A Fact in Historical Phonology from the Viewpoint of Generative Phonology: The Underlying Schwa in Old English

Although OE schwa has been viewed as an allophone, but not as a phoneme, the abstract schwa like the latter appears in the analysis of a phonological representation. The four pieces of evidence (posttonic weakening, derivation, distribution, and consonant lenition) converge to argue in favor of the underlying schwa of the syllabic consonants. The present discussion is, in terms of analyzing the correct underlying form, superior to the one solely of a sonorant consonant that has seemingly been implicitly accepted. The effect the article has on facts of English contributes to the form on account of which another early schwa invisibly takes place. It makes a contrary view both on the long-standing fact that the OE allophone caused by the vowel reduction shifted to the ME phoneme and on the ban on the occurrence of the schwa that is caused by epenthesis, derivation from rhotic and alternation with high vowel.