pronounced as /notice/Middle English phonology is necessarily somewhat speculative, since it is preserved only as a written language. Nevertheless, there is a very large text corpus of Middle English. The dialects of Middle English vary greatly over both time and place, and in contrast with Old English and Modern English, spelling was usually phonetic rather than conventional. Words were generally spelled according to how they sounded to the person writing a text, rather than according to a formalised system that might not accurately represent the way the writer's dialect was pronounced, as Modern English is today.
The Middle English speech of the city of London in the late 14th century (essentially, the speech of Geoffrey Chaucer) is used as the standard Middle English dialect in teaching and when specifying "the" grammar or phonology of Middle English. It is this form that is described below, unless otherwise indicated.
In the rest of the article, abbreviations are used as follows:
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The surface sounds of Chaucerian Middle English (whether allophones or phonemes) are shown in the tables below. Phonemes in bold were added across Middle English, phoneme in italics were removed during the same.
Nasal | pronounced as /m/ | pronounced as /n̥/ • pronounced as /n/ | (pronounced as /ŋ/) | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Stop | pronounced as /p/ • pronounced as /b/ | pronounced as /t/ • pronounced as /d/ | pronounced as /tʃ/ • pronounced as /dʒ/ | pronounced as /k/ • pronounced as /g/ | ||||
Fricative | pronounced as /f/ • pronounced as /v/ | pronounced as /θ/ • pronounced as /ð/ | pronounced as /s/ • pronounced as /z/ | pronounced as /ʃ/ | (pronounced as /ç/) | (pronounced as /x/) • pronounced as /ɣ/ | pronounced as /h/ | |
Approximant | pronounced as /r̥/ • pronounced as /r/ • pronounced as /rˠ/ | pronounced as /j/ | ʍ • pronounced as /w/ | |||||
Lateral | pronounced as /ɬ/ • pronounced as /l/ • pronounced as /lˠ/ |
The sounds marked in parentheses in the table above are allophones:
In Old English, pronounced as /[v]/, pronounced as /[ð]/, pronounced as /[z]/ were allophones of pronounced as //f//, pronounced as //θ//, pronounced as //s//, respectively, occurring between vowels or voiced consonants. That led to many alternations: hūs ('house') pronounced as /[huːs]/ vs. hūses ('of a house') pronounced as /[ˈhuːzes]/; wīf ('woman') pronounced as /[wiːf]/ vs. wīfes ('of a woman') pronounced as /[ˈwiːves]/. In Middle English, voiced allophones become phonemes, and they are solidly established in Modern English as separate phonemes by several sources:
The status of the sources in Chaucer's Middle English is as follows:
The strongest distinction was between pronounced as //f// and pronounced as //v// because of the large number of borrowings from Old French. It is also the only distinction that is consistently indicated in spelling, as (f) and (v) respectively. pronounced as //z// sometimes appears as (z), especially in borrowings from Greek and sometimes as (s). Both pronounced as //θ// and pronounced as //ð// are spelled (th).
