Talk:Middle English phonology

Untitled
Should this page maybe have a table that shows what letters represented each sound? I think that might be useful. 70.23.230.14 (talk) 18:13, 3 October 2010 (UTC)


 * That's a good idea, I'll see about adding it. Benwing (talk) 06:56, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

'path'/ 'paths' example in Open-syllable lengthening
I don't understand the path /paths example in Open-syllable lengthening. The vowel in these is long surely, at least to my ears as an Australian English speaker, yet the article contrasts it with whale/ whales, which is long too.

Marquetry28 (talk) 14:02, 21 November 2015 (UTC)


 * The lengthening of the vowel in path(s) (in some accents) is a much later development (see trap-bath split). In Middle English times it would still have been short. W. P. Uzer (talk) 14:25, 21 November 2015 (UTC)
 * The original length distinction of Middle English is reflected today in a quality distinction. The vowels of path and whale have very different sounds; the first of these reflects an original short vowel, while the latter reflects an original long vowel. CodeCat (talk) 19:05, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

Thanks W. P. Uzer Marquetry28 (talk) 09:44, 22 November 2015 (UTC)

Schwa
mentions the schwa, spelled as e, as a phoneme in Early Middle English, but it isn't listed in the table of monophthongs. — Eru·tuon 07:50, 30 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Done. Mr KEBAB (talk) 17:08, 30 August 2016 (UTC)

Diphthongs
The diphthong /ɔi/ (or similar) doesn't appear in the diphthong table. Is this an oversight, or is it intentional (i.e. this sound simply not exist in Middle English)? 𝐨𝐱𝐲𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐧𝐵𝑈𝑇𝐴𝑍𝑂𝑁𝐸 ⓊⓉ 13:40, 1 January 2022 (UTC)

Brackets in the monophthongs table
What do the brackets imply? I know that, if used in a transcription, they mean "optional". But here there is nothing else but the symbols. George Rodney Maruri Game (talk) 20:35, 9 January 2023 (UTC)


 * those phonemes are present in some dialects but not others 204.144.213.66 (talk) 16:10, 17 April 2023 (UTC)