Editing Trisyllabic laxing

{{short description|Historic vowel shift}}
{{IPA notice}}

'''Trisyllabic laxing''', or '''trisyllabic shortening''', is any of three processes in [[English language|English]] in which tense vowels (long vowels or [[diphthong]]s) become lax (short [[monophthong]]s) if they are followed by two or more syllables, at least the first of which is unstressed, for example, ''grateful'' vs ''gratitude'', ''profound'' vs ''profundity''.

By a different process, laxing is also found in disyllabic and monosyllabic words, for example, ''shade'' vs ''shadow'', ''lose'' vs ''lost''.

==Trisyllabic laxing==
Trisyllabic laxing is a process which has occurred at various periods in the history of English:
#The earliest occurrence of trisyllabic laxing occurred in late [[Old English]] and caused stressed [[long vowel]]s to become shortened before clusters of two consonants when two or more syllables followed.
#Later in [[Middle English]], the process was expanded to all vowels when two or more syllables followed.
#The Middle English sound change remained in the language and is still a mostly-productive process in [[Modern English]], detailed in Chomsky and Halle's ''[[The Sound Pattern of English]]''.

The Middle English sound change occurred before the [[Great Vowel Shift]] and other changes to the nature of vowels. As a result of the changes, the pairs of vowels related by trisyllabic laxing often bear little resemblance to one another in Modern English; however, originally they always bore a consistent relationship. For example, tense {{IPA|/aʊ/}} was {{IPA|[uː]}}, and lax {{IPA|/ʌ/}} was {{IPA|[u]}} at the time of trisyllabic laxing.

In some cases, trisyllabic laxing appears to take place when it should not have done so: for example, in "south" {{IPAc-en|'|s|aʊ|θ}} vs. "southern" {{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|ʌ|ð|ər|n}}. In such cases, the apparent anomaly is caused by later sound changes: "southern" (formerly ''southerne'') was pronounced {{IPA|/suːðernə/}} when trisyllabic laxing applied.

In the modern English language, there are systematic exceptions to the process, such as in words ending in ''-ness'': "mindfulness, loneliness". There are also occasional, non-systematic exceptions such as "obese, obesity" ({{IPAc-en|oʊ|ˈ|b|iː|s|ɪ|t|i}}, not *{{IPAc-en|oʊ|ˈ|b|ɛ|s|ɪ|t|i}}), although in this case the former was back-formed from the latter in the 19th century.

{| class=wikitable
! Tense <br>vowel
! →
! Lax <br>vowel
! Change in <br>[[Middle English]]
! Example
! IPA
|-
| {{IPA|iː}}
| →
| {{IPA|ɛ}}
| {{IPA|eː → e}}<br>{{IPA|ɛː → e}}
| ser'''e'''ne, ser'''e'''nity;
imp'''e'''de, imp'''e'''diment
| {{IPA|/sᵻˈr'''iː'''n, sᵻˈr'''ɛ'''nᵻti/}};
{{IPA|/ɪmˈp'''iː'''d, ɪmˈp'''ɛ'''dᵻmənt/}}
|-
| {{IPA|eɪ}}
| →
| {{IPA|æ}}
| {{IPA|aː → a}}
| prof'''a'''ne, prof'''a'''nity;
gr'''a'''teful, gr'''a'''titude
|{{IPA|/prəˈf'''eɪ'''n, prəˈf'''æ'''nᵻti/}}
{{IPA|/ˈɡr'''eɪ'''tfəl, ˈɡr'''æ'''tᵻtjuːd/}}
|-
| {{IPA|aɪ}}
| →
| {{IPA|ɪ}}
| {{IPA|iː → i}}
| div'''i'''ne, div'''i'''nity;
der'''i'''ve, der'''i'''vative
| {{IPA|/dᵻˈv'''aɪ'''n, dᵻˈv'''ɪ'''nᵻti/}};
{{IPA|/dᵻˈr'''aɪ'''v, dᵻˈr'''ɪ'''vətᵻv/}}
|-
| {{IPA|aʊ}}
| →
| {{IPA|ʌ}}
| {{IPA|uː → u}}
| prof'''ou'''nd, prof'''u'''ndity;
pron'''ou'''nce, pron'''u'''nciation;
| {{IPA|/prəˈf'''aʊ'''nd, prəˈf'''ʌ'''ndᵻti/}};
{{IPA|/prəˈn'''aʊ'''ns, prəˌn'''ʌ'''nsiˈeɪʃən/}}
|-
| {{IPA|uː}}
| →
| {{IPA|ɒ}}
| {{IPA|oː → o}}
| colspan=2|(No longer part of the active vowel system of English)<ref>April McMahon (2000) ''Lexical Phonology and the History of English'', p. 112</ref> 
|-
| {{IPA|oʊ}}
| →
| {{IPA|ɒ}}
| {{IPA|ɔː → o}}
| prov'''o'''ke, prov'''o'''cative; 
s'''o'''le, s'''o'''litude
| {{IPA|/prəˈv'''oʊ'''k, prəˈv'''ɒ'''k.ə.tɪv/}};
{{IPA|/ˈs'''oʊ'''l, ˈs'''ɒ'''lᵻtjuːd/}}
|}