Monophthong | Diphthong | |||||
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Short | Long | + pronounced as //j// | + pronounced as //w// | |||
Close | Front | pronounced as /i/→pronounced as /ɪ/ • pronounced as /y/ | pronounced as /iː/ • pronounced as /yː/ | — | pronounced as /iw/ | |
Back | pronounced as /u/→pronounced as /ʊ/ | pronounced as /uː/ | pronounced as /uj/ | — | ||
Close-mid | Front | pronounced as /e/→pronounced as /ɛ/ • pronounced as /ø/ | pronounced as /eː/ • pronounced as /øː/ | pronounced as /ej/→pronounced as /iː/ | pronounced as /ew/→pronounced as /iw/ | |
Back | pronounced as /o/→pronounced as /ɔ/ | pronounced as /oː/ | pronounced as /oj/→pronounced as /uj/ | pronounced as /ow/→pronounced as /ɔw/ (early), pronounced as /uː/ (late)1 | ||
Mid | (pronounced as /ə/) | |||||
Open-mid | Front | pronounced as /ɛː/ • pronounced as /œː/ | pronounced as /ɛj/ | pronounced as /ɛw/ | ||
Back | pronounced as /ɔː/ | pronounced as /ɔj/ | pronounced as /ɔw/ | |||
Open | pronounced as /a/ | pronounced as /aː/ | pronounced as /æj/→pronounced as /ɛj/ | pronounced as /ɒw/ |
Monophthongs
Middle English had a distinction between close-mid and open-mid long vowels but no corresponding distinction in short vowels. Although the behavior of open syllable lengthening seems to indicate that the short vowels were open-mid in quality, according to Lass, they were close-mid. (There is some direct documentary evidence: in early texts, open-mid pronounced as //ɛː// was spelled (ea), but both pronounced as //e// and pronounced as //eː// were spelled (eo).) Later, the short vowels were in fact lowered to become open-mid vowels, as is shown by their values in Modern English.
The front rounded vowels pronounced as //y yː ø øː œː// existed in the southwest dialects of Middle English, which developed from the standard Late West Saxon dialect of Old English, but not in the standard Middle English dialect of London. The close vowels pronounced as //y// and pronounced as //yː// are direct descendants of the corresponding Old English vowels and were indicated as (u). (In the standard dialect of Middle English, the sounds became pronounced as //i// and pronounced as //iː//; in Kentish, they became pronounced as //e// and pronounced as //eː//.) pronounced as //yː// may have existed in learned speech in loanwords from Old French, also spelled (u), but, as it merged with pronounced as //iw//, becoming pronounced as //juː// in Modern English, rather than pronounced as //iː//, it can be assumed that pronounced as //iw// was the vernacular pronunciation that was used in French-derived words.
The mid-front rounded vowels pronounced as //ø øː œː// likewise had existed in the southwest dialects but not in the standard Middle English dialect of London. They were indicated as (o). Sometime in the 13th century, they became unrounded and merged with the normal front mid vowels. They derived from the Old English diphthongs pronounced as //eo̯// and pronounced as //eːo̯//. There is no direct evidence that there was ever a distinction between open-mid pronounced as //œː// and close-mid pronounced as //øː//, but it can be assumed because of the corresponding distinction in the unrounded mid front vowels. pronounced as //øː// would have derived directly from Old English pronounced as //eːo̯//, and pronounced as //œː// derived from the open syllable lengthening of short pronounced as //ø//, from the Old English short diphthong pronounced as //eo̯//.
The quality of the short open vowel is unclear. Early in Middle English, it presumably was central pronounced as //a// since it represented the coalescence of the Old English vowels pronounced as //æ// and pronounced as //ɑ//, and at the time of Middle English breaking, it could not have been a front vowel since pronounced as //u// rather than pronounced as //i// was introduced after it. During the Early Modern English period, it was fronted, in most environments, to pronounced as /[æ]/ in southern England, and it and even closer values are found in the contemporary speech of southern England, North America and the southern hemisphere: it remains pronounced as /[a]/ in much of Northern England, Scotland and the Caribbean.[2] Meanwhile, the long open vowel, which developed later because of open syllable lengthening, was pronounced as /[aː]/.[3] It was gradually fronted, to successively pronounced as /[æː]/, pronounced as /[ɛː]/ and pronounced as /[eː]/, in the 16th and the 17th centuries.[4]
All of the above diphthongs came about within the Middle English era. Old English had a number of diphthongs, but all of them had been reduced to monophthongs in the transition to Middle English. Middle English diphthongs came about by various processes and at various time periods. Diphthongs tended to change their quality over time. The changes above occurred mostly between early and late Middle English. Early Middle English had a distinction between open-mid and close-mid diphthongs, and all of the close-mid diphthongs had been eliminated by late Middle English.
