβun | |||||||||
Sievers' Law | hauzijaną | |||||||||
Nasal raising | fimf | |||||||||
ā > ō, â > ô | feðwōr | mōðēr | hertô | |||||||
Proto-Germanic form | ainaz | twai | þrīz | feðwōr | fimf | sehs | seβun | mōðēr | hertô | hauzijaną |
Final vowel shortening/loss | ainz? | þrīz | feðwur | mōðar | hertō | hauzijan | ||||
Final -z loss | ain | þrī | ||||||||
Rhotacism: z > r | haurijan | |||||||||
Intervocalic ðw > ww | fewwur | |||||||||
Hardening: ð > d, β > v, f [ɸ] > [f] | finf | sevun | mōdar | |||||||
Morphological changes | >! þriju | >! herta | ||||||||
West Germanic pre-form | ain | twai | þriju | fewwur | finf | sehs | sevun | mōdar | herta | haurijan |
Ingvaeonic (prespirant) nasal loss | fīf | |||||||||
ai > ā | ān | twā | ||||||||
Anglo-Frisian brightening | hertæ | hæurijan | ||||||||
I-mutation | heyrijan | |||||||||
Loss of medial -ij- | heyran | |||||||||
Breaking | hĕŭrtæ | |||||||||
Diphthong height harmony | feowur | hĕŏrtæ | hēran, hiyran | |||||||
Back mutation | sĕŏvun | |||||||||
Final reduction | feowor | sĕŏvon | >! mōdor | hĕŏrte | ||||||
Raising: ehs eht > ihs iht | sihs | |||||||||
hs > ks | siks | |||||||||
Late OE lowering: iu > eo | þreo | |||||||||
iy > ȳ | hȳran | |||||||||
Late Old English spelling | ān | twā | þrēo | fēowor | fīf | six | seofon | mōdor | heorte | hēran, hȳran |
Middle English (ME) smoothing | θrøː | føːwor | søvon | hørte | ||||||
ME final reduction | føːwǝr | søvǝn | moːdǝr | hørtǝ | heːrǝn | |||||
ME a: æ: > ɔ: ɛ: | ɔːn | twɔː | ||||||||
-dǝr > -ðǝr | moːðǝr | |||||||||
ME unexpected (?) vowel changes | >! fiːv-ǝ | >! hɛːrǝn | ||||||||
ME diphthong changes | >! fowǝr | |||||||||
Late ME unrounding | θreː | sevǝn | hertǝ | |||||||
Late Middle English spelling (c. 1350) | oon | two | three | fower | five | six | seven | mother | herte | heere(n) |
Late ME final reduction (late 1300s) | >! fowr | fiːv | hert | hɛːr | ||||||
Late ME /er/ > /ar/ (1400s)[1] | hart | |||||||||
Late ME Great Vowel Shift (c. 1400-1550) | oːn >! wʊn | twoː | θriː | fǝiv | muːðǝr | heːr | ||||
Early Modern English (EModE) smoothing | foːr | |||||||||
EModE raising /woː/ > /wuː/ > /uː/[2] | tuː | |||||||||
EModE shortening | mʊðǝr | |||||||||
EModE /ʊ/ > /ʌ/ | wʌn | mʌðǝr | ||||||||
Later vowel shifts | fɔːr | faiv | sɪks | hɑrt | hiːr | |||||
Loss of -r (regional) | fɔː | mʌðǝ | hɑːt | hiǝ | ||||||
Modern pronunciation | wʌn | tuː | θriː | fɔː(r) | faiv | sɪks | sevǝn | mʌðǝ(r) | hɑrt/hɑːt | hiːr/hiǝ |
one | two | three | four | five | six | seven | mother | heart | hear |
NOTE: Some of the changes listed above as "unexpected" are more predictable than others. For example:
- Some changes are morphological ones that move a word from a rare declension to a more common one, and hence are not so surprising: e.g. *þrī "three" >! *þriu (adding the common West Germanic feminine ending -u) and *Template:PIE "heart" (stem *Template:PIE) >! *Template:PIE (change from consonant stem to n-stem).
- Some changes are assimilations that are unexpected but of a cross-linguistically common type, e.g. føːwǝr "four" >! fowǝr where **fewǝr would be expected by normal sound change. Assimilations involving adjacent numbers are especially common, e.g. *Template:PIE "four" >! *Template:PIE by assimilation to *Template:PIE "five" (in addition, /kʷ/ > /p/ is a cross-linguistically common sound change in general).
- On the other extreme, the Early Modern English change of oːn "one" >! wʊn is almost completely mysterious. Note that the related words alone ( < all + one) and only ( < one + -ly) did not change.