Phonological History Of English Consonants
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

This article describes those aspects of the phonological history of English which concern
consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...
s.


Consonant clusters


H-cluster reductions

* Reduction of /hw/ – to in a few words (such as ''who''), but usually to , for the great majority of English speakers (so that ''whine'' comes to be pronounced the same as ''wine''). * Reduction of /hl/, /hr/ and /hn/, with the loss of the initial in Middle English. * Reduction of /hj/ to in a few American and Irish dialects (so that ''hew'' is pronounced like ''yew'').


Y-cluster reductions

* Yod-dropping – the
elision In linguistics, an elision or deletion is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase. However, these terms are also used to refer more narrowly to cases where two words are run to ...
of in certain clusters, depending on dialect (for example, RP has in ''new'', while General American and
Cockney Cockney is a dialect of the English language, mainly spoken in London and its environs, particularly by Londoners with working-class and lower middle class roots. The term ''Cockney'' is also used as a demonym for a person from the East End, ...
do not). * Yod-coalescence, whereby the clusters , , and become , , and respectively (for example, ''education'' is often pronounced as if it began "edge").


Other initial cluster reductions

* Reduction of /wr/ to , in words like ''wrap'', around the 17th century (there was also a reduction of to in Middle English). * Reduction of /kn/ and /ɡn/ to , in words like ''knot'' and ''gnome'', around the 17th century. * S-cluster reduction, in some types of Caribbean English, where for example ''spit'' is pronounced ''pit''.


Final cluster reductions

* NG-coalescence – reduction of the final cluster to , in words like ''hang'', which has occurred in all but a few English dialects. * G-dropping – reduction of the final cluster to in weak syllables, principally in the verb ending ''
-ing ''-ing'' is a suffix used to make one of the inflection, inflected forms of English verbs. This verb form is used as a present participle, as a gerund, and sometimes as an independent noun or adjective. The suffix is also found in certain words ...
'', which has occurred in many English dialects, although not in the modern standard varieties. * Reduction of /mb/ and /mn/ to , in later Middle English, affecting words like ''lamb'' and ''column''. * Generalized final cluster reduction in African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and Caribbean English, where for example ''desk'' and ''hand'' may be pronounced "dess" and "han".


Other changes involving clusters

* Reduction of /ts/ to /s/ – a Middle English reduction that produced the modern sound of soft . * Medial cluster reduction – elision of certain stops in medial clusters, such as the in ''postman''. * Insertion (epenthesis) of stops after nasals in certain clusters, for example making ''prince'' sound like ''prints'', and ''dreamt'' rhyme with ''attempt''. * Assimilation of certain consonants in clusters, especially nasals. * Glottalization and pre-glottalization (insertion of a
glottal stop The glottal stop or glottal plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many Speech communication, spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic ...
in place of or before a or other stop) in certain environments, depending on dialect. * Certain other changes occurring in AAVE, including S-cluster metathesis (as with the use of "aks" for ''ask'' – an alternation which also has a long history in general forms of English), the merger of /str/ and /skr/, and yod-rhotacization (where ''beautiful'' is pronounced "brootiful").


Stops


Aspiration

The voiceless stops , , are typically aspirated when they begin a stressed syllable, becoming , as described under English phonology (obstruents). There is some regional variation in the degree of aspiration, and in some Scottish and northern English accents aspiration does not occur at all. In certain accents, such as Geordie (among younger women) and in some speakers of Dublin English, , and can be preaspirated when they come at the end of a word or utterance, becoming .


Flapping

Flapping, or tapping, is a process whereby or is pronounced as the
alveolar flap The voiced alveolar tap or flap is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based pri ...
in certain positions, especially between vowels (but also sometimes after other sonorants). It may be perceived as, for example, the pronunciation of ''butter'' as "budder". It occurs especially in
North American English North American English (NAmE) encompasses the English language as spoken in both the United States and Canada. Because of their related histories and cultures, plus the similarities between the pronunciations (accents), vocabulary, and grammar ...
(to varying extents) and in Australian and New Zealand English.