The following processes produced the above diphthongs:
See also: Phonological history of English, Old English phonology and Phonological history of Old English.
The following sections describe the major phonological processes occurring between written Late West Saxon (the standard written form of Old English) and the end of Middle English, conventionally dated to around 1500 AD.
Late in Old English, vowels were lengthened before certain clusters: pronounced as //nd//, pronounced as //ld//, pronounced as //rd//, pronounced as //mb//, pronounced as //ŋɡ//. Later on, the vowels in many of these words were shortened again, giving the appearance that no lengthening happened; but evidence from the Ormulum indicates otherwise. For details see Phonological history of Old English: Vowel lengthening.
Late West Saxon (the standard written form of Old English) included matched pairs of short and long vowels, including seven pairs of pure vowels (monophthongs), pronounced as //ɑ(ː)/ /æ(ː)/ /e(ː)/ /i(ː)/ /o(ː)/ /u(ː)/ /y(ː)//, and two pairs of height-harmonic diphthongs, pronounced as //æ(ː)ɑ̯// and pronounced as //e(ː)o̯//. Two additional pairs of diphthongs, pronounced as //i(ː)u̯// and pronounced as //i(ː)y̯//, existed in earlier Old English but had been reduced to pronounced as //e(ː)o̯// and pronounced as //y(ː)//, respectively, by late Old English times.
In the transition to Middle English, this system underwent major changes, eliminating the diphthongs and leaving only one pair of low vowels, but with a vowel distinction appearing in the long mid vowels:
This left an asymmetric system consisting of five short vowels pronounced as //a/ /e/ /i/ /o/ /u// and six long vowels pronounced as //ɛː/ /eː/ /iː/ /ɔː/ /oː/ /uː//, with additional front-rounded vowels pronounced as //ø(ː)/ /y(ː)// in the southwest area. Some symmetry was restored by open syllable lengthening, which restored a long low vowel pronounced as //aː//.
Unstressed vowels were gradually confused in late Old English, although the spelling lagged behind, due to the existence of a standardized spelling system. By early Middle English, all unstressed vowels were spelt (e), probably representing pronounced as //ə//. Also in late Old English, final unstressed pronounced as //m// became pronounced as //n//; during the Middle English period, this final pronounced as //n// was dropped when it was part of an inflectional syllable (but remained when part of the root, e.g. seven, or in derivational endings, e.g. written). Around Chaucer's time, final pronounced as //ə// was dropped; judging from inflectional evidence, this occurred first when the following word began with a vowel. A century or so later, unstressed pronounced as //ə// also dropped in the plural and genitive ending -es (spelled -s in Modern English) and the past ending -ed.
These changes steadily effaced most inflectional endings, e.g.:
In the last two examples, the stressed vowel was affected by open-syllable lengthening.
A new set of diphthongs developed from combinations of vowel+pronounced as /[u]/ (either from pronounced as /[ɣ]/ or from pre-existing pronounced as //w//) or vowel+pronounced as /[i]/ (from pre-existing pronounced as //j//), and also due to borrowing from French – see Diphthongs above.
During the 12th or 13th century, a vowel pronounced as //i// was inserted between a front vowel and a following pronounced as //h// (pronounced pronounced as /[ç]/ in this context), and a vowel pronounced as //u// was inserted between a back vowel and a following pronounced as //h// (pronounced pronounced as /[x]/ in this context). Short pronounced as //a// was treated as a back vowel in this process (the long equivalent did not occur in the relevant context). See H-loss, below.
