This document provides a summary of phonetic changes, grammatical changes, and lexical enrichment that occurred in the New English period. It discusses the Great Vowel Shift and other vowel changes that transformed the English sound system. Grammatically, it notes the simplification of the noun paradigm to a binary singular/plural distinction. Lexically, it describes the influx of loanwords from other languages that expanded the English vocabulary in this period. The document is a student report on linguistic changes in New English completed for a university course in 2015.

1. Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Shakarim State University of Semey
Theme: Phonetic Changes in the New English Language. New English Grammar.
Enrichment of Lexicon in the New English Period.
Checked:ShalbaevaA.Zh.
Made by:Shakarova A. A.
Semey 2015
Report

2. Plan:
1. Phonetic Changes in the New English Language.
2. New English Grammar
3. Enrichment of Lexicon in the New English Period.
4. Literature.

3. Phonetic Changes in the New English Language.
1. Phonetic Changes in the New English Language
Changes in the System of Vowels.
The changes in the system of vowels in New English were various and complex.
We can mention at least sixteen groups of changes and individual vowel changes:
1) the Great Vowel Shift;
2) the variant of the Great Vowel Shift before -r;
3) the changes of the diphthongs;
4) the development of the long [ a:];
5) the change [al] > [aul];
6) the monophthongization of [au] and the development of the long open [ o:];
7) the development of the long vowel [ з:] before -r;
8) the change [er] > [ar];
9) the change [a] > [a];
10) the labialization of [a] after [w] resulting in [wo];
11) the delabialization of the short vowel [u];
12) the shortening of the long open [e:];
13) the loss of the unstressed neutral vowel [ з];
14) the loss of the vowel in the central syllable in longer words.
The Great Vowel Shift. This is a change which involved all the long vowels of the
Middle English period. The chronological limits of this change are not quite clear.
According to O.Jespersenthe process probablystarted in the 15th century and
completed at the beginning of the 18th century. The general tendency of the shift
was that the vowels were narrowed and the narrowest ones ( [i:] and [u:]) were
diphthongized (see Table 50).
As it can be seen from in the process ofthe Great Vowel Shift seven Middle
English long monophthongs ([i:], [e:], [e:], [a:], [o:], [o:], [u:]) turned into two
monophthongs ([i:] and [u:]) andfour diphthongs ([ai], [ei], [ou], [au]). It should
be marked that the close [e:] and the open [e:] finally merged in one vowel - [i:].
That is why in modern English there are nowadays such homophonesas see and
sea, heeland heal, etc.
The Variantof the Great Vowel Shift before -r. The middle English long vowel
followed by the consonant -r developed in a different way. In this case the vowel
which appeared as the result of the change was broader.
Phonemic Interpretation of the Great Vowel Shift.
There are several hypotheses concerning the Great Vowel Shift (GVS). Baugh and
Cable’s discussionis purely lexical and diachronic. They assume that each vowel
represents an underlying phonological unit and the diphthongs came about only
because there was no higher place for the high vowels to rise to. Chomsky and
Halle provide a different analysis. They explain the GVS in terms of several
synchronic rules which were introduced into the grammar of Modern English. Two
of these rules are particularly significant:

