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Word Analysis (Subject) / Vowels - commonalities between German and English (Lesson)
- Developement of the Germanic Diphtongs /ai/ and /au/ /ai/ OHG kept dipthong /ai/ OE: /ai/ > /a:/, and then later rounded to /o:/, by ME => Stein – stone, Seife – soap, Bein – bone /au/ OE: /au/ > /ea/ OHG: /au/ > /au/ OR /o:/ - conditioned change => seam – Saum, dream – Traum, leaf – Laub => bean – Bohne, dead – tot, bread – Brot /au/ > /o:/ in German before /h/, /r/ and alveolar consonants (/t/, /d/, /s/, /z/, /n/) The modern pronunciations of English <ea>, e.g. dream, bread are a result of later vowel developments, post ME, largely lexically motivated.