Around the 13th century, short vowels were lengthened in an open syllable (i.e. when followed by a single consonant that in turn is followed by another vowel). In addition, non-low vowels were lowered: pronounced as //i// → pronounced as //eː//, pronounced as //e// → pronounced as //ɛː//, pronounced as //u// → pronounced as //oː//, pronounced as //o// → pronounced as //ɔː//. This accounts, for example, for the vowel difference between staff and the alternative plural staves (Middle English staf vs. stāves, with open-syllable lengthening in the latter word). This process was restricted in the following ways:
The effects of open-syllable lengthening and trisyllabic laxing often led to differences in the stem vowel between singular and plural/genitive. Generally these differences were regularized by analogy in one direction or another, but not in a consistent way:
See main article: Trisyllabic laxing. In late Old English, vowels were shortened before clusters of two consonants when two or more syllables followed. Later in Middle English this process was expanded, and applied to all vowels when two or more syllables followed. This led to the Modern English variations between divine vs. divinity, school vs. scholarly, grateful vs. gratitude, etc. In some cases, later changes have led to apparently anomalous results, e.g. south vs. southern with only two syllables (but pronounced as //suːðernə// at the time that trisyllabic laxing applied). This change is still fairly productive in Modern English.
In late Old English, vowels were shortened before clusters of three consonants:
As shown by ghastly, this shortening occurred before the raising of OE pronounced as //ɑː// to EME pronounced as //ɔː//, which occurred in the transition to Middle English.
Later in Middle English, vowels were shortened before clusters of two consonants, except before pronounced as //st// and in some cases where homorganic lengthening applied. Examples:
Double (geminated) consonants were reduced to single ones. This took place after open syllable lengthening; the syllable before a geminate was a closed syllable, hence vowels were not lengthened before (originally) doubled consonants. The loss of gemination may have been stimulated by its small functional load - by this time there were few minimal pairs of words distinguished solely by the single vs. double consonant contrast.[5]
The phoneme pronounced as //h//, when it occurred in the syllable coda, is believed to have had two allophones: the voiceless palatal fricative pronounced as /[ç]/, occurring after front vowels, and the voiceless velar fricative pronounced as /[x]/, occurring after back vowels. The usual spelling in both cases was (gh), which is retained today in words like night and taught.
These sounds were lost during the later Middle English and Early Modern English eras. The timing of this process was dependent on dialect; the fricatives were still pronounced in some educated speech in the 16th century, but they had disappeared by the late 17th.[6] Loss of the fricatives was accompanied by some compensatory lengthening or diphthongization of preceding vowels. In some cases, the velar fricative pronounced as /[x]/ developed into pronounced as //f//; as such the preceding vowel was shortened, and the pronounced as /[u]/ of a diphthong was absorbed. Some developments are illustrated below:
This variable outcome, along with other variable changes and the ambiguity of the Middle English spelling (ou) (either pronounced as //ou̯// or pronounced as //uː// in Early Middle English) accounts for the numerous pronunciations of Modern English words in -ough- (e.g. though, through, bough, rough, trough, thought, with -ough- pronounced pronounced as //ou/, /uː/, /au/, /ʌf/, /ɒf/, /ɔː// respectively).
pronounced as //h// spelled -gh- is realized as pronounced as /[x]/ even today in some traditional dialects of northern England and more famously Scots. Some accents of northern England that lack the pronounced as //x//, instead exhibiting special vowel developments in some such words; for example, night as pronounced as //niːt// (sounds like neat) and in the dialectal words owt and nowt (from aught and naught, pronounced like out and nout, meaning 'anything' and 'nothing').
The modern phoneme pronounced as //x// most commonly appears today in the typically Scottish word loch and in names such as Buchan. Here the pronounced as //x// is usual in Scotland, although the alternative pronounced as //k// is becoming more common among some younger speakers.[7] The same is true in Wales, in names such as Loughor. English speakers from elsewhere may replace the pronounced as //x// in such cases with pronounced as //k//, but some use pronounced as //x// in imitation of the local pronunciations (as they may in certain foreign words such as Bach, Kharkiv, Sakhalin, chutzpah, etc.).[6]
See main article: Great Vowel Shift. The Great Vowel Shift was a fundamental change in late Middle English (post-Chaucer) and Early Modern English that affected the pronunciation of all of the long vowels. The high vowels pronounced as //iː// and pronounced as //uː// were diphthongized, ultimately producing the modern diphthongs pronounced as //aɪ̯// and pronounced as //aʊ̯//, and all other vowels were raised.