4. Pilch argues that Middle English did not have contrastive vowel length. Rather,
vowel length was conditioned by syllable and word structure. However, there were
eight long vowels (long i, long u, long y, long a, long open e, long closed e, long
open o, long closed o) and only five short vowels (a, o, u, e, i), with typically a
two-to-two correspondencebetween them. By the time of late Middle English,
many words had alternating forms with long and short vowels, but the
environmental triggers for the distinction had been lost, e.g. the present and past
forms of read. 11 Contrastive vowel length thus entered the language, but its use
was unstable. Starting in London in the 14th century, the contrast of high vowels i,
u, - i:, u: was reinterpreted as a contrast with diphthongs i, u – ai, au. This accounts
for the shift of the long high vowels to diphthongs. The other long vowels then
shifted to fill the gap left by the long high vowels.
Diensberg proposes that the GVS was prompted by the ‘massive intake of
Romance loanwords in Middle English and Early New English’. He cites evidence
that alternations in Middle English stressed vowels match alternations in French
loanwords. Bertacca refutes Diensberg’s theory, pointing to the loss of inflectional
morphology and various other factors as causes for the GVS.
The other phonetic changes.
The Changesof the Diphthongs. The diphthongs [ai] and [ei] were towards the end
of the Middle English period merged in [ai] as in day, way, etc. Eventually this
[ai] developed into [ei]:[dei], [wei], etc.
- In the 17th century the diphthong [ei] (“ai”) merged with [ei] from the Middle
English [a:] (see The Great Vowel Shift). A few pairs of homophones resulted from
this: ail - ale, fane (поэт. храм) -feign, lain - lane, maid - made, pail -pale,
plain - plane, sail - sale, tail - tale, veil - vale.
- In the forms says, saidthe vowel [ei] was shortened to [e]: [sez], [sed]. This
change may be explained by the fact that they usually stood in an unstressed
position.
- The Middle English [eu] (in spelling eu, ew) developed through [iu] into [ju:], as
in dew [dju:]. This change also affected French words in which the French vowel
[u] had been substituted by [iu], as in pure, nature, etc.
- The vowel resulting from the Middle English [o:] (see The Great Vowel Shift)
and the older [ou] also merged. This also brought about several pairs of
homophones: grown - groan, know - no, mown - moan, row - roe, rowed - road,
soul - sole.
The Development of Long Vowels.
The Development of the Long [ a:]. The long [a:] gradually developed from the
short [a] before -s, -th,
-sk, -sp, -st. The steps of this development were as follows:
[a] > [a] > [a:] > [ a:]
E.g.:
ME glass [glas] > NE glass [gla:s]
ME path [pa ] > NE path [pa: ]
ME vast [vast] > NE vast [va:st]

5. ME gaspen[‘gaspen] > gasp[ga:sp]
ME asken[‘asken] > ask [a:sk]
Taking into consideration the steps of the development of the long [ a:] we can see
that the well-known peculiarity of the American variant of the English language
which consists in the pronunciation of the word last, dance, ask, etc. like [last],
[dans] and [ask]is not a result of specific change but one of the
steps of the regular development of the Middle English vowel [a] frozen half-way:
a –a – a: - a:.
The Changeof [al]into [aul]. In the 15th century between the vowel [a] and the
consonant [l] there appeared the glide [u]. As a result the words like all [al], call
[kal], tall [tal] were pronounced as [aul], [kaul], [taul]. This phonetic change found
reflection in spelling too: in Early New English documents we often come across
the word all spelt as aul.
The Changeof [au]into the Long Open [o:]. In the 16th century the diphthong
[au] was monophthongized and changed into the long open [o:]. The origin of the
[au] did not matter: both the words in which [au] appeared as a result of the
change [al] > [aul] and the borrowed words which had this diphthong
(like cause)equally underwent this change. E.g.:
all [al] > aul [aul] > all [o:l]
tall [tal] > tall [taul] > tall [to:l]
cause [‘kauze] > cause [kauz] > cause [ko:z]
August [‘augest] > August [‘o:gest]
The Development of the Long [з:]. A new long vowel appeared in New English as
a result of the change of the vowels [i], [u], [e:] , [o] (only after [w]) followed by
the consonant [r] which in its turn underwent vocalization. E.g.:
first [first] > first [f з:st]
fur [fur] > fur [f з:]
word [word] > word [wз:d]
learn [le:rn] > learn [lз:n]
The Change[er] > [ar]. In the 14th - 15th centuries in many words [er] changed
into [ar]. In some words this change had no reflection in the spelling. E.g.:
ME clerk [klerk]> NE clerk [klark]
ME sergeant[ser’d ant] > NE sergeant[‘sardent]
ME Berkeley[‘berkeli]> NE Berkeley[‘barkli]
Derby, Hertford
In others the change was reflected in spelling. E.g.:
ME sterre > NE star
ME werre > NE war
ME hervest> NE harvest
There were also some words in which this change was reflected by a special
combined spelling ear.
E.g.:
ME herte > NE heart
ME herthe > NE hearth
ME herken> NE heark

