Middle English Spelling
Looks
very different from OE, but this doesn’t always reflect sound changes
|
OE |
toþ,
toð |
/toθ/ |
|
ME |
tooth to(o)th(e) |
/toθ/ |
|
PDE |
tooth |
/tuwθ/ |
Different
appearance
·
collapse
of WS standard
·
development
of local traditions (e.g. the Ancrene Riwle MSS)
·
influence
of French conventions
During
ME, very variable:
·
have
a look at the spellings of ‘might’ on page 40 of Crystal: maht mahte mihte
mihhte mist mithe mouthe myhte micht
After
ME, by the time of the Great Vowel Shift, spelling was sufficiently well
established for it not to reflect sound change
A
fairly user-friendly topic
·
just
some highlights reflecting big things
·
OED
has entries under each letter (e.g. v) or digraph (e.g. wh)
Not
all spelling changes reflected sound changes
§
OE
sum -> ME some (a matter of minims!): /ʊ/
·
OE
a bufan -> ME abuuen, abuue, aboue, above
§
OE
ūt -> ME out (French convention for spelling /u/)
·
OE
fúl -> ME ful, fule, fole, fowl(e), foul(e)
·
OE
nú -> ME nu, nv;
new, newe; no,
noou, noue;
noug, nough,
Some
changes were substitutions from French
·
OE
cild -> ME child
o we’ve seen <ch>: OF chatel,
ONF catel <- Latin capitale
·
OE
toð -> ME tooth
o French didn’t have /θ/,
but did have <th> in words from Gk->Lat->Fr
§
Greek
-> Latin thronus -> French trone -> ME t-, th-
But
not all ME spelling changes were from French!
·
early
French didn’t have /š/ (or <sh>)
o OE scip -> ME sc-,
sch-, sh-, s-, ss- ...
§
Orm
was an early user of <sh>, according to OED
·
OE
<hw> /hw/ was cognate with Romance <qu> /kw/
o PIE **qwos, *qwes is the ancestor of English who and Latin quis, quid
o OE /hw/ -> ME /hw/ and
/w/
§
OE
hwí -> ME hw-, qu-, qw-, wh-, w-
§
Orm
was the first regular user of <wh>, according to OED
§
OE
hwá /hw/ -> ?
How
were long vowels marked?
§
with
final <-e>, once it became grammatically meaningless
o OE on līfe ->
ME aliue
§
sometimes
doubled:
o meet and boot
o maad and tijm
A
digression about the letter <i>
o developed ‘dot’ first in
early medieval Latin, near (e.g.) <n>, <m>
o ingeníí -> all <i>s
o had variant forms <y>
and <j>
o e.g. ‘thy’: OE þín, ðín ->>
ME þi, thi, þy, thy
o city, cities
o sushi
o e.g. “life”: OE líf
-> ME lif(e), lyf(e), liif, lijf
And
about the letter <a> as a diacritic
§
distinguish
‘close’ /e/ from ‘open’ /ɛ:/
o OE cépan -> ME kepe(n),
keep(en)
o OE clǽne ->
ME clene, cleen, clean
§
distinguish
‘close’ /o/ from ‘open’ /ɔ:/
o OE bót -> ME bote,
boot(e)
o OE bát -> ME bote,
boot(e), boat
How
ME phonemicization of voiced fricatives affected ME spelling:
·
OE
had made do with <f>, <s> and <þ, ð>
o for /ð/, new digraph
<th> still didn’t/doesn’t distinguish voicing
§
e.g.
thin, thine
o for /z/, use of <z>
increases (graze)
§
but
<s> in choose
o for /v/, ME used <v>
and <u>
§ visitist, virgyn
§
abouen, heuens, ouer, yuel
·
What’s
the distribution of <v> and <u>?
·
Hint:
vndirkast, vndir
OE
and ME <h>
·
word-initially,
sometimes spelled but not pronounced in loanwords from French (< Latin):
e.g. (h)oste, (h)onour, etc.
·
post-vocalically,
OE <h> [ç, x] -> ME <h>, <3>, <3h>,
<s>…eventually <gh>
o 1-4 riht,
3 rihht, rihct,
2-3, Sc. 6- richt; 3-5 ttthtthhtt
Distribution
of <c> and <g> changed with French conventions
Remember
OE <c>: /k/, /č/
Near
front vowels
·
in
some words OE <c> could represent /č/ : cēosan, cild,
cinn
·
but
ME loans cellar, city used <c> /s/ near front vowels
o (affected some native words
like OE īs ‘ice’)
·
in
ME, /č/ represented by <ch>
o recall OF loans chattel
and chase used <ch> /č/
o so OE céosan, cild,
cinn -> ME choose, child, chin
·
in
other OE words, <c> /k/ near front vowels (cynn, cyning)
o (these front vowels aren’t
original, but result from front mutation)
o in ME, near front vowels
<k> used for /k/: kin, king
Other changes to OE <c> /k/ include
·
OE
<cw-> /kw-/ (OE cwellan) -> ME <qu>
·
OE
<_Cc> /_Ck/ weorc -> ME /k/ work
Remember
OE <ʒ> /g/, /j/, /ɣ/
Changes
with <g>: ME saw a new letter <g> introduced to supplement the
native <ʒ>
§
ME
<g> /g/
o OE ʒod
-> ME God
·
near
front vowels, ME loanwords used <g> /ʤ/
o e.g. loanwords gem,
gentle, generacioun used the new letter form <g> /ʤ/
o not just initially:, e.g., college 4 col(l)egie,
(pl. -ies, -ijs);
4-5 colege, collegge,
4-6 colage, 5-6 collage,
6-8 colledge, 7 colledg,
4- college
o (<Fr<Latin <g->)
§ n.b. we also see <j>
in loanwords like judge, Jesus, joy (Latin i-, g-)
·
OE
had /ʤ/ <cg>, but non-initially (brycg, ecg)
o spelled in ME <gg(e),
dg(e)>: 1 brycg,
bricg, 2-6 brugge,
3-6 brygge, 4-6 bregge,
(brige), 4-7 brigge,
(5-6, 9 dial. brudge, bryg(e,
6 bruge), 6-7 bridg,
5- bridge; also northern 3- brig,
4-6 brygg, 5 bregg,
brigg, 5-9 brigg.
·
so,
before front vowels, for /g/ we see <gu> in the loanwords guide, guile
o extended to eg ON guest
OE
<ʒ> changed in distribution: loses [g]; keeps [j] &
[γ]; adds [x, ç]
·
no
longer represents /g/ - see above
·
OE
had used <ʒ> for /j/ near front vowels: gē, forgeat
o that continued in ME <ʒ> and later <y> /j/
in 3e “ye”
§
for3ete: modern forget’s /g/ is a substitution from the north
·
watch
southern ME spelling change from for3ete to northern forget
·
and
ME continues to use <ʒ> for the reflex of OE
[γ] (OE folgian, sorg)
o OE boʒa
-> ME boʒa, boghe,
o later, <w, u>, e.g.
bowe