Phonological history of English close back vowels
History and description of |
English pronunciation |
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Historical stages |
General development |
Development of vowels |
Development of consonants |
Variable features |
Related topics |
Most dialects of modern
Historical development
The Old English vowels included a pair of short and long close back vowels, /u/ and /uː/, both written ⟨u⟩ (the longer vowel is often distinguished as ⟨ū⟩ in modern editions of Old English texts). There was also a pair of back vowels of mid-height, /o/ and /oː/, both of which were written ⟨o⟩ (the longer vowel is often ⟨ō⟩ in modern editions).
The same four vowels existed in the Middle English system. The short vowels were still written ⟨u⟩ and ⟨o⟩, but long /uː/ came to be spelt as ⟨ou⟩, and /oː/ as ⟨oo⟩. Generally, the Middle English vowels descended from the corresponding Old English ones, but there were certain alternative developments.
The Middle English open syllable lengthening caused short /o/ to be mostly lengthened to /ɔː/ (an opener back vowel) in open syllables, a development that can be seen in words like nose. During the Great Vowel Shift, Middle English long /oː/ was raised to /uː/ in words like moon; Middle English long /uː/ was diphthongised, becoming the present-day /aʊ/, as in mouse; and Middle English /ɔː/ of nose was raised and later diphthongized, leading to present-day /oʊ ~ əʊ/.
At some point, short /u/ developed into a lax, near-close near-back rounded vowel, /ʊ/, as found in words like put. (Similarly, short /i/ has become /ɪ/.) According to Roger Lass, the laxing occurred in the 17th century, but other linguists have suggested that it may have taken place much earlier.[1] The short /o/ remaining in words like lot has also been lowered and, in some accents, unrounded (see open back vowels).
Shortening of /uː/ to /ʊ/
In a handful of words, some of which are very common, the vowel /uː/ was shortened to /ʊ/. In a few of those words, notably blood and flood, the shortening happened early enough that the resulting /ʊ/ underwent the "foot–strut split" (see next section) and are now pronounced with /ʌ/. Other words that underwent shortening later consistently have /ʊ/, such as good and foot. Still other words, such as roof, hoof, and root, are variable, with some speakers preferring /uː/ and others preferring /ʊ/ in such words, such as in Texan English. For some speakers in Northern England, words ending in -ook that have undergone shortening to /ʊ/ elsewhere, such as book and cook, still have the long /uː/ vowel.
FOOT–STRUT split
The FOOT–STRUT split is the split of Middle English short /u/ into two distinct phonemes: /ʊ/ (as in foot) and /ʌ/ (as in strut). The split occurs in most varieties of English, the most notable exceptions being most of Northern England and the English Midlands and some varieties of Hiberno-English.[2] In Welsh English, the split is also absent in parts of North Wales under influence from Merseyside and Cheshire accents[3] and in the south of Pembrokeshire, where English overtook Welsh long before that occurred in the rest of Wales.[4]
The origin of the split is the unrounding of /ʊ/ in Early Modern English, resulting in the phoneme /ʌ/. Usually, unrounding to /ʌ/ did not occur if /ʊ/ was preceded by a labial consonant, such as /p/, /f/, /b/, or was followed by /l/, /ʃ/, or /tʃ/, leaving the modern /ʊ/. Because of the inconsistency of the split, put and putt became a minimal pair that were distinguished as /pʊt/ and /pʌt/. The first clear description of the split dates from 1644.[5]
In non-splitting accents, cut and put rhyme, putt and put are homophonous as /pʊt/, and pudding and budding rhyme. However, luck and look may not necessarily be homophones since many accents in the area concerned have look as /luːk/, with the vowel of goose.
The absence of the split is a less common feature of educated Northern English speech than the absence of the trap–bath split. The absence of the foot–strut split is sometimes stigmatized,[6] and speakers of non-splitting accents may try to introduce it into their speech, which sometimes results in hypercorrection such as by pronouncing butcher /ˈbʌtʃər/.[7]
In Birmingham and the Black Country, the realisation of the FOOT and STRUT vowels is somewhat like a neutralisation between Northern and Southern dialects. FOOT may be pronounced with a /ɤ/, and STRUT may be pronounced with a /o/. However, both may also be pronounced with a phonetically intermediate /ɤ/[8] which is also present further north in Tyneside.[9] There is also variation in some non-splitting dialects, as while most words use /ʊ/, some words such as none, one, once, nothing, tongue and among(st) may instead be pronounced with /ɒ/ in dialects such as parts of Yorkshire.[10]
The name "FOOT-STRUT split" refers to the lexical sets introduced by Wells (1982) and identifies the vowel phonemes in the words. From a historical point of view, however, the name is inappropriate because the word foot did not have short /ʊ/ when the split happened, but it underwent shortening only later.
