english.bsc

; This outlines the sound changes from Early Middle English
; to the American–British split, with one or two later and
; earlier changes included too. These changes are taken from
; https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Phonological_history_of_English&oldid=1091430987
; The sample words have been mildly cherry-picked to give
; better results, but only because the changes themselves
; don’t quite seem to line up with the derived forms of
; some words; given the changes described by the article,
; as far as I can tell this rules file simulates them exactly.

; Of particular interest is that many of these changes are
; sporadic, or otherwise have conditions which are
; phonologically unpredictable. This means that most input
; words have several different possible output, each
; corresponding to a different sequence of sound changes.
; Naturally, the Modern English pronunciation for each word
; is given by one of these possible outputs.

categories
Nasl = m n
Stop = p b t d tʃ dʒ k g
Fric = f v θ ð s z ʃ h
Aprx = r j w
Latr = l
C = Nasl Stop Fric Aprx Latr

Vs = i  u  e  o  a
Vl = iː uː eː oː aː ɛː ɔː
Di = uĭ eĭ oĭ aĭ ɛĭ ɔĭ
Du = iŭ eŭ oŭ aŭ ɛŭ ɔŭ
V = Vs Vl Di Du ə
end

; diphthong formation and mergers

[Vs -i -iː -ə] j / Di
[Vl -i -iː -ə] j / Di
[Vs -u -uː -ə] w / Du
[Vl -u -uː -ə] w / Du

oŭ / ɔŭ

[e eː ɛː] / [eĭ eĭ ɛĭ] / _ h
[o oː ɔː a aː] / [oŭ oŭ ɔŭ aŭ aŭ] / _ h

[eĭ oŭ eŭ aĭ] / [iː uː iŭ eĭ]

; open syllable lengthening
; applied to highest vowels only sporadically
[e o a] / [ɛː ɔː aː] / _ C V
-? [i u] / [iː uː] / _ C V

; trisyllabic laxing

; not sure if stress is predictable in ME,
; so just shorten third vowel from the end

; implemented by shortening long vowels which
; precede two other long vowels, but applying
; this rule once only starting from the right
; edge of the word
-rtl -1 Vl / Vs / _ ^V ^V

; unstressed vowel loss in final syllables
ə / / _ C* #

; h-loss

; in coda this has very many outcomes (cf. ⟨-ough⟩ ending);
; I’m probably missing some of them here

; I’m also unsure about what happened to the vowels,
; especially ɛː, ɔː; at the moment these changes turn
; them into ɛ, ɔ

h / / # _ [r l n]
-? [u o uː oː ɔː] h / [u o u o ɔ] f
-? Du h / [Vs -u ɛ ɔ] f
h / / V _

; various consonant changes

w / / s _ [a aː ɔː ɔ o oː u uː]  ; unsure about the vowels here
m b / m

; al, ɔl mutations
[a ɔ] / [aŭ ɔŭ] / _ l [t d tʃ dʒ θ ð s z ʃ r #]
[a ɔ] l / [aŭ ɔŭ] / _ k
l / / [a ɔ] _ [f v] / ɔ _ v
[a ɔ] l / [ɑː oː] / _ m

; short i, u laxing
[i u] / [ɪ ʊ]


categories
Vs = i  u  e  o  a  ɛ  ɔ ɪ ʊ ʌ
Vl = iː uː eː oː aː ɛː ɔː ɑː
Di = uĭ eĭ oĭ aĭ ɛĭ ɔĭ
Du = iŭ eŭ oŭ aŭ ɛŭ ɔŭ ɪʊ̆
V = Vs Vl Di Du ə
end


; Great Vowel Shift

; this one affected nearly all words, so
; use -x to keep highlighting manageable

-x [eː oː iː uː] / [iː uː eĭ oŭ]
-x [aː ɛː ɔː] / [eː iː oː]

[eĭ oŭ] / [aĭ aŭ]

; initial cluster reduction
w / / # _ r

; degemination
C / / _ >

; diphthong loss and mergers
[aŭ ɛĭ ɔŭ ɛŭ eŭ iŭ ɔĭ uĭ] / [ɔː eĭ oŭ ɪʊ̆ ɪʊ̆ ɪʊ̆ oĭ oĭ]
ɪʊ̆ / j uː

; trill loss
; r → ɹ
; as a 1-1 phonetic shift there is no need
; to explicitly represent this, especially
; since it just makes things hard to type...

; more initial cluster reductions
[g k] / / # _ n

; uː shortening

; this change was inconsistent, happening
; both before and after the FOOT-STRUT split

-? [eː uː] / [e ʊ]

; FOOT-STRUT split
-? ʊ / ʌ / _ / [m p b f v] _ [l ʃ tʃ]

; ng-coalescence

; this occurred at the end of a morpheme, which
; is hard to represent in Brassica; the best
; alternative is to treat it as a sporadic rule
; before vowels

-? n g / ŋ / _ V
n g / ŋ / _ [C #]

; yod-coalescence
-? [t s d z] j / [tʃ ʃ dʒ ʒ]

; ɔ lowering
ɔ / ɒ

; eː, uː shortening
-? [eː uː] / [e ʊ]

; MEET-MEAT merger
-? eː / iː

; short vowel changes
[a ɔ] / [aː ɔː]
[ɛ ɪ ʌ ʊ] / ə / _ r

; a-fronting
a / æ

; eː, oː breaking
[eː oː] / [eĭ oŭ]

new categories
Nasl = m n ŋ
Stop = p b t d tʃ dʒ k g
Fric = f v θ ð s z ʃ h
Aprx = r j w
Latr = l
C = Nasl Stop Fric Aprx Latr

Vs = i u e o a ɪ ʊ ʌ ɒ ə
Vl = iː uː aː ɔː ɑː
Di = aĭ
Du = aŭ oŭ
V = Vs Vl Di Du
end

; by this point final -n has long disappeared;
; this is an inflectional change, which Brassica
; cannot simulate, so the only alternative is to
; make this yet another sporadic change

-x -? n / / _ #