Voicing

Apart from the T-voicing that results from flapping (described above), some dialects feature other instances of voicing or lenition of the stops , and . In Geordie, these stops may be fully voiced (, , ) in intervocalic position. In
Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...
, stops and other obstruents may be voiced (or at least lenited) between vowels and when final after a weak vowel, so for example the and in ''jacket'' may approach the realizations and , making the word sound similar or identical to ''jagged''.


Glottalization

Stops, chiefly the voiceless stops, and especially , are frequently glottalized or pre-glottalized in certain positions; that is, a stop may be replaced with the
glottal stop The glottal stop or glottal plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many Speech communication, spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic ...
, or else a glottal stop may be inserted before it. These phenomena are strongly dependent on the phonetic environment and on dialect. For details, see T-glottalization, as well as English phonology (obstruents) and glottalization in consonant clusters. If all final voiceless stops are glottalized, as may occur in some London speech, then sets of words such as ''lick'', ''lit'' and ''lip'' may become homophones, pronounced .


Fricatives and affricates


H-dropping and H-insertion

H-dropping ''H''-dropping or aitch-dropping is the elision, deletion of the voiceless glottal fricative or "''H''-sound", . The phenomenon is common in many dialects of English language, English, and is also found in certain other languages, either as a pu ...
is the omission of initial in words like ''house'', ''heat'' and ''hangover''. It is common in many dialects, especially in England, Wales, Australia and Jamaica, but is generally stigmatized, and is not a feature of the standard accents. The is nonetheless frequently dropped in all forms of English in the weak forms of function words like ''he'', ''him'', ''her'', ''his'', ''had'' and ''have''. The opposite of H-dropping, called H-insertion or H-adding, may arise as a
hypercorrection In sociolinguistics, hypercorrection is the nonstandard use of language that results from the overapplication of a perceived rule of language-usage prescription. A speaker or writer who produces a hypercorrection generally believes through a ...
by typically H-dropping speakers, or as a
spelling pronunciation A spelling pronunciation is the pronunciation of a word according to its spelling when this differs from a longstanding standard or traditional pronunciation. Words that are spelled with letters that were never pronounced or that were not pronoun ...
.


Loss of velar and palatal fricatives

The voiceless velar and palatal fricative sounds and , considered to be
allophone In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is one of multiple possible spoken soundsor '' phones''used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, the voiceless plos ...
s of and reflected by the in the spelling of words such as ''night'', ''taught'' and ''weight'', were lost in later Middle English or in Early Modern English. Their loss was accompanied by certain changes in the previous vowels. In some cases became , as in ''laugh''. A is still heard in words of the above type in certain Scots and northern English traditional dialect speech. A is more commonly heard, especially in the Celtic countries but also for many speakers elsewhere, in the word ''loch'' and in certain proper names such as '' Buchan''. Alexander John Ellis reported use of in England on the
Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...
-
Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...
border and close to the Scottish border in the late nineteenth century. For details of the above phenomena, see H-loss (Middle English). See also the vocalization of the voiced velar fricative .


Voiced/voiceless splits

The Old English fricatives had voiceless and voiced allophones, the voiced forms occurring in certain environments, such as between vowels, and in words originating from the Kentish dialect (like ''vane'', ''vinew'', ''vixen'', and ''zink''), word-initially. In Early Middle English, partly by borrowings from French, they split into separate phonemes: . See Middle English phonology – Voiced fricatives. Also in the Middle English period, the voiced affricate took on phonemic status. (In Old English, it is considered to have been an allophone of ). It occurred in Middle English not only in words like ''brigge'' ("bridge") in which it had been present in Old English but also in French loanwords like ''juge'' ("judge") and ''general''. After the Middle English period, a fourth voiced fricative, , developed as a phoneme (alongside the voiceless ). It arose from yod-coalescence () in words like ''measure'', and from late French loanwords like ''rouge'' and ''beige''.