==Disyllabic laxing==
Several now-defunct Middle English phonological processes have created an irregular system of ''disyllabic laxing''; unlike trisyllabic laxing which was one phonological change, apparent disyllabic laxing in Modern English is caused by many different sound changes:

* ''pl'''ea'''se'' → ''pl'''ea'''sant'' {{IPA|/ˈpl'''iː'''z, ˈpl'''ɛ'''zənt/}}<!--also mead, meadow, but that's rather obscure-->
* ''sh'''a'''de'' → ''sh'''a'''dow'' {{IPA|/ˈʃ'''eɪ'''d, ˈʃ'''æ'''doʊ/}}
: ''p'''a'''le'' → ''p'''a'''llid'' {{IPA|/ˈp'''eɪ'''l, ˈp'''æ'''lɪd/}}
* ''ch'''i'''ld'' → ''ch'''i'''ldren'' {{IPA|/ˈtʃ'''aɪ'''ld, ˈtʃ'''ɪ'''ldrən/}}
: ''d'''i'''ne'' → ''d'''i'''nner'' {{IPA|/ˈd'''aɪ'''n, ˈd'''ɪ'''nər/}} <!--though note the unchanged vowels in the internally-derived ''dining'' and ''diner''-->
: ''div'''i'''de'' → ''div'''i'''sion'' {{IPA|/dɪˈv'''aɪ'''d, dɪˈv'''ɪ'''ʒən/}}
* ''s'''ou'''th'' → ''s'''ou'''thern'' {{IPA|/ˈs'''aʊ'''θ, ˈs'''ʌ'''ðərn/}} <!-- also abound, abundant-->
: '''''ou'''t'' → '''''u'''tter'' {{IPA|/ˈ'''aʊ'''t, ˈ'''ʌ'''tər/}}
* ''g'''oo'''se'' → ''g'''o'''sling'' {{IPA|/ˈɡ'''uː'''s, ˈɡ'''ɒ'''zlɪŋ/}}
: ''f'''oo'''l'' → ''f'''o'''lly'' {{IPA|/ˈf'''uː'''l, ˈf'''ɒ'''li/}}
: ''f'''oo'''d'' → ''f'''o'''dder'' {{IPA|/ˈf'''uː'''d, ˈf'''ɒ'''dər/}}<!--also soup, supper and school, scholar, but these are probably parallel loanwords-->
* ''c'''o'''ne'' → ''c'''o'''nic'' {{IPA|/ˈk'''oʊ'''n, ˈk'''ɒ'''nɪk/}} (and other words in ''-ic'')
: ''dep'''o'''se'' → ''dep'''o'''sit'' {{IPA|/dᵻˈp'''oʊ'''z, dᵻˈp'''ɒ'''zɪt/}}