6. 2. New EnglishGrammar.
1. Changes in Morphology: Noun
The grammatical structure of the English language in the 15th and 16th centuries
developed towards further simplification and uniformity. Of the three
morphological categories known in Old English actually two remained - number
and case- because the category of gender had practically disappeared in Middle
English.The category of number is pertinent to all the countable nouns and exists
in the form of the binary opposition of the singular and plural form. The system of
declension, which was complex enough in Old English, had shrunk to two case
forms in Middle English and continued to get still weaker during the New English
period. The Genitive Case has considerably narrowed its semantics, so that it is
expedient (fit) to call it the Possessive Case. Starting with the 16th century the
Possessive Case tends to be used only with the nouns denoting human beings. Thus
the paradigm of the New English noun has becomequite limited and may be
presented as a crossing of the two categories mentioned above.
The Paradigmof the Noun in the New English Language
The SingularNumberThePlural Number
The Common Case boy boys
The Possessive Case boy’s boys’
It may be noticed that all the marked forms of the paradigm are homophones, i.e.
they discriminated only in writing, not in pronunciation (unless the noun has the
irregular plural form).
The productive plural form, which had gradually developed from the Old English
NominativusPluralis inflection -as, in the 16th - 18th centuries was involving into
its sphere more and more nouns which used to have a different way of forming the
plural number. With the loss of the vowel it acquired three positional variants: -s
[s] after voiceless consonants; -s [z] after voiced consonants and vowels; -es [iz]
after sibilants nouns which have non-productive forms of the Old English and
Middle English origin, e.g.: man - men, woman- women, mouse - mice, louse -
lice, goose -geese, foot - feet, tooth – teeth, cow - kine (the root declension
nouns, which had i-mutation in the plural); ox – oxen (the weak declension
nouns, which
took the ending –an/-en in the plural), child – children (-es-stem), brother –
brethren (r-stem), the two latter words had adopted the forms of the weak
declension.
Another trace of the Old English declension may be seen in the group of nouns
with homonymous forms of the singular and plural number, e.g.: sheep, deer,
swine, fish (the neuter gender nouns of the a-stemdeclensionwith a long root
vowel). This rule spread to other nouns (fruit, fish, trout - форель, salmon - лосось
европейский, сёмга; cod - треска; sturgeon - лосось). Someof them denote a
mass (a flock of sheep, a herd of swine, a shoal of fish), rather than a multitude of
individuals.
A group of borrowed nouns, mainly belonging to terminology and bookish
vocabulary, form the plural number with the help of Latin and Greek inflections,
e.g.: formula -formula, phenomenon - phenomena, radius - radii, etc.

