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The development of early Middle English ō

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image of The development of early Middle English <i>ō</i>

This paper seeks to determine the developments of Old English/early Middle English ō in Middle English dialects, by making use of irregular spellings extracted from three corpora of Middle English dialect material, as well as from other sources of localised Middle English texts. I argue (a) that Northern Fronting of ō started before 1300 in the northernmost counties of England and spread southwards during the next 100–150 years, (b) that the Great Vowel Shift raising of ō started in the mid-to-late thirteenth century in the West Midlands and East Midlands and a little later in the South, and (c) that there is thus temporal overlap between Northern Fronting and the Great Vowel Shift. These long-vowel changes should therefore not be treated separately: if there was any ‘Great Vowel Shift’, it must include Northern Fronting, as well as other presumed earlier changes.

References

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    1952 Chaucerian Graphemics and Phonemics: A Study in Historical Methodology. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Virginia.
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  27. 1978 “Perseverance in the English Vowel Shift”. Recent Developments in Historical Phonologyed. by Jacek Fisiak , 337–348. The Hague: Mouton. doi: 10.1515/9783110810929.337
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110810929.337 [Google Scholar]
  28. 1985 “Assessment of Alternative Explanations of the Middle English Phenomenon of High Vowel Lowering when Lengthened in the Open Syllable”. Papers from the 4th International Conference on English Historical Linguisticsed. by Roger Eaton et al , 303–318. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/cilt.41.22sto
     https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.41.22sto [Google Scholar]
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  30. Stockwell, Robert & Donka Minkova
    1988a “The English Vowel Shift: Problems of Coherence and Explanation”. Kastovsky & Bauer , eds 1988, 355–394.
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  31. Stockwell, Robert. & Donka Minkova
    1988b “A Rejoinder to Lass”. Kastovsky & Bauer , eds 1988, 411–417.
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  32. Wełna, Jerzy
    2004 “Middle English ē-Raising: A Prelude to the Great Vowel Shift”. Studia Anglica Posnanienska40.75–83.
     [Google Scholar]
  33. Williamson, Keith
    2006 “Further Reflections on the Outcomes of Northern Fronting in Older Scots”. Paper presented at the14th International Conference on English Historical Linguistics, University of Bergamo, 21–25 August, 2006.
     [Google Scholar]
  34. Wright, Joseph & Elizabeth M. Wright
    1928 An Elementary Middle English Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  35. Wyld, Henry Cecil
    1936 A History of Modern Colloquial English. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
     [Google Scholar]
  36. Zachrisson, Robert Eugen
    1913 Pronunciation of English Vowels 1400–1700. Göteborg: Wald. Zachrissons Boktryckeri.
     [Google Scholar]

