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Principles of Forming Derivatives

This website uses symbols to transcribe phonemes (sounds). For an explanation of what these symbols represent, click here: vowels, consonants. The following special symbols are used:
ə Λ ā ē ī ō ū ű œ θ δ š ž č ĵ ŋ
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Note: an apostrophe ' is placed before the accented vowel.

In English, many words or roots change their meaning without changing their spelling or pronunciation: paint (substantive) vs. paint (verb: 'apply paint'), peel (substantive) vs. peel (verb: 'remove peel'), dance (substantive) vs. dance (verb: 'perform a dance'), time (substantive) vs. time (verb: 'measure time'). But there are also many instances where the spelling, the pronunciation or both change.

Many of these changes are still morphologically productive, that is they are a living part of how the language works. They include
rhoticity, palatalisation, vowel reduction, fronting and unrounding, shifts in the accent.

But others have become fixed: these sound changes do not still occurs today. But they still live on to affect the language of today, so understanding them can help the student to understand why English words change as they do.

Root-final voicing

Several roots ending in voiceless fricatives change these to their voiced equivalent when forming derivatives: /f/ > /v/, /s/> /z/, /θ/ > /δ/:
belief /bil'īf/ (substantive) > believe /bil'īv/ (verb: 'have belief')
life /l'aif/ (substantive singular) > lives /l'aivz/ (plural of same)
loaf /l'ōf/ (substantive singular) > loaves /l'ōvz/ (plural of same)
bath /baθ/ or /bāθ/ (substantive) > bathe /bēδ/ (verb: 'have a bath')
cloth /kloθ/ (substantive) > clothe /klōδ/ (verb: 'put clothes on'), clothes /klōδz/ (substantive: always plural)
teeth /tīθ/ (substantive) > teethe /tīδ/ (verb: 'grow first teeth')
use /jūs/ (substantive) > use /jūz/ (verb: 'make use of')
calf /kāf/ (substantive) > calve /kāv/ (verb: 'give birth to a calf')
heath /hīθ/ (substantive) > heathen /h'īδən/ (adjective: intended to mean 'someone from a heath')
smith /smiθ/ (substantive: 'metalworker') > smithy /sm'iδī/ (substantive: 'place where metal is worked')

Vowel changes

Associated with root-final voicing, we also see short vowels changing to their long equivalent: the basic patterns of sound change are
a /a/ > /ē/
e /e/ > /ī/
i /i/ > /ai/
o /o/ > /ō/
u /u/ or /Λ/ > /ū/ or /ű/

Examples include bath /baθ/ > bathe /bēδ/, cloth /kloθ/ > clothe /klōδ/, brass /bras/ > brazen /brēzən/. Note how two of the traditional functions of silent letter e come together: silent e indicates a change in the vowel (a /a/ > /ē/, o /o/ > /ō/) and also indicates the voicing of a final fricative (above).

Derivatives from roots containing long vowels usually leave these unchanged: teeth /tīθ/ > teethe /tīδ/, half /hāf/ > halve /hāv/. Note the exception: life /laif/ reverses the usual pattern and shortens its vowel in live /liv/.

An example where spelling changes but the vowel stays the same is loose /lūs/ (adjective: 'not kept in place') vs. lose /jūz/ (verb: 'fail to keep'). Loose is also used as a verb meaning 'release', but this is rare and sounds old-fashioned.

Other non-systematic vowel changes include these:
tale /tēl/ (substantive: 'story') > tell /tel/ (verb: 'relate a tale')
gold /gōld/ (substantive) > gild /gild/ (verb: 'coat with gold')

Hard and soft stems

English has a lot of words from Latin. Originally, the Latin consonants c and g had 'hard' pronunciations. Centuries ago, these changed to 'soft' pronunciations before the letters e, i, y. English has inherited this system with two pronunciations for these letters:

Letter c g
Hard pronunciation /k/ /g/
Soft pronunciation /s/ /ĵ/ (rarely /ž/)

English words of Latin origin sometimes have two separate stems representing these same Latin word ending in c or g, one stem with the hard pronunciation and one with the soft pronunciation. The soft stem is usually spelt with a silent e, and the hard stem without silent e; but a hard stem in g may be spelt gue with silent ue.

