ENGL 202
Prof. G. Steinberg
Sound Changes

 Identify the sound changes that are operating in the following examples.  Don’t worry about accounting for changes in vowel sounds (other than ellipsis and intrusion), but be sure to account for every consonant change.  NOTE:  The affricate [tš] is the equivalent of c with a caret -- the IPA symbol for the "ch" sound.

  1. Old English /kniht/ Þ   Modern English “knight” /naIt/




  2. West Germanic /kerl/ Þ   Old English /tšeorl/ Þ   Modern English “churl” /tšrl/

  3. early Old English /nearolike/ Þ   Old English /nearolitš/ Þ    Modern English “nearly” /nIrli/

  4. Old English “hlæfdige” /hlævdiy/ Þ   Modern English “lady” /ledi/

  5. Old English /nævr/ Þ  Modern English “never” /nevr/

  6. early Old English /stevn/ Þ   Old English /stemn/ Þ   Modern English “stem” /stem/

  7. Latin /kentum/ Þ   Italian /tšento/

  8. early Latin /InlIteratus/ Þ   Latin /IllIteratus/ Þ   English “illiterate” /IlItrt/

  9. early Latin /InposIbIlIs/ Þ   Latin /ImposIbIlIs/ Þ   English “impossible” /ImpasIbl/

  10. early Old English /ganra/ Þ  Old English /gandra/ Þ  Modern English “gander” /gændr/


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