3.7. Spelling Changes in Middle English

One of the cosequences of of the Norman Conquest was the French influence on English spelling. Traces of French tradition in writing have stayed on in English to present day.

The letters not employed by the French gradually went out of use. They were the letters æ, þ, ð, ʒ.

New letters were introduced, such as g, j, k, q, v.

3.7.1. Changes in the Designation of Vowels

The letter æ was replaced by a, and the letter ǣ was replaced by the letter e, accompanied by the phonetic change of æ > a, ǣ > e: OE æppel > ME appel, OE lǣtan > ME leten.

The letter y (which had denoted [ü] in OE) came to be used as an equivalent of the letter i; it represented the sounds [ı] and [j], e.g.

OE night > ME nyght, OE his > ME his, hys; OE dæʒ > ME day.

Moreover, there was a tendency to use the letter «i» at the beginning and in the middle of words and the letter «y» at the end of a word to separate it from the next one, as there were often no intervals between words.

The letter o was employed not only for the sound [o] but also for the sound [u] That happened mostly when u stood close to n, m, v or w, i.e. where too many vertical lines made reading of a hand-written text difficult, e.g.

OE cuman > ME comen. This is why ME words like come, some, son have the letter o instead of u.

Many letters changed their signification. The letter u (which had denoted only one sound [u] in OE) was employed after the French fashion to denote also the labial front vowel [ü], formerly expressed by «y», e.g.

OE bysiʒ > ME busy. The corresponding long vowel [ü] was usually marked by ui, e.g.

OE fӯr > ME fuir (fire).

The sound [ū] came to be denoted by the digraphs ou, ow. Moreover, there was a tendency to use «ow» at the end of a word (occasionally in medial position) and «ou» in other positions, e.g. OE tūn > ME town, OE sūþ > ME south, OE nū > ME now.

It became usual to mark the length of a vowel by doubling it, especially in closed syllables.

Thus, long close [ ] came to be denoted by ee; open [ ] was denoted by ea, e.g.

OE fēt > ME feet, OE swēt > ME sweet, OE sǣ > ME sea.

The sound [e] (chiefly in French borrowings) was also denoted by the digraphs «ie» or «ei», e.g. ME chief < OF chef, ME deceiven < OF deceiver.

3.7.2. Changes in the designation of Consonants

The consonant ʒ, which was used in OE to denote several phonemes was gradually replaced by [ɡ] (spellt g) and [j] (spellt y), e.g.

OE ʒōd > ME gōd, OE ʒēar > ME yēr.

Affricates and sibilants came to be indicated by special letters, digraphs and trigraphs, which came into use mainly under the influence of the French scribal tradition, e.g.

[t] – ch OE cild > ME child

[ʤ] –dge OE ecʒ > ME edge

In words of the French origin, the sound [ʤ] was represented by the letter j or g, e.g.

June, joy, judge, courage.

[] – sh, sch, e.g.

OE sceal > ME shal, schal, OE scip > ME ship, schip, OE fisc > ME fish.

The interdental [þ, ð] came to be denoted by the digraph th, e.g.

OE þencan > ME thenken (think), OE wiþ > ME with.

The sound [h] was denoted by the digraph gh, e.g. OE dohtor > ME doghtor, OE niht > ME night.

The letter «c» came to denote the sound [k] before back vowels. Before front vowels and before consonants (mostly n) it was replaced by the letter k, e.g.

OE caru > ME care, OE cind > ME kind, OE drincan > ME drinken, OE cnāwan > ME knowen (know).

Sometimes, after short consonants, the sound [k] was represented by the digraph ck, e.g.

OE bæc > ME back

The cluster [kw] (denoted in OE by cw) came to be spellt qu, e.g.

OE cwēn > ME queen

The letter «v» was introduced to denote the consonant [v], which in ME became a separate phoneme, e.g. OE lufu > ME love [΄luvə]. However, this letter soon came to be treated as an allograph of the letter u. The allographs u and v became interchangeable, e.g.over – ouer, use – vse, love – loue.