Diphthongs in the history of English

OE vowel system was symmetrical, it means that each short vowel had its long variant.

Diphthongs
ĕŏ	ĕă	ĭě
ēō	ēā	īē

BREAKING is a process which led to the split of the short front vowels æﬞ, e into diphthongs.

Early OE OE E.g.

Before:

r + other cons. ǽ → ea ærm → earm

(arm)

l + other cons. ē → eo melcan → meolkan (milk)

h + other cons.

All OE diphthongs were monophthongized in ME. The rise of the new diphthongs was connected with the process of vocalization of 2 OE consonant sounds:

j – i glide wey [wei]; may [mai]

γ – u glide lawe [lauə]; bowe [bouə]

VOCALIZATION OF R in NE

In OE [r] was rolled. In ME practically in all positions it acquires the quality of the sonorant. Consequences:

1) new diphthongs appeared: [εə], [iə], [uə];

2) the vowels before [r] were lengthened (e.g. arm [a:m], for [fo:], etc.);

3) triphthongs appeared: [aiə], [auə] (e.g. shower [‘∫auə], shire [‘∫aiə]);

4) a new vowel appears in the phonetic system [з:] (girl, bird)

The Great Vowel Shift

The change that happened in the 14^th and ended 16^th c. and affected all long monophthongs.

The first stage – narrowing of vowels

The second stage – diphthongization

ai ei i: u: ou au

e: ō: ou

ei ε: o:

a:

ME	NE	ME	NE
[i:] à	[ai]	time [‘ti:mə]	time [teim]
[a:] à	[ei]	maken [‘ma:kən]	make [meik]
[o:] à à	[ou] [u:]	stone [‘sto:nə] moon [mo:n]	stone [stoun] moon [mu:n]
[u:] à	[au]	mous [mu:s]	mouse [maus]