Questions and assignments

1.Did word stress in OE always fall on the first syllable? Recall some regular shifts of stress in word-building and give similar examples from present-day English.

2. Comment on the phonemic status of OE short diphthongs (give your reasons why they should be treated as phonemes or as allophones). Account for the difference between the vowels in OE pæt, eat and monn, all going back to PG words with [a] (cf Gt pata, manna, alls).

4. Account for the interchange of vowels in OE dæʒe, daʒas (NE day — Dat. sg and Nom. pl); bæð, baðian (NE bath, bathe).

5. Say which word in each pair of parallels is OE and which is Gt. Pay attention to the difference in the vowels;

raups — rēad (NE red); hām — haims (NE home); beald — balpei (NE bold); barms — bearm (‘chest’); dēaf — daufs (NE deaf); triu — trēo (NE tree); lēof — liufs (‘dear’, rel. to NE love); qiþan — cweðan (NE quoth ‘say’).

In the same way classify the following words into OE and O Scand: bēaʒ — baugr (‘ring’); fár — fǣr (NE fear); man or mon — maðr (Gt manna); daupr — dēap (NE death); eall —allr (NE all); earm — armr (NE arm); harpa — hearpe (NE harp); faðir — fæder (NE father); fæst — fastr (NE fast).

6. Account for the difference between the root-vowels in OE and in parallels from other OG languages:

Gt langiza, OE lenʒra (NE longer); Gt marei, OHG meri, OE mere (NE obs. mere ‘lake’); Gt sandian, OE sendan (NE send); Gt ubils, OE yfel (NE evil); Gt be-laibian, OE lǣfan (NE leave); Gt. baugian, OE bӯʒan, bie ʒ an (‘bend’); Gt fulljan, OE fyllan (NE fill); Gt laisjan — OE iǣran ‘teach’.

7. Explain the term "mutation" and innumerate the changes re­ferred to mutations in Late PG and in Early OE. What do they all have in common?

8. Which word in each pair could go back to an OE prototype with palatal mutation and which is more likely to have descended from the OE word retaining the original non-mutated vowel? Mind that the spell­ing may often point to the earlier pronunciation of the word: old — elder; strong — strength; goose — geese; man — men; full — fill; food — feed; brother — brethren; far — further.

9. Was the OE vowel system symmetrical? State your arguments in favour and against its interpretation as a completely balanced sys­tem (See also question 2).

10. Define the sound values of the letters f, ð, s and comment on the system of OE consonant phonemes:

OE heofon, faran, ʒe-faran, hæfde, offrung, ofer (NE heaven, fare, had, offering, over); oððe, oðer, Norð, ðanne (‘or’, NE other, North, then); sǣ, wisse, cēosan, cēas (NE sea, ‘knew’, choose, chose).

11. What consonant and vowel changes are illustrated by the follow­ing pairs of words?

Gt maiza — OE māra (NE more); Gt kunþian, OE cӯðan (‘inform’); Gt daups — OE dēad (NE dead).Gt saljan — OE sellan (NE sell);OE pyncan — pūhte (NE think — thought);OE mæʒden, mǣden (NE maid­en);Gt kinnus, OE cinn (NE chin); OHG isarn — OE iren (NE iron).

Gt hausjan — OE hieren (NE hear); O Scand skaft — OE sceaft (NE shaft).

12. Why can the voicing of fricative consonants in Early OE be regarded as a sort of continuation of Verner's Law? Describe the similar­ities and the differences between the two processes.

13. What peculiarities of OE consonants can account for the differ­ence in the sound values of the italicised letters in the following modern words?

sand; rise (OE risan); house — houses (OE hūs); hose (OE hosa); horse (OE hors); think, bathe, path (OE pyncan, bāðian, pæð).

Chapter IX
OLD ENGLISH GRAMMAR (§ 148-226)