Old English
There are two processes in Old English that are examples of harmonic vowel breaking, called Old English breaking and back umlaut.
Old English breaking is a process in prehistoric Old English whereby stressed short and long i, e, æ become short and long diphthongs spelled io, eo, ea (respectively), when followed by h or by r, l + another consonant (short vowels only), and sometimes w (only for certain short vowels).
Examples are:
- PG *fallan → feallan "fall"
- PG *erþō → eorþe "earth"
Back umlaut is a process in late prehistoric Old English whereby short i, e, æ become short diphthongs spelled io, eo, ea (respectively) before a back vowel in the next syllable, if the intervening consonant is of a certain nature. The specific nature of which consonants trigger back umlaut and which block them varies from dialect to dialect.
Read more about this topic: Vowel Breaking
Famous quotes containing the word english:
“On becoming soldiers we have not ceased to be citizens.”
—Oliver Cromwell’s Soldiers. Address, 1647, to the English Parliament. “Humble Representation.”
“Civilisation—a heap of rubble scavenged by scrawny English Lit. vultures.”
—Malcolm Muggeridge (1903–1990)