2. Spelling changes in Middle English. Rules of reading.

In the course of ME many new devices were introduced into the system of spelling; some of them reflected the sound changes which had been completed or were still in progress in ME; others were graphic re­placements of OE letters by new letters and digraphs.

The principal spelling changes in ME can be grouped into the following.

1. In ME the runic letters passed out of use. Thorn – þ – and the crossed d – ð – were replaced by the digraph th, which retained the same sound value: [θ] and [ð], the rune "wynn" was displaced by "double u" – w; the ligature æ fell into disuse.

2. After the period of Anglo-Norman dominance (the 11th—13th c.) English regained its prestige as the language of writing, though for a long time writing was in the hands of those who had good knowledge of French. Therefore many innovations in ME spelling reveal the influence of the French scribal tradition. The digraphs ou, ie, and ch which occurred in many French borrowings and were regularly used in Anglo-Norman texts were adopted as new ways of indicating the sounds [u:], [e:], and [].

Compare the use of these digraphs in some borrowed and native ME words: ME double ['duble] ‘double’ from OFr double and ME out [u:t] ‘out’ from OE ūt; ME chief [e:f] ‘chief’ from French and the native ME thief ‘thief’; ME chaumbre ['aumbrə] ‘chamber’, chasen ['a:zən] ‘chase’ from French, and native ME child [i:ld], ME much [mu]. The letters j, k, v, and q were probably first used in imitation of French manuscripts. The two-fold use of g and c, which has survived today, owes its origin to French: these letters usually stood for [] and [s] before front vowels and for [g] and [k] before back vowels; cf. ME gentil [en'til] ‘gentle’ mercy [mer'si] ‘mercy’ and good [go:d] good, cours [ku:rs] ‘course’.

3. Other alterations in spelling cannot be traced directly to French influence though they testify to a similar tendency: a wider use of digraphs. In addition to ch, ou, ie and th mentioned above Late ME notaries introduced sh (also ssh and sch) to indicate the new sibilant [], e.g. ME ship (< OE scip), dg to indicate [] alongside j and g (before front vowels), e.g. ME edge ['eə] ‘edge’, joye ['oiə] ‘joy’, engendren [en'endrən] ‘engender’; the digraph wh replaced the OE sequence of letters hw as in OE hwæt, ME what [hwat] ‘what’. Long sounds were shown by double letters, for instance ME book [bo:k] ‘book’, sonne ['sunnə] ‘sun’, though with vowels this practice was not very regular, e.g. long [e:] could be indicated by ie and ee, and also by e, cf. ME thief [θe:f] ‘thief’, feet [fe:t] ‘feet’, meten ['me:tən] ‘meet’. The introduction of the digraph gh for [x] and [x’] helped to distinguish between the fricatives [x, x’], which were preserved in some positions, and the aspirate [h]; cf. ME knyght [knix’t] ‘knight’,and ME he [he:] ‘he’; in OE both words were spelt with h: OE cnieht, hē.

4. The letter o was employed not only for [o] but also to indicate short [u] alongside the letter u; it happened when u stood close to n, m, or v, for they were all made up of down strokes and were hard to distinguish in a hand-written text. That is how OE munuc became ME monk ‘monk’ though it was pronounced as [muk], and OE lufu became ME love ['luvə] ‘love’.

5. The letter y came to be used as an equivalent of i and was evidently preferred when i could be confused with the surrounding letters m, n and others. Sometimes y, as well as w, were put at the end of a word for purely ornamental reasons, so as to finish the word with a curve; ME nyne ['ni:nə] ‘nine’, very [‘veri] ‘very’ my [mi:] ‘my’. The letter w was interchnageable with u in the digraphs ou, au, e.g. ME doun [du:n] ‘down’ and was often preferred finally: ME how [hu:], now [nu:], lawe ['lauə], drawen ['drauən].

The table below summarizes the peculiarities of spelling in Late ME. It includes the new letters and digraphs introduced in ME and the new sound values of some letters in use since the OE period. The other letters of the English alphabet were employed in the same way as before.

Table 7.1