Gramtica Histrica de la Lengua Inglesa-14957

Middle English Spelling

Summary
Looks very different from OE, but this doesnt always reflect
sound changes
OE
ME
PdE

to, to
tooth to(o)th(e)
tooth

/to:/
/to:/
/tu:/

Different appearance
collapse of WS standard
development of local traditions (e.g. the Ancrene Riwle
MSS)
influence of French conventions
During ME, very variable:
have a look at the spellings of might in a single texts:
maht mahte mihte mihhte mist mithe mouthe myhte micht
After ME, by the time of the Great Vowel Shift, spelling was
sufficiently well established for it not to reflect sound change
Not all spelling changes reflected sound changes
OE sum -> ME some (a matter of minims!): //
OE a bufan -> ME abuuen, abuue, aboue, above
OE t -> ME out (French convention for spelling /u/)
OE fl -> ME ful, fule, fole, fowl(e), foul(e)
OE n -> ME nu, nv; new, newe; no, noou, noue; noug, nough,

nou , nouwe, nov, nowgh, nuge, nw, nyw, (transmission errors) know, ne,
ynow, ME-15 nou, ME-16 nowe, ME- now,

Some changes were substitutions from French

OE cild -> ME child
o o <ch>: OF chatel, ONF catel <- Latin capitale
OE t -> ME tooth

Gramtica Histrica de la Lengua Inglesa-14957

o o French didnt have //, but did have <th> in words

from Gk->Lat->Fr
Greek -> Latin thronus -> French trone ->
ME t-, thBut not all ME spelling changes were from French!
early French didnt have // (or <sh>)
o o OE scip -> ME sc-, sch-, sh-, s-, ss- ...
Orm was an early user of <sh>, according to
OED
OE <hw> /hw/ was cognate with Romance <qu> /kw/
o o PIE **qwos, *qwes is the ancestor of English who
and Latin quis, quid
o o OE /hw/ -> ME /hw/ and /w/
OE hw -> ME hw-, qu-, qw-, wh-, w Orm was the first regular user of <wh>,
according to OED
OE hw /hw/ -> ?
How were long vowels marked?
with final <-e>, once it became grammatically
meaningless
o o OE on lfe -> ME aliue
sometimes doubled:
o o meet and boot
o o maad and tijm
A digression about the letter <i>
o o developed dot first in early medieval Latin, near (e.g.)
<n>, <m>
o o ingen -> all <i>s
o o had variant forms <y> and <j>
o o e.g. thy: OE n, n ->> ME i, thi, y, thy
o o city, cities
o o sushi
o o e.g. life: OE lf -> ME lif(e), lyf(e), liif, lijf

Gramtica Histrica de la Lengua Inglesa-14957

And about the letter <a> as a diacritic

distinguish close /e/ from open /:/
o o OE cpan -> ME kepe(n), keep(en)
o o OE clne -> ME clene, cleen, clean
distinguish close /o/ from open /:/
o o OE bt -> ME bote, boot(e)
o o OE bt -> ME bote, boot(e), boat
How ME phonemicization of voiced fricatives affected ME
spelling:
OE had made do with <f>, <s> and <, >
o o for //, new digraph <th> still didnt/doesnt
distinguish voicing
e.g. thin, thine
o o for /z/, use of <z> increases (graze)
but <s> in choose
o o for /v/, ME used <v> and <u>
visitist, virgin, vndirkast, vndir
abouen, heuens, ouer, yuel
Pay attention to the distribution of <v>
and <u>
OE and ME <h>
word-initially, sometimes spelled but not pronounced in
loanwords from French (< Latin): e.g. (h)oste, (h)onour, etc.
post-vocalically, OE <h> [, x] -> ME <h>, <3>, <3h>,
<s>eventually <gh>
o o 1-4 riht, 3 rihht, rihct, 2-3, Sc. 6- richt; 3-5 ri t(e, 4 ri tt, ri ht,
ri th (4-5 rith), 3- right; 1, 4 ryht (4 -te), 5-6 Sc. rycht; 4 ry ht, 4-5
ry t (4 -tte, 5 -te); 4 rygth, 5 rygt, ryth, 4-6 ryght (5-6 -te);

Distribution of <c> and <g> changed with French conventions

Remember OE <c>: /k/, /t/
Near front vowels

Gramtica Histrica de la Lengua Inglesa-14957

in some words OE <c> could represent /t/: cosan, cild,

cinn
but ME loans cellar, city used <c> /s/ near front vowels
o o (affected some native words like OE s ice)
in ME, // represented by <ch>
o o recall OF loans chattel and chase used <ch> //
o o so OE cosan, cild, cinn -> ME choose, child, chin
in other OE words, <c> /k/ near front vowels (cynn,
cyning)
o o (these front vowels arent original, but result from
front mutation)
o o in ME, near front vowels <k> used for /k/: kin, king
Other changes to OE <c> /k/ include
OE <cw-> /kw-/ (OE cwellan) -> ME <qu>
OE <_Cc> /_Ck/ weorc -> ME /k/ work
Remember OE <> /g/, /j/, //
Changes with <g>: ME saw a new letter <g> introduced to
supplement the native <>
ME <g> /g/
o o OE od -> ME God
near front vowels, ME loanwords used <g> //
o o e.g. loanwords gem, gentle, generacioun used the
new letter form <g> //
o o not just initially:, e.g., college 4 col(l)egie, (pl. -ies, -ijs);
4-5 colege, collegge, 4-6 colage, 5-6 collage, 6-8 colledge, 7 colledg, 4college

o o (<Fr<Latin <g->)
n.b. we also see <j> in loanwords like judge,
Jesus, joy (Latin i-, g-)
OE had // <cg>, but non-initially (brycg, ecg)
o o spelled in ME <gg(e), dg(e)>: 1 brycg, bricg, 2-6 brugge,
3-6 brygge, 4-6 bregge, (brige), 4-7 brigge, (5-6, 9 dial. brudge,

Gramtica Histrica de la Lengua Inglesa-14957

bryg(e, 6 bruge), 6-7 bridg, 5- bridge; also northern 3- brig, 4-6
brygg, 5 bregg, brigg, 5-9 brigg.

so, before front vowels, for /g/ we see <gu> in the

loanwords guide, guile
o o extended to eg ON guest
OE <> changed in distribution: loses [g]; keeps [j] & []; adds
[x, ]
no longer represents /g/ - see above
OE had used <> for /j/ near front vowels: g, forgeat
o o that continued in ME <> and later <y> /j/ in 3e
ye
for3ete: modern forgets /g/ is a substitution
from the north
watch southern ME spelling change
from for3ete to northern forget
and ME continues to use <> for the reflex of OE []
(OE folgian, sorg)
o o OE boa -> ME boa, boghe,
o o later, <w, u>, e.g. bowe