2.3 Qualitative changes of vowels in me

In ME there was a reconstruction of the OE vowel system. New vowels appeared due to different qualitative changes: some of the vowels altered and acquired new quality.

1) Several monophthongs altered during the period.

– The OE [x:] turned into the half-open vowel [F:] in ME, eg.

slæpan [slx:pan] > sleepen [slF:pqn] ‘sleep’

Sometimes OE vowels took on a different value in different dialects.

– OE [R] remained in the northern dialects, but in the Midland and the Southern dialects it changed into the half-open rounded [L] in the 12th c.

bāt [bRt] > boot [bLt] ‘boat’

The southern forms are normal in MnE, both British and American, but there are a few words where the northern forms has entered the standard language. In this case the phoneme is then realized as [eI]. Thus the word raid is a northern dialectical variant of the word road: both come from OE rād ‘a riding, a journey’.

– Another example of dialectical variation is the ME treatment of the OE rounded vowel [y:], as in the word bryd ‘bride’.

In the Northern and the East Midland dialects [y:] appeared as [J] (OE bryd > ME brid [brJd]), in South Eastern it turned into [e:] (OE bryd > ME bred [bre:d]). While in the West Midland and the South-Western dialect it changed into [H] (OE bryd > ME bruid [brHd]).

– Similarly, OE short [y] became ME [I] in the north and the East Midlands (eg. OE cynn [kyn] ‘kin’ > ME kinn [kIn]), [F] in the South-East (eg. OE cynn > ME kenn [kFn]) and [V] in the West Midlands and the South-West (eg. OE cynn > ME kunn [kVn]).

Standard MnE is descended from a dialect where OE [y] and [y:] normally developed into ME [I] and [J], the latter then changed into [aI]; so OE cynn and mys became MnE kin and mice. But there are forms, which came from other dialects: merry (< OE myrih) and left (< OE lyft) come from the South-Eastern dialect, and busy (< OE bysih) has its pronunciation from the East Midlands or the North, but has the South-Western spelling.

– From about 1100 on, the OE [x] fell together with [Q] in ME, eg. OE þæt [Txt] > ME that [TQt]. But in West Midland it also changed into [O] before the nasal consonants [m] and [n] (OE fram [frQm] > ME from [from]). So, MnE words like from, long, song, etc., which have [O] before the nasals, come from West Midland.

The rest of monophthongs presented their original quality, though the spelling may be different.

2.4 Changes in diphthongs

Another phonological change that marks the transition from OE to ME includes the disappearance of the OE diphthongs and the development of new ones.

At the end of OE period all diphthongs were contracted (became monophthongs); this process is called ‘smoothing’

	OE	ME
ēo [e:o] > [e:]	dēop [de:op]	deep [de:p]
eo [Fo] > [F]	seofon [sFovon]	seven [sFvqn]
ēa [e:q] > [F:]	brēad [bre:qd]	bread [brF:d]
ea [Fq] > [Q]	eald [Fqld]	ald [Qld]

But in ME there appeared new diphthongs instead the former ones.

a) They developed due to the vocalization of:

• [j] into [I] after the front [x] and [F]. This fusion of the sounds gave rise to two diphthongs with I-glide: [aI] and [eI], e. g.: OE dæh [dxj] > ME dai [daI], OE weh [wFj] > ME wei [weI]

• [ɣ] or [w] into [V] after the back vowels [O] and [Q], which forms the ME diphthongs with V-glide: [aV] and [OV], e. g., OE drahan [drQɣQn] > ME drauen [draVqn], OE boha [bOɣQ] > ME boue [bOVq], OE cnāwan [knRwQn] > ME knowen [knOVqn]

b) The diphthongs with V-glide also developed before [x] and [l] after the back vowel, e. g., OE tāhte [tRxte] > ME taughte [taVxtq].

c) New diphthongs were also supplemented from Anglo-Norman. Some of the words borrowed from French (pause) reinforced the diphthong [aV] that developed from changes in English. French loan-words like point, royal also introduced a new diphthong, in the form of [OI].