2. Qualitative:

The system of vowels in ME were no longer symmetrical as it was in OE

Short Vowels

• [y] changed to [i] e.g. OE hyll – ME hill (hill);

• [æ] changed to [a] e.g. OE wæs – ME was (was).

As a result:

i

e

a

o

u

Long Vowels

• [ỹ] changed to [ī];

• [ǽ] fell together with [έ];

• [ā] changed to [ō] e.g. OE stān – ME sto[o:]ne (stone).

As a result:

		close		open
ī	ū	ē	ō	έ	ǿ

New Diphthongs

OE diphthongs turned into monophthongs:

OE Diphth.	ME Sounds	OE	ME
ĭě/īē 	i	līehtan	lighten (lighten)
ĕŏ/ēō 	e	heorte	herte (heart)
ĕă/ēā 	æ	ēast	eest (east)

New diphthongs appeared due to vocalisation of [j], [γ] and [w]. These consonants turned into vowels ([i], [u] and [u] respectively) and became the glides of the new diphthongs:

i-glides	OE	ME	u-glides	OE	ME
[ei]	weζ[j]	wey[i] (way)	[iu]	-	-
[ai]	mæζ[j]	may[i] (may)	[au]	laζ[γ]u	law[u]e [‘lauə] (low)
[oi] (in French loan-words)		boy, toy	[ou]	cnāw[w]an	know[u]en [‘knouən] (know)

New English

Great Vowel Shift – the change that happened in the 14^th – 16^th c. and affected all long monophthongs + diphthong [au]. As a result these vowels were:

• diphthongized;

• narrowed (became more closed);

• both diphthongized and narrowed.

ME Sounds	NE Sounds	ME	NE
[i:] 	[ai]	time [‘ti:mə]	time [taim]
[e:] 	[i:]	kepen [‘ke:pən]	keep [ki:p]
[a:] 	[ei]	maken [‘ma:kən]	make [meik]
[o:]  	[ou] [u:]	stone [‘sto:nə] moon [mo:n]	stone [stoun] moon [mu:n]
[u:] 	[au]	mous [mu:s]	mouse [maus]
[au] 	[o:]	cause [‘kauzə]	cause [ko:z]

This shift was not followed by spelling changes, i.e. it was not reflected in written form. Thus the Great Vowel Shift explains many modern rules of reading.

Short Vowels

ME Sounds	NE Sounds	ME	NE
[a]  	[æ] [o] after [w]!!	that [at] man [man] was [was] water [‘watə]	that [ðæt] man [mæn] was [woz] water [‘wotə]
[u] 	[Λ]	hut [hut] comen [cumen]	hut [hΛt] come [cΛm]

There were exceptions though, e.g. put, pull, etc.