Many cases of disyllabic laxing are due, as in ''southern'' and ''shadow'' above, to Middle English having had more unstressed {{IPA|/ə/}} sounds than Modern English: ''sutherne'' {{IPA|/suðərnə/}}, ''schadowe'' {{IPA|/ʃadəwə/, /ʃadou̯ə/}}. Cases such as ''please'', ''pleasant'' and ''dine'', ''dinner'' come from how French words were adapted into Middle English: a stressed French vowel was borrowed into English as an equivalent long vowel. However, if the stressed English vowel was originally an unstressed vowel in French, the vowel was not lengthened;<ref>Harrison, Thomas Carlton. ''Robert Robinson's alphabet and seventeenth-century English phonetics'' (1978), pg. 23</ref> examples of this which did not create an alteration are Old French ''pitee'' {{IPA|/piˈte/}} → Middle English ''pite'' {{IPA|/ˈpiteː/}} and Old French ''plais-'' {{IPA|/plɛz-/}} (stem of ''plaire'') → Middle English ''plesen'' {{IPA|/ˈplɛːzən/}}, ''plaisant'' {{IPA|/plɛˈzãnt/}} → ''plesaunt'' {{IPA|/ˈplɛzau̯nt/, /ˈplɛzənt/}}.

Some Latinate words, such as ''Saturn'', have short vowels where from syllable structure one would expect a long vowel. Other cases differentiate [[Comparison of General American and Received Pronunciation|British and American English]], with more frequent disyllabic laxing in American English – compare RP and GA pronunciations of ''era'', ''lever'', ''patent'', ''primer'' (book) and ''progress'' (noun), though there are exceptions such as ''leisure'', ''produce'' (noun), ''Tethys'', ''yogurt'' and ''zebra'' that have a short vowel in RP. On the other hand, American English is ''less'' likely to have trisyllabic laxing, for example in words such as ''dynasty'', ''patronize'', ''privacy'' and ''vitamin''. Much of this irregularity is due to [[morphological leveling]].

==Monosyllabic laxing==
Laxing also occurs in basic monosyllabic vocabulary, which presumably helps keep it active across generations. For example, the {{IPA|/iː/}} → {{IPA|/ɛ/}} shift occurs in the past-tense forms of basic verbs such as ''feel'', ''keep'', ''kneel'', ''mean'', ''sleep'', ''sweep'', ''weep'' and – without a suffix ''-t'' – in ''feed'', ''lead'', ''read''. Other shifts occur in ''bite'' → ''bit'', ''do'' → ''done'', ''go'' → ''gone'', ''hide'' → ''hid'', ''lose'' → ''lost'', ''shoot'' → ''shot'', etc.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite book|editor1-last=Blake|editor1-first=Norman|title=The Cambridge history of the English language|date=1992|volume=2|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=9780521264754|pages=71–73|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UlD3ksfXl5IC&pg=PA71}}
* {{cite book|last1=Chomsky|first1=Noam|last2=Halle|first2=Morris|authorlink1=Noam Chomsky|authorlink2=Morris Halle|title=[[The sound pattern of English]]|date=1968|publisher=Harper & Row|location=New York}}
* {{cite book|last1=Cummings|first1=D. W.|title=American English Spelling: An Informal Description|date=1988|publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press|location=Baltimore, MD|pages=131–141| isbn=9780801834431 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1OVIqCV57pYC&pg=PA131}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Lahiri|first1=Aditi|last2=Fikkert|first2=Paula|title=Trisyllabic shortening in English: past and present|journal=English Language and Linguistics|date=1999|volume=3|issue=2|pages=229–267| doi=10.1017/S1360674399000234 | s2cid=123063739 |url=https://www.ling-phil.ox.ac.uk/files/trisyllabic_shortening.pdf}}
* Myers, Scott (1987). [https://www.jstor.org/stable/4047504 "Vowel Shortening in English"]. ''Natural Language & Linguistic Theory'', Vol. 5, No. 4 (Dec., 1987), pp. 485–518.
* {{cite book|last1=Wells|first1=John C.|authorlink1=John C. Wells|title=Accents of English|date=1982|volume=1: An introduction|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|pages=187–188| isbn=9780521297196 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ty5RoXyTKQsC&pg=SL20-PA87}}
{{History of English}}

[[Category:English phonology]]
[[Category:Vowel shifts]]