313 Old and Middle English Language and Historical Linguistics As a matter of fact, examples of the vixen-type are extremely rare and presuppose rather than explain the phonemicization of /v/. If we accept that borrowing can give rise to contrasts causing phonemic splits, the impact of French and Latin is much more plausible, given the sheer number of Romance loanwords with initial /v-/ or medial /-f-/. My conclusions are similar to those of Minkova (2011), who also emphasizes the gradual character of the transition from allophonic to contrastive distribution and argues against treating OE /f, θ, s/ as a natural class of sounds reacting to the same triggers and evolving in parallel. I would like to further endorse Minkova’s conclusions by pointing out that in the case od /f, s/ vs /v, z/ contact effects completely outweigh any inner English developments. The fact that they evolved differently and split faster than /θ/ and /ð/ is not due to any phonological features they share but only to the accidental fact that some of these sounds were part of the Old French inventory of fricatives, and some were not. References Bennett, William H. (1955) “The Southern English development of Germanic initial [f s þ].” [In:] Language 31(3); 367–371. DOI: 10.2307/410804 [Reprinted as (1969) in: Lass (ed.) Approaches to English Historal Linguistics: An Anthology. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston; 349–354.] Dobson, Eric J. (1968) English Pronunciation 1500–1700. 2 Vols. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press. Fisiak, Jacek ([1968] 1996) A Short Grammar of Middle English. Warsaw, Poland: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe. Fulk, Robert D (2001) “Conditions for the Voicing of Old English Fricatives. I. Phonology.” [In:] Interdisciplinary Journal for Germanic Linguistics and Semiotic Analysis 6(1); 55–77. Fulk, Robert D. (2002) “Conditions for the Voicing of Old English fricatives. II: Morphology and Syllable Structure.” [In:] English Language and Linguistics 6(1); 81–104. DOI: 10.1017/S1360674302001053 Gradon, Pamela (1979) Dan Michel’s Ayenbite of Inwyt: or, Remorse of Conscience. Vol. 2. Introduction, Notes and Glossary. (Early English Text Society Original Series 23). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Hogg, Richard M. (1992) A Grammar of Old English. Vol. 1. Phonology. Oxford, UK: Blackwell. Jordan, Richard (1974) Handbook of the Middle English Grammar: Phonology. (Janua Linguarum. Series Practica 218). Translated and revised by Eugene Joseph Crook. The Hague: Mouton. DOI: 10.1515/9783110879414
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