Zounds! – Middle English voiced fricatives revisited Piotr Gąsiorowski Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland ABSTRACT: The phonemicization of the voiced allophones of the Old English anterior fricatives, /f, θ, s/, was a long and complicated process. The handbook description of the three phonemes as a natural class which underwent a round of duplication, giving rise to /v, ð, z/ at the same time for the same reasons, is incompatible with the Middle English evidence. A re-examination of the data and a critical analysis of the proposed scenarios of the emergence of the voiced fricative series leads to conclusions which endorse those of Minkova (2011): the phonemicization was gradual and proceeded in a non-parallel fashion. The influence of French, mediated by the massive importation of French loanwords into Middle English, played a greater role than any native systemic pressures. KEYWORDS: Middle English, Old English, fricatives, phonemicization, language contact Prologue This chapter is based on a conference talk delivered at the 4th Medieval English Studies Symposium (MESS) in Poznań, in November 2005. Professor Jacek Fisiak, who had just stepped down as head of the School (now the Faculty) of English, Adam Mickiewicz University (a position he had held for forty years), took part in the symposium as its Honorary Chair. For some reason I did not convert the talk into a published paper at the time. Because it deals with one of the aspects of Middle English phonology, one of Jacek Fisiak’s favorite areas of research, I have decided to do so now in order to pay homage to Jacek and to make up for my past neglect. 1. The Old English background As almost everybody agrees, Old English had three anterior fricative phonemes, /f, θ, s/, with voiceless and voiced allophones. The voiced ones, [v, ð, z], occurred only medially in voiced surroundings. The exact conditions
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