Quantitative vowel changes in early middle english

In later OE and in Early ME vowel length began to depend on phonetic conditions.

The earliest of positional quantitative changes was the readjustment of quantity before some consonant clusters; it occurred in Early ME or perhaps even in Late OE.

The changes of vowel quantity reduced the number of positions in which the opposition of long vowels to short ones could be used for phonemic contrast. Before a consonant cluster vowel quantity was now predetermined by the nature of the cluster; and in open syllables three vowels— [ב:], [a:] and [ε:] were always long. Consequently, opposition through quantity could be used for distinction, as a phonological feature, only in the absence of those phonetic conditions, namely: in closed syllables, in polysyllabic words, or with the vowels [i] and [u] in open syllables. Such is the contrast, e.g. in ME risen ['ri:z∂n] inf. and risen ['ri:z∂n] Part. II (NE rise, risen). The limitations in the application of vowel length as a distinctive feature undermined the role of vowel quantity in the language.

Table 2

Quantitative Vowel Changes in Late Old English and Early Middle English

		Examples
Phonetic conditions	Change illustrated	OE	ME	NE
Before homorganic	Vowels become	cild	child [t∫i:ld]	child
consonant sequences: sonorant	long	findan	finden ['fi:nd∂n)	find
		climban	climben ['klimb∂n]	climb
plus plosive		cold	cold ['ko:ld]	cold
(ld, nd, mb)		feld	field [fe:ld]	field
		fundon	founden ['fu:nd∂n]	found (Past of find)
		gold	gold [go:ld]	gold
Before other consonant	Vowels become	flftis	fifty ['fifti]	fifty
sequences	short	fēdde	fedde ['fedd ∂]	fed
		mētte	mette ['mett∂]	met
		wīsdōm	wisdom ['wizd∂m]	wisdom
In open syllables	Vowels become	mete	mete ['mε:t ∂]	meat
	long and more open	stelan macian	stelen ['stε:l∂n] maken ['ma:k∂n]	steal make
		talu	tale ['ta:l∂]	tale
		nosu	nose ['no:z∂]	nose
		stolen	stolen ['sto:l∂n]	stolen
		yfel	yvel, evel [i:], [e:|	evil
		duru	doore ['do:r∂]	door

Quantitative vowel changes in Early ME have given rise to a number of explanations and hypotheses.

All the changes in vowel quantity have been interpreted as manifestations of a sort of rhythmic tendency. In order to achieve an average uniformity in the length of the syllable, and also to use an average amount of energy for its pronunciation, the vowel was shortened before a group of consonants and was made longer if there were no consonants following, that is, in “open” syllables. Lengthening of vowels before homorganic groups looks as an exception or a contradiction; to account for this lengthening it was suggested that -nd, -ld and the like were virtually equivalent to single consonants, therefore a long vowel would not make the syllable too heavy.

This theory was criticised for attributing all the quantitative changes to one general cause — the effort to maintain a uniform syllable length — though in reali­ty the changes were not simultaneous. Lengthening in open syllables occurred at a later period — some time in the 13th c. — and may have been caused by other factors. To cope with this difficulty, it was suggested that lengthening in open syllables was tied up with the weakening of final vowels; when the second, unaccented, syllable was weakened, the first syllable became more prominent and the vowel was made longer. Cf. OE talu and ME tale ['ta:l∂] — the average amount of energy required for the pronunciation of the word is the same but it, distribution is different.