Voicing of Consonants in ene

Change	illustrated	Examples
ME	NE	LME	NE
s	z	was [was]	was
f	v	pensif ['pensif]	pensive
θ	р	they [θei]	they
ks	gs	luxurious [lu'ksjuriu:s]	luxurious
tj	d3	Greenwich ['gre:nwitf]	Greenwich

Loss of Consonants:

1) some consonants were vocalised and gave rise to diphthong glides or made the

preceding short vowel long;

2) during the ME period the consonants lost their quantitative distinctions, as the long or

double consonants disappeared;

3) some consonants underwent positional changes which restricted their use in the

language.

The simplification of consonants is to be found in consonant sequences. Some

consonant clusters, common to the OE language, were simplified in ME, while others,

occurring both in Old and Middle English have been simplified in ENE. One of the

consonants, usually the first was dropped.

Simplification of Consonant Clusters

Change illustrated	Examples
OE ME NE	OE	ME	NE
xl 1 kn n gn n hw w	hlжne cnawan gnжt hwqgnne	leene [lЈ:ne] knowen ['knouen] gnat [gnat] when [hwen]	lean know gnat when