On the Markedness of Old English Diphthongs

Most historical linguists maintain that sound change in general proceeds over time from marked to less marked state by the loss of marked structures. It is not the case, however, that languages always lose their marked properties over time or that they never add marked properties during the course of their history. Crucial questions are why changes in the direction of markedness sometimes occur, and what we can say about the popular teleological accounts for sound change. We explore these questions by considering a few examples of attested phonological developments centering upon the markedness of OE diphthongs. We argue that although it did not introduce any marked structure in itself, Old English Breaking created the OE diphthongs /æa/ and /eo/, which are typologically and phonetically marked. We also propose that Anglian Smoothing and Kentish Syllabicity Shift should be seen as remedial processes to deal with the markedness of Old English diphthongs.