Lecture I theme I: Subject and aims of the History of English

in open syllables
before ss, st, nt, ft
Shortening	before other consonant clusters	before [Ө, d, t, k]

Another development accounting for the appearance of sibilants and affricatives in the English language is dated in Early NE and is connected with the phonetic assimilation of lexical borrowings. In the numerous loan-words of Romance origin adopted in ME and Early NE the stress fell on the ultimate or penultimate syllable.

In Early NE clusters [sj, zj, tj, dj] – through reciprocal assimilation in unstressed position – regularly changed into [s, ç, ts, dç]. Three of these sounds, [s, tç, dç], merged with the phonemes already existing in the language, while the fourth, [ç], made a new phoneme. Now the four sounds formed a well-balanced system of two correlated pairs: [s, ç], [tç, dç].

Sometimes a similar voicing occurred in consonant clusters containing sibilants, fricatives and affricates.

ME NE	ME	NE
s z	resemblen [rə’semblən]	resemble
f v	of [of]	of
Ө ð	there [Өe:r]	threre
ks gz	anxietie [aŋksie’tiə]	anxiety
ds dç	knowledge [‘knouləts]	knowledge

ME spelling way of writing was originally based on a phonetic principle: it was designed to give an accurate graphic representation of pronunciation by using letters to indicate sounds. Mod E spelling displays many deviations from this principle. The differences between the pronunciation and the spelling of words are obvious, especially to those who are familiar with the employment of Latin letters in other languages.

ME spelling innovations incorporated many sound changes which had taken place since the 9^th – 10^th c., and yet spelling had generally become more ambiguous and conventional.

Questions:

1. 
   What are the peculiarities of NE?
   
2. 
   Comment on the Written Standard.
   
3. 
   Recall the NE phonetic changes.