![]() ![]() This contrast helps explain certain ambiguities of Modern English spelling, such as the difference in pronunciation between the verb live, from the Old English verb libban with a short vowel, and the adjective alive, from a preposition followed by an inflected form of the Old English noun līf "life" with a long vowel. They were generally not written differently by Old English scribes, but in modern transcriptions we usually mark the long vowels by writing a horizontal line above them, called a macron. Old English had a contrast in pronunciation between long and short vowels. Old English vowel length: short "a" in both have and crave ![]() The reason "have" is pronounced with a short rather than a long vowel seems to be that the word is often unstressed. In Old English, have did have a short vowel, but so did many other words that are now pronounced with "long a." So the difference in modern pronunciation cannot be explained by Old English vowel length. As far as I can tell, the pronunciation of have evolved irregularly. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |