An Analysis of Homorganic Cluster Lengthening in Late Old English

후기 고대영어의 동질군 장모음화 분석

This paper aims to reexamine Homorganic Cluster Lengthening in Late Old English whereby OE short vowels became lengthened before specific consonant clusters such as /-ld, -nd, -mb, -rd, -rð, -ng, -rz/. As for the motivation for this apparently odd-looking sound change, I propose that it was the result of phonologization of the phonetic lengthening of syllables containing resonants homorganic with a following voiced obstruent. Adopting Luick's (1898) view of "resonant+voiced homorganic obstruent" phonologically as a single coda, I show that Homorganic Cluster Lengthening is in fact a natural sound change that can be explained with the proper postulation of a few quantity-related universal constraints within the framework of the Optimality Theory. The fact that the constraints and their ranking as posited in this paper can also account for Pre-Cluster Shortening points to the validity of my approach in the analysis of other quantity changes in Middle English.