Accordingly consonant sounds ceased to be pronounced in many contexts. wad, wash, squat as against mad, mash, mat).Ĭhanges in the pronunciation of consonant sounds during the early modern English period contributed significantly to the incongruity between spelling and pronunciation. a after the sound of w became a back rounded vowel, identical with short o (e.g.in southern (standard) English the short vowel u became an unrounded central vowel in most words ( bud, cut) but remained a close rounded vowel in certain environments ( full, put) the latter vowel subsequently merged with the originally long vowel spelt oo which had become short in certain environments ( good, hook).similarly originally long ea in bread, lead (the metal) became identical with e in bred, led.
ou in double, trouble and oo in blood, flood and good, hook became identical with short u (either as in bud or as in put).When long vowels were shortened in certain positions a given spelling could show either on the one hand a long vowel or diphthong or on the other a short vowel that would normally be spelt another way. changes in the sound of a vowel or consonant when in the vicinity of another sound) also contributed to the mismatch. the diphthong represented by u in due and the diphthong ew, eu in dew, neuter.the long mid vowel o in sloe, so and the diphthong ow or ou in slow, sow (= cast seed).the long vowel a in mane and the diphthong ay or ai in may, main.Hence the mismatch of the long vowel sounds of English with their counterparts in other European languages.Īdditionally, during the period a number of sets of vowel sounds that had formerly been distinct became identical, while their spelling distinction was largely maintained, resulting in a further mismatch of spelling and pronunciation. Ī parallel change affected the back vowels of mouth and moot. long a became a front vowel, more like that of air to begin with, but later.
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