Middle English Pronunciation Guide
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verrerMiddle English Pronunciation Guide
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phonetics and
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Phonetics
Leveling of Unstressed Vowels
● All unstressed vowels in ME were as a rule weakened and reduced.
As compared to OE which distinguished 5 short vowels in
unstressed position (a, o, u, i, e), Late ME had only 2 vowels in
unaccented syllables: [ɪ/ə].
E.g. the OE infinitive suffix –an was reduced to –en
bindan ['bindan] → binden ['bindən].
● The final [ə] disappeared in Late ME, though it continued to be spelt
as –e, and was understood as a mean of showing the length of the
vowel in the preceding syllable and was added to words which didn’t
have this ending before.
E.g. OE stān --> ME stone ['stɔ:n(ə)]
Changes of stressed vowels
[Link] changes
[Link] changes
Quantitative Changes. Lengthening
● In the 13th century short vowels were lengthened in open syllables. It affected
the vowels a, o, e.
OE nama ['nama] > ME name ['na:mə]
OE open ['open]> ME open ['ɔ:pən]
OE sprecan ['sprekan]> ME speken ['spe:kən]
● The narrow vowels i, u remained as a rule unaffected by this change. In a few
words, however, the narrow sounds were also lengthened in open syllables and
later they were widened. (i > e:, u > o:)
wikes > we[e:]kes > wee[e:]kes > weeks
dures > do[o:]res > doo[o:]res > doors
Quantitative Changes. Shortening
● A long vowel before two consonants was shortened, but it remained long
in other environment.
OE cēpan > ME kee[e:]pen
OE cēpte > ME ke[e]pte
● A long vowel was also shortened before one consonant in some
three-syllable words.
OE hāliʒdæʒ['ha:lijdaj] > ME haliday ['halidaj]
Qualitative Changes. Loss of OE Diphthongs
and Growth of New Monophthongs
Towards the end of the OE period some of the OE diphthongs became
monophthongs.
ēā > ɛː ēāst > east [ɛːst]
ēō > e: dēōp > deep [de:p]
ie > i: liehtan > lighten [li:х’tən]
ie > e hierde > herd [herd]
ea > a eald > ald
Qualitative Changes. Growth of New
Diphthongs
● [j, ɣ ] in ME became vowels, they changed into [i, u] and formed diphthongs
together with the preceding vowel. These new diphthongs had i and u as the
second element, so they were diphthongs with i-glide and u-glide.
e+j > ei weʒ > wei
æ + j > ai dæʒ >day
a + ɣ > au laʒu >lawe ['lauə]
ā + ɣ > ou āʒen > owen ['ouən]
āh > au brāhte > braughte ['brauхtə]
āw > ou cnāwan > knowen ['knouən]
Qualitative Changes. Appearance of New
Phonemes
● ā > ɔː hām > home ['hɔːmə]
ē > e: mētan > meeten ['me:tən]
æ > a æfter > after ['aftər]
● Short u and long ū remained unchanged in ME
OE sunu > sone ['sunə] ‘son’
OE hū > how [hu:]
Pronunciation
● The distinction between the /f/ and /v/ and between /s/ and /z/
consonants began to differentiate words
grief vs grieve
seal vs zeal
● The ng sound at the end of a word also became contrastive
sin vs sing
● The way long vowels were spelled altered as French scribes introduced their
own spelling conventions
ou for u (house)
gh for h (night)
ch for c (church)
● The pronounced stress shifted towards the beginning of words and many
vowels developed into the common English unstressed “schwa”
“e” in taken
“i” in pencil
● Words like quit, question, quarter, etc, were pronounced with the
familiar “kw” sound in Anglo-Norman (and, subsequently, English)
rather than the “k” sound of Parisian French.
● The Normans tended to use a hard “c” sound instead of the softer
Francien “ch”
charrier --> carry
● The Normans tended to use the suffixes “-arie” and “-orie” instead of
the French “-aire” and “-oire”, so that English has words like victory (as
compared to victoire) and salary (as compared to salaire), etc.
● The Normans, and therefore the English, retained the “s” in words like
estate, hostel, forest and beast, while the French gradually lost it (état,
hôtel, forêt, bête).
● Old English: Old English had some silent letters. For example, in sēċean,
you will not pronounce c. That means the word is pronounced as ‘seek.’
● Middle English: All written letters were pronounced in Middle English.
● Modern English: Some letters are not pronounced in Modern English.
For example, K in knight is silent.
Thanks for attention!
