Homorganic lengthening in late Old English revisited

Abstract

Minkova & Stockwell (1992) and Kruger (2020) claim that homorganic lengthening is limited to the environment before -ld and -nd, with only high vowels lengthening before -nd. This paper examines evidence in the Ormulum and from other sources for lengthening and finds ample evidence of regular vowel lengthening before -ld, -nd, -mb, -rd, and -rn. The cross-linguistic tendency of phonetic lengthening of vowels and sonorants in sequences of vowel plus sonorant plus homorganic voiced consonant provided a phonetic motivation for the lengthening. Already existing Old English words like frēond ‘friend’ and fēond ‘fiend’ served as a basis for a phonological reanalysis of the phonetically lengthened vowel as underlyingly long.