DEPENDENT CHANGES IN LATE OLD ENGLISH AND MIDDLE ENGLISH

OPEN SYLLABLE LENGTHENING

This dependent change affected short vowels in open syllable (that is, the first syllable
of a bisyllabic word that is not followed by two consonants). These vowels were
lengthend and opened.

OE i > ME ẹ̅
OE e > ME ę̅
OE ɑ > ME ā
OE o > ME ǫ̅
OE u > ME ọ̅

ROUNDING INFLUENCE OF W
w sometimes affected the vowel following it, either rounding or closing it.
ME w+a = e.Mod. E wo
ME w+ ǫ̅ = l.ME wọ̅

LOSS OF w
w was lost in ME, in mid-word position, when next to a back vowel in an unstressed
syllable (or in weakly stressed monosyllables).
ME cons + w + back vowel = ME cons + back vowel

LOSS OF h
h was lost when in word initial position followed by a consonant.
OE h + consonant = ME ø + consonant

LENGTHENING OF SHORT VOWELS FOLLOWED BY LIQUID OR NASAL

PLUS A HOMORGANIC CONSONANT
Some short vowels were lengthened in late Old English when they were followed by a
liquid or a nasal plus a homorganic consonant (Two consonants are homorganic when
they share the same point of articulation). The lengthening did not take place if there was
a third consonant (child/children).
Lengthening groups: ld, mb, nd, etc.
OE a + l + d > l. OE ā
OE e + l + d > l. OE ē
OE i + l + d > l. OE ī
… etc.
H-GLIDING
This dependent change took place in ME. In mid-word or word final position, when
followed by a consonant, h provoked a gliding. If h was followed by a front vowel, the
gliding was j. If h was followed by a back vowel, the gliding was w. Later, the j and the w
were vocalized to i and u, respectively and joined the previous vowel to form a long vowel
or a diphthong.

ME i + h + t > i + j + h + t> i + i + h + t >  + h + t

ME e + h + t > i + h + t > i + j + h + t> i + i + h + t >  + h + t
Palatal h-gliding
Umlaut
ME u+ h + t > u + w + h + t> u + u + h + t > ū+ h + t
ME o + h + t > o + w + h + t> o + u + h + t > ou + h + t > 17th ō + h + t
Monophthongization
bc it is followed by ht

In the case of OE a, h gliding took place at the end of the period, so that h developed a w
(and not a yod, as would have otherwise been the case, given that a in ME had a front
place of articulation).
OE ɑ > lOE ɑ + h + t > > ɑ + w + h + t> ɑ + u + h + t > ɑu+ h + t> ME au + h + t
Long vowels in OE experienced the same process. When long dipthongs resulted,
frequently, they were shortened bc they were in close syllables.

CLOSING OF e
When followed by a velar consonant OE e became ME i.
g g
OE e + n + > ME i+n+
k k