An example is duc-, (Latin duc-o, duc-ere 'carry') which occurs in many words. Its hard form is /dΛk/, and its soft form duce is /dűs/:
introduce /intrəd'űs/, introducing /intrə'dűsiŋ/ vs. introduction /intrəd'Λkšən/, introductory /intrəd'Λktərī/
produce /prəd'űs/, producing /prəd'űsiŋ/ vs. productive /prəd'Λktiv/, production /prəd'Λkšən/, product /pr'odΛkt/
conduct /kənd'Λkt/ (verb), conducting /kənd'Λktiŋ/, conduction /kənd'Λkšən/, conduct /k'ondΛkt/ (substantive)

An example with g is fug-, (Latin fug-o, fug-ere 'flee').
Hard form fug or fugue /fűg/: fugue /f'űg/, centrifugal /sentrif'űgəl/, centrifugation /sentrifűg'ēšən/,
Soft form fuge /fűĵ/ (> /fjūĵ/): refuge /r'efjūĵ/, refugee /r'efjūĵī/, centrifuge /s'entrifűĵ/, centrifuging /s'entrifűĵiŋ/

Adjectives expressing material: 'made of'

English has adjectives meaning 'made of a material', but these are being lost. Golden 'made of gold' and wooden 'made of wood' are still in everday use, but it is common to say a gold plate rather than a golden plate. Woolen 'made of wool', leaden 'made of lead' and brazen 'made of brass' will still be understood but not used by most speakers. Silvren 'made of silver' and irnen 'made of iron' are so archaic that most speakers will not understand them. Golden has replaced the archaic form gylden or gilden, which has the same vowel as gild (above).

g, k, ch, tch > silent gh

Centuries ago, English had a sound [x] like German ch. This has become silent in present day English, but it has remains in spelling as gh. (In some dialects of Scotland, this sound may still be pronounced /x/: the English say that the Scots pronounce bright night as /br'ixt n'ixt/ instead of /br'ait n'aiit/).

Many centuries ago, when any consonant of velar origin (g, k, ch, tch) was followed by any consonant of dental origin (d, t, th), this combination changed to ght.

Weak verbs generally form their simple past and perfect/passive participle by adding the suffix-ed. When the sound change mentioned above happened, this was always syllabic (it contained a vowel). But there was also a contracted form of the suffix -d without a vowel. When this contracted weak past suffix was added to a verb ending with a velar consonant, the sound change caused ght to form:

seek + d > sought
teach + d > taught
catch + d > caught
work > variant wrok + d > wrought 'made' and wright 'worker'

n disappeared before gh:

think + d > thought
bring + d > brought

Old English umlaut

Many centuries ago, English was affected by a group of sound changes called umlaut or late Germanic vowel harmony. Some of these sound changes still live on into modern English:

Old English o > e: A few Old English words in o form their plural by umlauting their vowel to e. These include 'foot' fót > fét, 'tooth' tóth > téth, 'goose' gós > gés. In present day English, these go through the standard sound changes (ó > /ū/ > /u/, é > /ī/) to become foot /f'ut/ > feet /f'īt/, tooth /t'ūθ/ > teeth /t'īθ/, goose /g'ūs/ > geese /g'īs/. The Old English substantives blód, bród, fóda use umlaut to form verbs blédan, brédan, fédan. In present day English these give blood /bl'Λd/, bleed /bl'īd/, brood /br'ūd/, breed /bl'īd/, food /f'ūd/, feed /f'īd/.

Old English u > y: A similar umlaut plural is Old English 'mouse' mús > mýs, present day English mouse /m'aus/ > mice /m'ais/. Old English prúd 'proud' uses umlaut to form prýde 'pride', present day English proud /pr'aud/ > pride /pr'aid/.

Old English a > e: Plural: Old English 'man' mann > menn, present day English man /man/ > men /men/. Old English strang and lang umlaut to form strengthu and lengthu, giving present day English strong /stroŋ/ > strength /streŋθ/ and long /loŋ/ > length /leŋθ/.

Transitive/intransitive verb pairs

Far in prehistory, an ancestor language of English had a system of morphological causatives: a verb could be modified to mean 'cause to verb'. This has left a few pairs of verbs in English whose classical meanings are an intransitive verb (vi), plus a transitive verb (vt) which is its causative:
lie /lai/ (vi) > lay /lē/ (vt: 'cause to lie')
sit /sit/ (vi) > set /set/ (vt: 'cause to sit')
rise /raiz/ (vi) > raise /rēz/ or rear /rīr/ (both vt: 'cause to rise')
fall /foal/ (vi) > fell /fel/ (vt: 'cause to fall')
drink /driŋk/ (vi: 'take up water') > drench /drenč/ (vt: 'cover with water')

But these distinctions of meaning are breaking down. Most speakers use lay and sit for both meanings. The verbs fell and rear are disappearing, and rear is now used for both meanings.

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