References

  1. Benskin, Michael
    . Forthcoming. “A Charm Against Thieves”. Paper onMS, Northamptonshire Record Office, Finch-Hatton 3047.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Black, Merja
    1998 “Lollardy, Language Contact and the Great Vowel Shift”. Neuphilologische Mitteilungen99:1.53–69.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Britton, Derek
    2002 “Northern Fronting and the North Lincolnshire Merger of the Reflexes of ME /u:/ and ME /o:/”. Language Sciences24.221–229. doi: 10.1016/S0388‑0001(01)00030‑4
     https://doi.org/10.1016/S0388-0001(01)00030-4 [Google Scholar]
  4. Britton, Derek & Keith Williamson
    2002 “A Review of Northern Fronting and its Developments in England and Scotland”. Paper presented at the12th International Conference on English Historical Linguistics, Glasgow, Scotland, August 2002.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Curzan, Anne & Chris C. Palmer
    2006 “The Importance of Historical Corpora, Reliability, and Reading.Corpus-based Studies of Diachronic Englished. by Roberta Facchinetti & Matti Rissanen , 17–34. Bern & New York: Peter Lang.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Hunt, Tony & Michael Benskin
    eds. 2001 Three Receptaria from Medieval England. The languages of medicine in the fourteenth century. (= Medium Ævum Monographs, New Series XXI.) Oxford.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Jespersen, Otto
    1909 A Modern English Grammar, Part I. Heidelberg: Carl Winters Univer-
­sitäts­buchhandlung.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Jordan, Richard
    1968 Handbuch der mittelenglischen Grammatik: Lautlehre. Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Kristensson, Gillis
    1967 A Survey of Middle English Dialects 1290–1350: The Six Northern Counties and Lincolnshire. Lund: CWK Gleerup.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. 1987 A Survey of Middle English Dialects 1290–1350: The West Midland Counties. Lund: Lund University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. 1995 A Survey of Middle English Dialects 1290–1350: The East Midland Counties. Lund: Lund University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. 2001 A Survey of Middle English Dialects 1290–1350: The Southern Counties. I. Vowels (except Diphthongs). Lund: Lund University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. 2002 A Survey of Middle English Dialects 1290–1350: The Southern Counties. II. Diphthongs and Consonants. Lund: Lund University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Laing, Margaret
    2008 A Linguistic Atlas of Early Middle English. University of Edinburgh.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Luick, Karl
    1896 Untersuchungen zur englischen Lautgeschichte. Straßburg: Trübner.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. 1914–40 Historische Grammatik der englischen Sprache, Vol. I, Parts 1 & 2. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Maci, Stefania
    2006 “The Phonetic Representation of ME ī in Some Norfolk Works of the Late Fifteenth Century”. English Studies87:2.148–168. doi: 10.1080/00138380600609953
     https://doi.org/10.1080/00138380600609953 [Google Scholar]
  18. McIntosh, Angus , Michael Louis Samuels , Michael Benskin , et al
    eds. 1986 A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English, Vols. I–IV. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. McMahon, April
    1994 Understanding Language Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9781139166591
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139166591 [Google Scholar]
  20. Phillips, Betty
    2006 Word Frequency and Lexical Diffusion. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1057/9780230286610
     https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230286610 [Google Scholar]
  21. Prins, Anton
    1942 “A Few Early Examples of the Great Vowel Shift”. Neophilologus27.134–137. doi: 10.1007/BF01512698
     https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01512698 [Google Scholar]
  22. Ritt, Nikolaus
    1994 Quantity Adjustment. Vowel Lengthening and Shortening in Early Middle English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511597831
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511597831 [Google Scholar]
  23. Stenbrenden, Gjertrud Flermoen
    2010 The Chronology and Regional Spread of Long-Vowel Changes in English, c. 1150–1500. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Oslo.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. 2013 “The Diphthongisation of ME ū: the Spelling Evidence”. English Corpus Linguistics, Variation in Time, Space and Genre: Selected Papers from ICAME 32 (Language & Computers)ed. by Gisle Andersen & Kristin Bech , 53–67. Rodopi. doi: 10.1163/9789401209403_005
     https://doi.org/10.1163/9789401209403_005 [Google Scholar]
  25. Stockwell, Robert
    1952 Chaucerian Graphemics and Phonemics: A Study in Historical Methodology. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Virginia.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. 1972 “Problems in the Interpretation of the Great English Vowel Shift”. Studies in Linguistics in Honor of George L. Tragered. by M. Estelle Smith , 344–362. The Hague: Mouton.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. 1978 “Perseverance in the English Vowel Shift”. Recent Developments in Historical Phonologyed. by Jacek Fisiak , 337–348. The Hague: Mouton. doi: 10.1515/9783110810929.337
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110810929.337 [Google Scholar]
  28. 1985 “Assessment of Alternative Explanations of the Middle English Phenomenon of High Vowel Lowering when Lengthened in the Open Syllable”. Papers from the 4th International Conference on English Historical Linguisticsed. by Roger Eaton et al , 303–318. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. doi: 10.1075/cilt.41.22sto
     https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.41.22sto [Google Scholar]
  29. 2006 “The Status of Late Middle English <ei> Spellings as Early Evidence of the English Vowel Shift”. The Beginnings of Standardization: Language and Culture in Fourteenth-Century Englanded. by Ursula Schaefer , 175–180. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
     [Google Scholar]
  30. Stockwell, Robert & Donka Minkova
    1988a “The English Vowel Shift: Problems of Coherence and Explanation”. Kastovsky & Bauer , eds 1988, 355–394.
     [Google Scholar]
  31. Stockwell, Robert. & Donka Minkova
    1988b “A Rejoinder to Lass”. Kastovsky & Bauer , eds 1988, 411–417.
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Wełna, Jerzy
    2004 “Middle English ē-Raising: A Prelude to the Great Vowel Shift”. Studia Anglica Posnanienska40.75–83.
     [Google Scholar]
  33. Williamson, Keith
    2006 “Further Reflections on the Outcomes of Northern Fronting in Older Scots”. Paper presented at the14th International Conference on English Historical Linguistics, University of Bergamo, 21–25 August, 2006.
     [Google Scholar]
  34. Wright, Joseph & Elizabeth M. Wright
    1928 An Elementary Middle English Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  35. Wyld, Henry Cecil
    1936 A History of Modern Colloquial English. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
     [Google Scholar]
  36. Zachrisson, Robert Eugen
    1913 Pronunciation of English Vowels 1400–1700. Göteborg: Wald. Zachrissons Boktryckeri.
     [Google Scholar]

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