Late-Modern English (1800-Present)

The principal distinction between early- and late-modern English is vocabulary. Pronunciation, grammar, and spelling are largely the same, but Late-Modern English has many more words. These words are the result of two historical factors. The first is the Industrial Revolution and the rise of the technological society. This necessitated new words for things and ideas that had not previously existed. The second was the British Empire. At its height, Britain ruled one quarter of the earth’s surface, and English adopted many foreign words and made them its own.

1. Grimm's Law

1. Jacob Grimm, 1827

1. German linguist attempted to explain why many Germanic words differed so systematically from their I-E cognates. His formulation (later refined) is called Grimm's Law or the First Sound Shift. High German underwent a Second Sound Shift, but that won't concern our study of English language history.

2. I-E stops gradually assumed new sounds

bh --> b

dhh --> d

ghh --> g

ph --> f

th --> (theta)

kh --> h

bh --> p

dh --> t

gh --> k

2. Verner's Law

1. Karl Verner, 1875

§ Danish linguist wondered why not every I-E stop changed in the same way. His formulation established that Grimm's Law was consistent and could account for all known cognate evolution

2. Intermediate step in Stage 1 shift:

3. All voiceless stops changed once:

ph --> f

th --> theta

kh --> h

sh --> s z

4. If the sound was in an initial position or immediately after a stressed verb, it changed no further.

5. Those in other positions changed to voiced spirants (b, d, g)

Grimm’s law and Verner’s law

Symbols:

S = stop

F = fricative

V = voice (+ or -)

A = aspiration

Stages:

Voiced aspirated stops become voiced fricatives

Voiceless stops become voiceless fricatives

Remember that a preceding /s/ blocks Grimm’s law.

3. Verner’s law voices a fricative, if

• surrounded by voiced sounds
• preceded by an unaccented vowel

Voiced stops become voiceless stops

Voiced fricatives become voiced stops

Old English Phonology, Morphology and Syntax

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Grammatical categories of the Noun in Old English, Middle English and New English periods.

The Noun