Dental fricatives

As noted above, the Old English phoneme split into two phonemes in early Middle English: a
voiceless dental fricative The voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It is familiar to most English speakers as the 'th' in ''think''. Though rather rare as a phoneme among the world's languages, it is encount ...
and a voiced dental fricative . Both continued to be spelt . Certain English accents feature variant pronunciations of these sounds. These include fronting, where they merge with and (found in
Cockney Cockney is a dialect of the English language, mainly spoken in London and its environs, particularly by Londoners with working-class and lower middle class roots. The term ''Cockney'' is also used as a demonym for a person from the East End, ...
and some other dialects); stopping, where they approach and (as in some Irish speech); alveolarisation, where they become and (in some African varieties); and debuccalisation, where becomes before a vowel (found in some
Scottish English Scottish English is the set of varieties of the English language spoken in Scotland. The transregional, standardised variety is called Scottish Standard English or Standard Scottish English (SSE). Scottish Standard English may be defined ...
).


Initial fricative voicing

Initial fricative voicing is a process that occurs in some traditional accents of the English West Country, where the fricatives , , and are voiced to , , and when they occur at the beginning of a word. (Words beginning , like ''three'', develop instead.) In these accents, ''sing'' and ''farm'' are pronounced and . The phenomenon is well known as a stereotypical feature, but is now rare in actual speech. Some such pronunciations have spread from these dialects to become standard usage: the words ''vane'', ''vat'' and ''vixen'' all had initial in Old English (). A similar phenomenon occurred in both German and Dutch.


Other changes

* In
Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
and some other urban Scottish accents, is given an
apico-alveolar An apical consonant is a phone (speech sound) produced by obstructing the air passage with the tip of the tongue (apex) in conjunction with upper articulators from lips to postalveolar, and possibly prepalatal. It contrasts with laminal con ...
articulation, which auditorily gives an impression of a retracted pronunciation similar to . Confusion between and (or ) occurs in some African varieties of English, so ''ship'' may be pronounced like ''sip'' (or ''chip''). In Zulu English, it is reported that is sometimes replaced by . * The
labiodental In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants articulated with the lower lip and the upper teeth, such as and . In English, labiodentalized /s/, /z/ and /r/ are characteristic of some individuals; these may be written . Labiodental consonants in ...
fricative is sometimes merged with the corresponding bilabial stop . Some speakers of Caribbean English and Mexican American English merge with , making ''ban'' and ''van'' homophones (pronounced as , or as with a bilabial fricative). The distinction of from is one of the last phonological distinctions commonly learnt by English-speaking children generally, and pairs like ''dribble/drivel'' may be pronounced similarly even by adults. * In
Indian English Indian English (IndE, IE) or English (India) is a group of English dialects spoken in the Republic of India and among the Indian diaspora and native to India. English is used by the Government of India for communication, and is enshrined ...
, is often pronounced like , sounded as or as a labiodental approximant . Some Indian speakers make various changes in the pronunciation of other fricatives: may become or ; may become or ; may become , or , may become or ; may become ; may become a bilabial or an aspirated stop . For and , see ''th''-stopping. * For some speakers of Mexican American English, initial and may be used in place of each other, so ''jet'' may be pronounced as ''yet'' or vice versa. * In Indian South African English, the typical realization of the labiodental fricatives are the approximants .


Approximants


Insertion and deletion of /j/ and /w/

In parts of the west and southwest of England, initial may be dropped in words like ''wool'' and ''woman''; occasionally, though, a may be inserted before certain vowels, as in "wold" for ''old'' and "bwoiling" for ''boiling''. Similarly, initial may be lost in words like ''yeast'' and ''yes'' (this has also been reported in parts of eastern England), and may be added in words like ''earth'' (making "yearth"). For the much more widespread deletion of in consonant clusters, see yod-dropping (and compare also yod-coalescence and yod-rhotacization). For the historical loss of in such words as ''who'' and ''write'', see pronunciation of ''wh'' and reduction of /wr/.


