16. Me Changes in vowels

There were quantitative changes in vowels. In Old English a short or a long vowel might be found in any position; they were absolutely independent phonemic units. The Middle English vowel system was basically different. The quantity of vowels becomes dependent on the environment, on what follows the vowel. With a few exceptions the situation in Middle English is briefly this: in some phonetic environment only short vowels are possible; in the other the vowels are invariably long.

First, a long vowel before two consonants is shortened;fe:dan – fe:den – fe;dde – fedde. the exception here are the clusters mb, Id, nd (i.e. two voiced sonorants) or when the two consonants belonged to the second syllable of the word, (maeste, laest -> most; least).

But short vowels were lengthened in open syllables (A, E, O). ca:ru – care; talu – t:ale, macian – make. I, U didn't lengthen.

2. Monophthongization of all Old English diphthongs EA, EO type.. The sounds that appeared as a result of this process were not new to the English language - they simply coincided with the sounds that already existed in the language, in many cases returning the vowel to its previous quality, which was changed in the course of breaking, diphthongization after palatal consonants, and mutations a heard - hard earm - arm healf-half eall – all< heorte – herte.

3. Individual changes.

Changed – long A – long O – ha:m – ho:m;

Short Ae – short - aeppel – appel; waes – was.

Long AE – long open E – slaepan – sle:pen (with dialectical variant).

Short and long Y – I, e, y.

OE first – North, East first; Kent – ferst; West – Fyrst. Fyr – fir, fer, fyr.

Other vowels remained unchanged.

4.Levelling of unstressed vowels.

All unstressed vowels were weakened and reduced to shwa, denoted by E. bindan – binden; sunu – sune.

Rise of new diphthongs EI,AI type.

They originated from groups consisting of a vowel or either a palatal or a velar fricative. DAEG – dai, day; WAEG – way; greg – grey; sagu – legend – sawe;

When a vowel was followed by H, a diphthong arouse: naht – naught; brohte – broughte; troh – trough; plo:h – plough.

French letters were replaced by correspondent English.

17. Me Changes in consonants

English consonants were on the whole far more stable than vowels. A large number of consonants have probably remained unchanged through all historical periods. Thus we can assume that the sonorants [m, n, l], plosives [p, b, t, d] and also [k, g] in most positions have not been subjected to any noticeable changes. The most important developments in the history of English consonants were the growth of new sets of sounds, - affricates and sibilants.

Growth of sibilants and affricates

In OE there were no affricates and no sibilants, except [s, z]. the new type of consonants developed from OE palatal plosives [k’, g’], which had split from the corresponding velar plosives [k] and [g], and also from the consonant cluster [sk’]. The three new phonemes which arose from these sources were [t∫], [dз] and [∫]. In Early ME they began to be indicated by special letters and digraphs, which came into use mainly under the influence of the French scribal tradition – ch, tch, g, dg, sh, ssh, sch. As a result of these changes – and also as a result of the vocalization of [γ] – the consonant system in Late ME was in some respects different from the OE system.