Helpful Information Middle English Phonology Consonants

• consonants of Middle English very similar to those of Present Day English but lacking [] as in hung (velar nasal) and [] as in measure (alveo-palatal voiced fricative)

• addition of phonemic voiced fricatives: [v], [z]; effect of French loanwords: vetch/fetch, view/few, vile/file

• loss of long consonants (OE mann > ME man)

• h lost in clusters, OE hlæfdige > ME ladi ("lady"), OE hnecca > ME necke ("neck"), OE hræfn > ME raven

• g became w after l and r: OE swelgan > ME swolwen ("swallow"), OE feolaga > ME felawe ("fellow"), OE morgen > ME morwen ("morning"), OE sorg > ME sorow ("sorrow")

• OE prefix ge- lost initial consonant and was reduced to y or i: OE genog > ME inough ("enough")

• unstressed final consonants tended to be lost after a vowel: OE ic > ME i, OE -lic > ME -ly (e.g. OE rihtlice > ME rihtly ("rightly")

• final -n in many verbal forms (infinitive, plural subjunctive, plural preterite) was lost, e.g. OE cuman > Modern English come (the n remains in some past participles of strong verbs: seen, gone, taken); final -n also lost in possessive adjectives "my" (OE min > ME mi) and "thy" (OE þin > ME þi) and indefinite article "an" before words beginning with consonant (-n remained in the possessive pronouns, e.g. mine)

• w generally dropped after s or t: OE sweostor > sister, (sometimes retained in spelling: sword, two; sometimes still pronounced: swallow, twin, swim)

• l was lost in the vicinity of palatal c in adjectival pronouns OE ælc, swilc, hwilc, micel > each, such, which, much (sometimes remained: filch)

• fricative f/v tended to drop out before consonant+consonant or vowel+consonant: OE hlaford, hlæfdige, heafod, hæfde >ME lord, ladi, hed, hadde ("lord," "lady," "head," "had") (sometimes retained: OE heofon, hræfn, dreflian > "heaven," "raven," "drivel")

• final b lost after m but retained in spelling: lamb, comb, climb (remained in medial position: timber, amble); intrusive b after m: OE bremel, næmel, æmerge>ME bremble, nimble, ember (also OE þuma>ME thombe, "thumb")

• initial stops in clusters gn- and kn- still pronounced: ME gnat, gnawen, knowen, knave, cniht ("gnat," "gnaw," "know," "knave," "knight")

• h often lost in unstressed positions: OE hit > ME it

Vowels

1. vowels in Middle English were, overall, similar to those of Old English, except for the loss of OE y and æ so that y was unrounded to i and æ raised toward [] or lowered toward [a].

2. addition of new phonemic sound (mid central vowel), represented in linguistics by the symbol called schwa: , the schwa sound occurs in unstressed syllables and its appearance is related to the ultimate loss of most inflections

Some examples:

day [dai], cause [kaus], soule [su l], tirannye [tirani], hous [hus], fruit [fruit]

3. loss of unstressed vowels: unstressed final -e was gradually dropped, though it was probably often pronounced; -e of inflectional endings also being lost, even when followed by consonant (as in -es, eth, ed) (e.g. breathe/breathed), exceptions: wishes, judges, wanted, raided; loss of -e in adverbs made them identical to adjective, hence ambiguity of plain adverbs e.g. hard, fast; final -e in French loanwords not lost because of French final stress, hence cité > "city," pureté > "purity"

4. French loanwords added new diphthongs, e.g. OF point, noyse > ME point, noise

5. vowel length:

• phonemic vowel length of OE (e.g. OE god meant something different whether the o was short or long) retained in ME (but lost in Modern English)

• short vowels tended to lengthen before certain consonant clusters OE climban, feld > ME climbe, feld ("climb," "field")

• lengthening of short vowels in open syllables (syllables ending in a vowel), OE gatu, hopa > ME gate, hope

• shortening of long vowels in stressed closed syllables, OE softe, godsibb, sceaphirde > ME softe, godsib, scepherde ("soft," "gossip," "shepherd"); exceptions (before -st): OE gast, crist > ME gost, Christ ("ghost," "Christ")

• in a long word (if two or more unstressed syllables followed the stressed one), the vowel of the stressed syllable was shortened (Christ/Christmas [ME Christesmesse], break/breakfast [ME brekefast])

• some remnants of distinctions caused by lengthening or shortening in open and closed syllables: five/fifteen, wise/wisdom; in weak verbs, the dental ending closed syllables: hide/hid, keep/kept, sleep/slept, hear/heard