Realizations of /r/

Old and Middle English was historically pronounced as an
alveolar trill The voiced alveolar trill is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental consonant, dental, alveolar consonant, alveolar, and postalveolar consonant, postalve ...
, . At some time between later Middle English and Early Modern English, it changed to an alveolar approximant, , in the standard accents. Some Scottish speakers, however, retain the original trilled ("rolled") .Pfenninger, S.E. et al., ''Contact, Variation, and Change in the History of English'', John Benjamins 2014, p. 98. Another possible realization of is the
alveolar tap The voiced alveolar tap or flap is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents a dental consonant, dental, alveolar consonant, alveolar, or postalveolar consonant, p ...
, . This is common (alongside ) in Scotland, and is also found in certain other accents, chiefly in positions between vowels or between a consonant and a vowel – this occurs, for example, in some Liverpool English and in some upper-class RP (this should not be confused with the tap pronunciation of /t/ and /d/, found especially in North America). In most General American, is before a vowel, but when not followed by a vowel is generally realized as an r-colored vowel, , or as r-coloring on the preceding vowel. In many accents of English, including RP, is lost altogether when not followed by a vowel – for this, see
rhoticity in English The distinction between rhoticity and non-rhoticity is one of the most prominent ways in which varieties of the English language are classified. In rhotic accents, the sound of the historical English rhotic consonant, , is preserved in all ...
(and for related phenomena, linking and intrusive R). For vowel changes before , see English-language vowel changes before historic /r/. A uvular realization of , the " Northumbrian burr", is used by some speakers in the far north of England. A relatively recent innovation in the southeast of England, possibly originating from
Cockney Cockney is a dialect of the English language, mainly spoken in London and its environs, particularly by Londoners with working-class and lower middle class roots. The term ''Cockney'' is also used as a demonym for a person from the East End, ...
, is the use of a labiodental approximant, , for . To some listeners this can sound like a .


Developments involving /l/

Velarization of in positions where there is no vowel following, producing a "dark L", is a phenomenon that goes back to Old English times. Today there is much variation between dialects as regards the degree and distribution of this velarization; see English phonology (sonorants). In
Early Modern English Early Modern English (sometimes abbreviated EModEFor example, or EMnE) or Early New English (ENE) is the stage of the English language from the beginning of the Tudor period to the English Interregnum and Restoration, or from the transit ...
, in many words in which a dark followed the vowel or , the either disappeared or underwent vocalization, usually with some kind of
diphthong A diphthong ( ), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of ...
ization or compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel. This affected: * Words with final and , which underwent partial L-vocalization, with the insertion of between the vowel and the . The resulting diphthongs developed respectively into modern in words like ''all'', ''ball'', ''call'', and into the vowel in words like ''poll'', ''scroll'' and ''control''. Some words of more recent origin did not undergo these changes, such as ''pal'', ''doll'' and ''alcohol''; the word ''shall'' is also unaffected. * Words with and followed by a coronal consonant, which followed the same pattern as those above, although here in modern RP the of the first set is mostly replaced by a short , as in words like ''salt'', ''halt'', ''falter'', ''bald'', ''false'', ''Walsh''. Words in the second set, having the vowel, include ''old'', ''cold'' and ''bolt'' (though some RP speakers also have in words like ''bolt''). The word ''solder'' has a variety of pronunciations; in North America the is often dropped. * Words with and , which again followed the same pattern, but also dropped the , so that words like ''chalk'', ''talk'' and ''walk'' now have , while ''folk'' and ''yolk'' rhyme with ''smoke''. * Words with or (''calf'', ''half'', ''halve''), which simply lost the (the vowel of these is now in General American and in RP, by -broadening). The word ''salve'' is often pronounced with the ; the name '' Ralph'' may be , , or . Words like ''solve'' were not affected, although ''golf'' dropped the in some British accents. * Words with and , which lost the and lengthened the vowel (the lengthened later becoming diphthongized in the toe–tow merger). Words like ''alms'', ''balm'', ''calm'', ''Chalmers'', ''qualm'', ''palm'' and ''psalm'' now generally have in the standard accents, while ''holm'' and ''Holmes'' are homophones of ''home(s)''. Some accents (including many of
American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lang ...
) have reintroduced the in these words as a
spelling pronunciation A spelling pronunciation is the pronunciation of a word according to its spelling when this differs from a longstanding standard or traditional pronunciation. Words that are spelled with letters that were never pronounced or that were not pronoun ...
. The word ''salmon'' generally retains a short vowel despite the loss of . * A few words with or , such as '' Alban'' and '' Albany'', which have developed to (though ''
Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...
'' usually has ), and '' Holborn'', which has the vowel and no . Words like ''scalp'' and ''
Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...
'' are unaffected. As noted under some of the points above, may be reintroduced in some of the words from which it has been lost, as a spelling pronunciation. This happens sometimes in Irish English, where for example ''
Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ) is the county town of County Louth, Ireland. The town is situated on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the north-east coast of Ireland, and is halfway between Dublin and Belfast, close to and south of the bor ...
'' may be pronounced (in standard English the is silent). The has also been lost in the words ''would'' and ''should''. The word ''could'' was never pronounced with ; its spelling results from analogy with the former words. Modern
L-vocalization ''L''-vocalization, in linguistics, is a process by which a lateral approximant sound such as , or, perhaps more often, velarized , is replaced by a vowel or a semivowel. Types There are two types of ''l''-vocalization: * A labiovelar approxi ...
(the replacement of "dark" with a non-syllabic vowel sound, usually similar to or ) is a feature of certain accents, particularly in London English and in near-RP speech that has been influenced by it (" Estuary English"), in some New York and Philadelphia speech, in the American South and African American Vernacular English, and in New Zealand English. Also in AAVE and some southern American accents, L-dropping may occur when the sound comes after a vowel and before a
labial consonant Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. The two common labial articulations are bilabials, articulated using both lips, and labiodentals, articulated with the lower lip against the upper teeth, b ...
in the same syllable, causing pronunciations like for ''help'' and for ''self''.Phonological Features of African American Vernacular English
/ref> In some accents around
Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...
, "intrusive L" is found, where an is inserted at the end of words ending in schwa, like ''comma'' and ''idea''. This is now somewhat stigmatized, but far from rare. The name ''Bristol'' itself was formerly ''Bristow''. In some modern English accents, significant ''pre-L breaking'' occurs when follows certain vowels (, , and diphthongs ending or ). Here the vowel develops a centering offglide (an additional schwa) before the . This may cause ''reel'' to be pronounced like ''real'', and ''tile'', ''boil'' and ''fowl'' to rhyme with ''dial'', ''royal'' and ''vowel''. Wells considers this breaking to be a feature of Midwestern and New York English.Wells (1982), pp. 487, 505. Similar pre-L schwa-insertion may also occur after (in rhotic accents), leading to pronunciations like for ''world''.