Although not normally considered a part of the Great Vowel Shift, during the same time period most of the pre-existing Middle English diphthongs were monophthongized:
The remaining diphthongs developed as follows:
For a detailed description of the changes between Old English and Middle/Modern English, see the article on the phonological history of English. A summary of the main vowel changes is presented below. The spelling of Modern English largely reflects Middle English pronunciation.
This table presents the general developments. Many exceptional outcomes occurred in particular environments: vowels were often lengthened in late Old English before pronounced as //ld//, pronounced as //nd//, pronounced as //mb//; vowels changed in complex ways before pronounced as //r//, throughout the history of English etc. Vowels were diphthongized in Middle English before pronounced as //h//, and new diphthongs arose in Middle English by the combination of vowels with Old English, pronounced as //ɣ// → pronounced as //w//, and pronounced as //j//; for more information, see the section below. The only conditional development considered in detail below is Middle English open-syllable lengthening. In the column on modern spelling, CV means a sequence of a single consonant followed by a vowel.
The Modern English vowel usually spelled (Received Pronunciation: pronounced as //ɔː//, General American: pronounced as //ɔ/ ~ /ɑ//) does not appear in the above chart. Its main source is late Middle English pronounced as //au̯// < early pronounced as //au̯// and pronounced as //ɔu//, which come from various sources: Old English and (claw < English, Old (ca.450-1100);: clawu, law < English, Old (ca.450-1100);: lagu); diphthongization before pronounced as //h// (sought < English, Old (ca.450-1100);: sōhte, taught < English, Old (ca.450-1100);: tāhte, daughter < English, Old (ca.450-1100);: dohtor); borrowings from Latin and French (fawn < Old French French, Old (842-ca.1400);: faune, Paul < Latin Latin: Paulus). Other sources are Early Modern English lengthening of pronounced as //a// before pronounced as //l// (salt, all); occasional shortening and later re-lengthening of Middle English pronounced as //ɔː// (broad < pronounced as //brɔːd// < English, Old (ca.450-1100);: brād); and in American English, lengthening of short o before unvoiced fricatives and voiced velars (dog, long, off, cross, moth, all with pronounced as //ɔ// in American dialects that still maintain the difference between pronounced as //ɑ// and pronounced as //ɔ//).
As mentioned above, Modern English is derived from the Middle English of London, which is derived largely from Anglian Old English, with some admixture of West Saxon and Kentish. One of the most noticeable differences among the dialects is the handling of original Old English pronounced as //y//. By the time of the written Old English documents, the Old English of Kent had already unrounded pronounced as //y// to pronounced as //e//, and the late Old English of Anglia unrounded pronounced as //y// to pronounced as //i//. In the West Saxon area, pronounced as //y// remained as such well into Middle English times and was written in Middle English documents from the area. Some words with the sound were borrowed into London Middle English, where the unfamiliar pronounced as //y// was substituted with pronounced as //u//:
Some apparent instances of modern for Old English are actually regular developments, particularly if the is a development of earlier (West Saxon) from i-mutation of, as the normal i-mutation of in Anglian is ; for example, stern < English, Middle (1100-1500);: styrne < German, Middle High (ca.1050-1500);: *starnijaz, steel < stȳle < German, Middle High (ca.1050-1500);: *stahliją (cf. Old Saxon stehli). Also, some apparent instances of modern for Old English may actually be from the influence of a related form with unmutated : sundry < English, Old (ca.450-1100);: syndriġ, influenced by English, Old (ca.450-1100);: sundor "apart, differently" (compare to sunder and asunder).
Diphthongs