Vowel breaking

In historical linguistics, vowel breaking is the change of a monophthong into a diphthong or triphthong. The change into a diphthong is also known as diphthongization.

Breaking in Southern American English

This is characteristic of the "Southern drawl" of Southern American English, where the short front vowels have developed a glide up to [j], and then in some areas back down to schwa: pat [pæjət], pet [pɛjət], pit [pɪjət].

Breaking in Old English

Proto-Germanic stressed short i, e, æ become ie,eo, ea regularly in Old English when followed by h or by r, l + another consonant, and long "i, e, æ" become "îo, êo, êa" before "h"

Examples are:

PG *fallan > feallan "fall"
PG *erþō > eorþe "earth"

Reference: Robert B. Howell 1991. Old English breaking and its Germanic analogues (Linguistische Arbeiten, 253.). Tübingen: Max Niemeyer

Breaking in Old Norse

Proto-Germanic stressed short e becomes ja or (before u) jǫ regularly in Old Norse except after w, r, l. Examples are:

PG *ek(a) "I" > (east) ON jak, Swedish jag, Dänisch and Norwegian Bokmål jeg (but Jutlandic æ, a, Icelandic ek > ég, Nynorsk eg)
- Faroese has both. The standard form is eg, while the dialects of Suðuroy have jeg.
PG *hertōn "heart" > ON hjarta, Swedish hjärta, Faroese hjarta, Danish hjerte
PG *erþō "earth" > Proto-Norse *erþū > ON jǫrð, Swedish, Danish jord, Faroese jørð

According to some scholars,^[1] the diphthongisation of e is an unconditioned sound change, whereas other scholars speak about epenthesis^[2] or umlaut.^[3]

Breaking in Proto-Indo-European

Some scholars^[4] believe that Proto Indo-European language (PIE) i, u has a kind of breaking before an original laryngeal in Greek, Armenian and Tocharian, whereas the other Indo-European languages have monophthongs. Typical examples are:

PIE *gʷih₃wos > *gʷioHwos "alive" > Gk. ζωός, Toch. B śāw-, śāy- (but Skt. jīvá-, Lat. vīvus)
PIE *protih₃kʷom > *protioHkʷom "front side" > Gk. πρόσωπον "face", Toch. B pratsāko "breast" (but Skt. prátīka-)
PIE *duh₂ros > *duaHros "long" > Gk. δηρός, Arm. *twār > erkar (Skt. dūrá-, Lat. dūrus).

However, the hypothesis is not adopted by most handbooks.

References

Crowley, Terry. (1997) An Introduction to Historical Linguistics. 3rd edition. Oxford University Press.

^ J. Svensson, Diftongering med palatalt förslag i de nordiska språken, Lund 1944.
^ H. Paul, "Zur Geschichte des germanischen Vocalismus", Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Kultur 6 (1879) 16-30.
^ K. M. Nielsen, Acta Philologica Scandinavica 24 (1957) 33-45.
^ F. Normier, in: Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung 91 (1977) 171-218; J.S. Klein, in: Die Laryngaltheorie und die Rekonstruktion des indogermanischen Laut- und Formensystems, Heidelberg 1988, 257-279; J.E. Rasmussen, in: Selected Papers on Indo-European Linguistics, Copenhagen 1999, 442-458.

[1] J. Svensson, Diftongering med palatalt förslag i de nordiska språken, Lund 1944.

[2] H. Paul, "Zur Geschichte des germanischen Vocalismus", Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Kultur 6 (1879) 16-30.

[3] K. M. Nielsen, Acta Philologica Scandinavica 24 (1957) 33-45.

[4] F. Normier, in: Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung 91 (1977) 171-218; J.S. Klein, in: Die Laryngaltheorie und die Rekonstruktion des indogermanischen Laut- und Formensystems, Heidelberg 1988, 257-279; J.E. Rasmussen, in: Selected Papers on Indo-European Linguistics, Copenhagen 1999, 442-458.

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