Chapter 1
The Peripatetic History of Middle English *ࡃܭ†
Alice Faber, Haskins Laboratories; Marianna Di Paolo,
University of Utah; Catherine T. Best, University of
Western Sydney & Haskins Laboratories
- Introduction
In Modern English, descendants of Middle English Ɲ , ܭࡃ, and ܭ (when
lengthened in open syllables) are merged in /i/. Examination of the historical
sources and of modern dialects suggests that things were a bit more compli-
cated, however. In particular, while ܭࡃ (whether merged with ܭ, as in Stan-
dard English, or not, as in some scattered dialects) approached Ɲ in the 14th
century, it did not merge with Ɲ until the 17th century. In the interim, ܭࡃ
(but not Ɲ ) approached ۘ (or æj), an approximation that is reÀ ected both
in contemporary prescriptive records and in scattered modern dialects. These
historical developments are best understood in terms of a view of language
change that is not restricted to investigating historical antecedents of prestige
and standard dialects and that takes as a given that languages of the past were
typologically and structurally comparable to languages of the present. Thus,
for example, if near mergers are observed in present languages, the possibility
of near merger cannot be excluded in discussions of past languages. A further
consequent of our reexamination of ܭࡃ is that additional doubt is cast on the
chronological and conceptual unity of the Great English Vowel Shift.
1.1 Background
Modern sociolinguistic research in the Labovian paradigm has documented
instances of near mergers. In a near merger, two sounds in a particular lan-
guage or dialect are measurably and reliably different even though speakers
generally behave as if the sounds do not contrast phonologically. In the near
merger that we have studied the most, that of tense and lax vowels before
/l/ in Utah, speakers produce the contrasting words POOL^1 and PULL with