The OE sound system developed from the Proto-Germanic system.
In OE a dynamic or a force stress was employed. In disyllabic and polysyllabic words the accent fell on the root-morpheme or on the first syllable. Word stress was fixed; it remained on the same syllable in different grammatical forms of the word and, as a rule, did not shift in word-building either.
OE VOWELS (MONOPHTHONGS)
The OE vowel system shows 7 points of short and long vowels. ī ĭ y (short and long) ŭū ēĕ ōŏ æ (short and l) ăā. THE PECULIARITY OF OE VOWELS: it showed full symmetry. Length of vowels was phonological, that is to say it could distingyish different words: gōd (=good NE) and gŏd (god NE)
6th PALATAL MUTATION/I-UMLAUT Mutation – a change of one vowel to another one under the influence of a vowel in the following syllable. Palatal mutation (or i-Umlaut) happened in the 6th -7th c. and was shared by all Old Germanic Languages, except Gothic. I-mutation is a change of root back vowels to front ones or root open vowels to closer ones under the influence of i/j in the next syllable.
Palatal mutation – fronting and raising of vowels under the influence of [i] and [j] in the following syllable (to approach the articulation of these two sounds). As a result of palatal mutation:
- [i] and [j] disappeared in the following syllable sometimes leading to the doubling of a consonants in this syllable;
- new vowels appeared in OE ([ie, y]) as a result of merging and splitting:
BREAKING 6th
Under the influence of succeeding and preceding consonants some Early OE monophthongs developed into diphthongs. If a front vowel stood before a velar consonant there developed a short glide between them, as the organs of speech prepared themselves for the transition from one sound to the other. The glide, together with the original monophthong formed a diphthong.
The front vowels [i] and [e] and the newly developed [æ], changed into diphthongs with a back glide when they stood before [h], before long (doubled) [ll] or [l] pJus another consonant, and before [r] plus other consonants, e.g.: OE deorc, NE dark. The change is known as breaking or fructure. Breaking is dated in Early OE, for in OE texts we find the process already completed.
Breaking produced a new set of vowels in OE — the short diphthongs [ea] and [eo] they could enter the system as counterparts of'the long [ea:], [eo: ] which had developed from PG prototypes