mood goose tooth |
good foot book |
blood flood brother |
cut dull fun |
put full sugar | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Middle English input | oː | oː | oː | u | u |
Great Vowel Shift | uː | uː | uː | u | u |
Early shortening | uː | uː | u | u | u |
Quality adjustment | uː | uː | ʊ | ʊ | ʊ |
Foot-strut split | uː | uː | ɤ | ɤ | ʊ |
Later shortening | uː | ʊ | ɤ | ɤ | ʊ |
Quality adjustment | uː | ʊ | ʌ | ʌ | ʊ |
RP output | uː | ʊ | ʌ | ʌ | ʊ |
In modern standard varieties of English, such as
STRUT–COMMA merger
The STRUT–COMMA merger or the STRUT–
The merged vowel is typically written with ⟨ə⟩ regardless of its phonetic realization. That largely matches an older canonical phonetic range of the IPA symbol ⟨ə⟩, which used to be described as covering a vast central area from near-close [
Because in unmerged accents, /ə/ appears only in unstressed syllables, the merger occurs only in unstressed syllables. Word-finally, there is no contrast between the vowels in any accent of English (in
All speakers of General American neutralise /ʌ/, /ə/ and /ɜː/ (the NURSE vowel) before /r/, which results in an
Some other minimal pairs apart from unorthodoxy–an orthodoxy include unequal /ʌnˈiːkwəl/ vs. an equal /ənˈiːkwəl/ and a large untidy room /ə ˈlɑːrdʒ ʌnˈtaɪdi ˈruːm/ vs. a large and tidy room /ə ˈlɑːrdʒ ənˈtaɪdi ˈruːm/. However, there are few minimal pairs like that, and their use as such has been criticised by scholars such as Geoff Lindsey because the members of such minimal pairs are structurally different. Even so, pairs of words belonging to the same lexical category exist as well such as append /əˈpɛnd/ vs up-end /ʌpˈɛnd/ and aneath /əˈniːθ/ vs uneath /ʌnˈiːθ/. There also are words for which RP always used /ʌ/ in the unstressed syllable, such as pick-up /ˈpɪkʌp/, goosebumps /ˈɡuːsbʌmps/ or sawbuck /ˈsɔːbʌk/, that have merging accents use the same /ə/ as the second vowel of balance. In RP, there is a consistent difference in vowel height; the unstressed vowel in the first three words is a near-open [ɐ] (traditionally written with ⟨ʌ⟩) but in balance, it is a mid [ə].[13][18][20]
Development of /juː/
Earlier Middle English distinguished the close front rounded vowel /yː/ (occurring in loanwords from Anglo-Norman like duke) and the diphthongs /iw/ (occurring in words like new), /ew/ (occurring in words like few)[21] and /ɛw/ (occurring in words like dew).
By Late Middle English, /y/, /ew/, and /iw/ all merged as /ɪw/. In Early Modern English, /ɛw/ merged into /ɪw/ as well.
/ɪw/ has remained as such in some Welsh, some northern English and a few American accents. Thus, those varieties of Welsh English keep threw /θrɪw/ distinct from through /θruː/. In most accents, however, the
FOOT–GOOSE merger
The FOOT–GOOSE merger is a phenomenon in Scottish English, Northern Irish English, Malaysian English, and Singapore English,[23][full citation needed] in which the modern English phonemes /ʊ/ and /uː/ have merged into a single phoneme. As a result, word pairs like look and Luke, pull and pool, full and fool are homophones, and pairs like good and food and foot and boot rhyme.
The history of the merger dates back to two
The full–fool merger is a conditioned merger of the same two vowels specifically before /l/, which causes pairs like pull/pool and full/fool to be homophones; it appears in many other dialects of English and is particularly gaining attention in several American English varieties.