Sound changes involving final consonants


Final obstruent devoicing

Final obstruent devoicing is the full devoicing of final obstruents that occurs for some AAVE speakers in Detroit where obstruents are devoiced at the end of a word. The preceding length of the vowel is maintained when the final obstruents are devoiced in AAVE: and for "big" and "bad". Most varieties of English do not have full devoicing of final voiced obstruents, but voiced obstruents are partially devoiced in final position in English, especially when they are phrase-final or when they are followed by a voiceless consonant (for example, ''bad cat'' ). The most salient distinction between ''bad'' and ''bat'' is not the voicing of the final consonant but the duration of the vowel and the possible glottalization of final : ''bad'' is pronounced while ''bat'' is .


Final consonant deletion

Final consonant deletion is the nonstandard deletion of single consonants in syllable-final position occurring for some AAVE speakers resulting in pronunciations like: * bad - * con - * foot - * five - * good - When final nasal consonants are deleted, the nasality is maintained on the preceding vowel. When voiced stops are deleted, the length of the preceding vowel is maintained. Consonants remaining from reduced final clusters may be eligible for deletion. The deletion occurs especially if the final consonant is a nasal or a stop. Final-consonant deletion is much less frequent than the more common final-cluster reduction. Consonants can also be deleted at the end of a morpheme boundary, leading to pronunciations like for ''kids''.


Other changes


merger


See also

* Phonological history of English * Phonological history of English vowels * Rhotic and non-rhotic accents * ''L''-vocalization * Phonological history of ''wh''


References


Bibliography

* * Wells, John C. (1982), ''Accents of English'' (3 vols.), Cambridge University Press. {{DEFAULTSORT:Phonological History Of English Consonants English phonology ** Scottish English Germanic language histories