7. The existence of various means of the formation of the plural number caused a
very interesting fact: some nouns acquired double plural forms which later
developed stylistic or semantic differentiation. Thus, the noun brother as a word
of everyday use has a regular plural form brothers. This noun has another,
though not so frequent, plural form - brethren, which is used in the spiritual sense,
like brethren in faith (compare in Russian: братьяand братия).
As it was mentioned above, the New English PossessiveCase has developed on the
basis of the Middle English Genitive Case. The dominant meaning of the
Possessive Case is belonging. Alongside with this main meaning the grammarians
mention the subjective meaning (as in John’s work), the objective meaning (as in
Casar’s defeat)and so on. According to B.A.Ilyish, the modern form of the
singular Possessive (apostrophe+ s) was first used in 1680. Originally the
apostrophe(‘) denoted the omission of the letter e. As for the form of the plural
Possessive (s + apostrophe), it was introduced a hundred years later - in 1780. The
apostrophein the plural is a conventional sign as it does not stand for any omitted
letter. Though the Possessive Caseis usually used with nouns denoting human
beings, it may be seen in various idiomatic expressions with miscellaneous nouns,
e.g.: the ass’s bridge (a name playfully given to the fifth proposition in Book I of
Euclid’d Elements of Geometry), a bird’s eye view (a view seen from above as by
a bird flying), a stone’s throw (as far as one could throw a stone), for charity’s
sake, etc.
Enrichment of Lexicon in the New English Period.
1. Development of the Original Vocabulary.
There are three ways of enriching the lexicon of the language. New words can be
invented, they can be borrowed from another language, or the can be formed by
those morphological processeswhich happen to be active within a speech
community at any particular time.
In the New English language it is composition and derivation that have found
further intensive development.
In his book“Changing English” S.Potter analyses suchcontemporary compounds
as pinpoint, cloverleaf and roadhouse. The verb to pinpoint means ‘to locate
precisely’. One can pinpoint a target for bombing, a problem for solving, an error
for eliminating and what not. A cloverleaf for a driver is a well-defined
road pattern in which there no right-hand turns (remember the left-hand traffic in
Great Britain). A roadhouseis not any wayside dwelling, but an inn, dance hall,
tavern or night club located on a main road in a country district /Potter 1969, 70/.
New words which have been produced by means of affixation are quite numerous.
For example, the prefix inter- which entered the English language in a number of
Latin words, like interconfessional, intercontinental, interdenominational, etc.,
gained “independence’ and is today easily combined with other stems forming
hybrid word like intercounty, interstate, interfamily, intergroup, interfaith and
others.
An active English prefix today is mini-. Historically it appeared as an abbreviation
of the Italian word miniature/Potter 1969, 71/. It is found in the words mini-bus,

8. mini-cab, mini-car, mini-cam, mini-budget and, of course, mini-skirt. The
popularity of the latter word brought to life other derivatives which were
constructed in the same way: maxi-skirts and midi-skirts.
A very active means of enrichment of the New English vocabulary is abbreviation.
According to S.Potter, there are two kind of abbreviations: alphabetismsaand
acronyms. If an initial-letter series, like CBW (chemical and biological warfare)
and FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), is unpronounceable, we call
it an alphabetism. If, like ANZAC (the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps)
and NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), the series is pronounceable, we
call it an acronym /Potter 1969, 79/. Abbreviations in writing and other forms of
recorded speechare as old as language itself. They have always
proved useful as time and spacesavers. To communicate efficiently, to make the
other person understand perfectly, you need not ‘tell all’. Abbreviations began with
Sumerian, the first recorded language on earth.
The Romans wrote AUC for Anno urbis condita,counting time from the foundation
of their city in the year 753 before the birth of Christ. They wrote SPQR for
SenatuspopulusqueRomanus ‘Romansenate and people’, therein expressing their
democratic conceptionof the State. At the end of a friendly letter
they put SVBEEV Si vales, beneest, ego valeo which might be loosely
paraphrased ‘I’m quite well, and I do so hope that you are too’. The use of
abbreviations seems to be common nowadays in different languages to briefly
denote various institutions. Thus UCA in the United States is used for the
University of Central Arkansas, like МПГУ in Russia is used for Московский
педагогический государственный университет.
In the table below you will find some frequently used abbreviations of the English
language. An interesting way of forming new word in English is back-formation,
or negative derivation. Thus the noun editor was borrowed from French in the 17th
century. But only in the 18th century the verb to edit was produced by means of
back-formation. Many people speaking English may be unaware of the fact that
the noun greed was produced from the adjective greedy, and the adjective difficult
from the noun difficulty.
In the following table you will find some verbs which were produced byback-
formation from otherparts of speech.

9. References:
1. Sergei Mikhailovich Mezenin “A History of English” М., 2000
2. Аракин В.Д. Очеркипо историианглийского языка.-М., 1955.