/ʊ/ | /uː/ | IPA | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
bull | boule | buːl | |
cookie | kooky | kuːki | Also homophones in some dialects that lack the FOOT–GOOSE merger but pronounce cookie as /kuːki/ rather than /kʊki/. |
could | cooed | kuːd | |
full | fool | fuːl | |
hood | who'd | huːd | |
look | Luke | luːk | Also homophones in some dialects that lack the FOOT–GOOSE merger but pronounce look as /luːk/ rather than /lʊk/. |
looker | lucre | ˈluːkər | Also homophones in some dialects that lack the FOOT–GOOSE merger but pronounce looker as /ˈluːkər/ rather than /ˈlʊkər/. |
pull | pool | puːl | |
should | shooed | ʃuːd | |
soot | suit | suːt | With yod-dropping. |
wood | wooed | wuːd | |
would | wooed | wuːd |
Other changes
In Geordie, the GOOSE vowel undergoes an allophonic split, with the monophthong [uː ~ ʉː] being used in morphologically-closed syllables (as in bruise [bɹuːz ~ bɹʉːz]) and the diphthong [ɵʊ] being used in morphologically-open syllables word-finally (as in brew [bɹɵʊ]) but also word-internally at the end of a morpheme (as in brews [bɹɵʊz]).[17][26]
Most dialects of English turn /uː/ into a diphthong, and the monophthongal [uː ~ ʉː ~ ɨː] is in free variation with the diphthongal [ʊu ~ ʊ̈ʉ ~ əʉ ~ ɪ̈ɨ], particularly word-internally. Word-finally, diphthongs are more usual. Compare the identical development of the close front FLEECE vowel.
The change of /uː.ɪ/ to [ʊɪ] is a process that occurs in many varieties of British English in which bisyllabic /uː.ɪ/ has become the diphthong [ʊɪ] in certain words. As a result, "ruin" is pronounced as monosyllabic [ˈɹʊɪn] and "fluid" is pronounced [ˈflʊɪd].[27]
See also
- Phonological history of English
- Phonological history of English vowels
- Phonological history of English consonants
- Phonological history of English consonant clusters#Yod-dropping
Notes
- ^ The FOOT–GOOSE merger, in fact, occurs only in dialects that have already undergone the FOOT–STRUT split.
References
- .
- ^ Wells (1982), pp. 132, 196–199, 351–353.
- ISBN 9781853590313. Retrieved 2020-04-14.
- ^ Trudgill, Peter (27 April 2019). "Wales's very own little England". The New European. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
- ISBN 978-0-521-26476-1.
- ^ Wells (1982), p. 354.
- .
- ^ Clark, Urszula (2013). Cover of West Midlands English: Birmingham and the Black Country West Midlands English: Birmingham and the Black Country.
- ^ Beal (2004), pp. 121–122.
- ^ Petyt (1985), pp. 94, 201.
- ^ Wells (1982), pp. 132, 380–381, 480.
- ^ Wells (2008), p. xxi.
- ^ a b Wells, John C. (21 September 2009). "John Wells's phonetic blog: ən əˈnʌðə θɪŋ". John Wells's phonetic blog. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
- ^ International Phonetic Association (2010), pp. 306–307.
- ^ Wells (1982), pp. 305, 405, 606.
- ^ Bauer et al. (2007), p. 101.
- ^ a b Watt & Allen (2003), p. 269.
- ^ a b Lindsey, Geoff (24 February 2012). "english speech services | STRUT for Dummies". english speech services. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
- ^ Wells (1982), pp. 480–481.
- ISBN 0-550-10105-5.
- ^ http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/pronunciation/, http://facweb.furman.edu/~wrogers/phonemes/phone/me/mvowel.htm
- ^ Wells (1982), p. 206.
- ^ HKE_unit3.pdf
- ^ Macafee 2004: 74
- ^ Wells (1982), p. ?.
- ^ Wells (1982), p. 375.
- ^ Wells (1982), p. 240.
Bibliography
- Bauer, Laurie; Warren, Paul; Bardsley, Dianne; Kennedy, Marianna; Major, George (2007), "New Zealand English",
- Beal, Joan (2004), "English dialects in the North of England: phonology", in Schneider, Edgar W.; Burridge, Kate; Kortmann, Bernd; Mesthrie, Rajend; Upton, Clive (eds.), A handbook of varieties of English, vol. 1: Phonology, Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 113–133, ISBN 3-11-017532-0
- International Phonetic Association (2010) [1949], "The Principles of the International Phonetic Association", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 40 (3): 299–358, S2CID 232345365
- ISBN 9027279497
- Watt, Dominic; Allen, William (2003), "Tyneside English", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33 (2): 267–271,
- .
- Wells, John C. (2008), Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3rd ed.), Longman, ISBN 978-1-4058-8118-0