语言学经典第六章.ppt

Chapter6 The Earliest Changes 张丽 李先婷 孙婷婷 6.1——6.3 Loss of weak e 6.4 erar 6.5——6.9Voicing of Consonnants in English loss of weak e conditions consequences The loss of the weak e is one of the most important changes in the whole history of the language. North:beginning in Scotland → completed before Barbours Bruce was written South:many es were retanined longer in Chaucers metre immediate successors left out, Chaucer kept e becoming one of the best criteria of the genuineness of poems the loss of so many unstressed es the general tendency to slur over weak syllables their