Phonetic changes in me included word stress, vowels, consonants

PHONETIC CHANGES in ME included word stress, vowels, consonants. The Germanic system of WORD STRESS used in OE was altered due to the adoption of hundreds of French borrowings with the ultimate or (final), penultimate (second to last) stresses. In the course of phonetic assimila- tion stress was shifted in different ways: to the immediately preceding unstressed syllable (reces- sive tendency), to the third syllable from the end as a secondary stress thus alternating stressed and unstressed syllables (rhythmical tendency). With native words retaining original stress and all those changes proceeding we arrive at the modern varied position stresses, which differs from the Germanic system; yet the stressed and unstressed syllables typical of Germanic is retained (Cf. recent borrowings without shifts, e.g. fatigue).
VOWELS underwent multiple changes: unstressed vowels, esp. in final syllables were generally reduced to the neutral [ ә ] in ME and lost in NE, though, due to shifting of stresses and other changes other unstressed vowels appeared and were retained to the present day (e.g. reader [ә]). Stressed vowels in the transition to ME were subjected to a number of important quantitative changes which made vowel quantity largely (though, not entirely) dependent on phonetic condi- tion: lengthening before sequences of two consonants (sonorant + plosive), shortening before other sequences of two or more consonants (examples surviving in Modern English with differ- ent vowels due to Early ME quantitative changes – behind, hindrance, etc.). More open vowels / o, e, a / were lengthened in open syllables. (In ENE changes of vowel quantity are combined with consonant changes or appear as shortenings or lengthenings before some sounds).
Changes of quality in stressed vowels are of lesser importance in Early ME but of the greatest consequence later. All OE diphthongs were contracted to monophthongs and thus shared their further development. Some Early ME changes display dialectal variation (e.g. y short and long, a before nasals, long a), long vowels gradually becoming closer. The Great Vowel Shift (involving the entire vowel system) began in Late ME and across the 15-16th centuries or more. All long vowels were narrowed and some were diphthongized, e.g. ME i: → NE ai, e.g. ME time [ti:mә] → NE time [taim].
It is noteworthy that the written form of the word remained unchanged during the shift, thus still showing the pronunciation before the shift. Consequently modern spellings can be used to reconstruct the phonetic history of words and, therefore, provide ample evidence for the shift. Changes of short vowels are relatively few and show but an indistinct opposite tendency, i.e., towards greater opening /a, u/. Note that the Great Vowel Shift and other NE sound changes oc- curred after fixing of the written form of the word (due to the introduction of printing) and thus account for the gap or new relations between pronunciation and spelling in Modern English.
CONSONANT CHANGES FROM OE TO NE associated with changes of vowels. Consonants were generally more stable than vowels; the main changes during all periods were instances of assimi- lation and simplification of consonant clusters difficult to pronounce, vocalisations and the changed treatment of fricatives. These processes, among other things, account for the disappearance of OE and ME [ x ], [ x’ ], [ k' ], [g'], etc., growth of new phonemes – sibilants, affricates, frica- tives and the appearance of many diphthongs. In the transition from Old to Middle English the continued assimilation of palatal plosives (softening next to front vowels) resulted in the growth
of [t∫] and [dӡ] and [∫] shown in ME by new digraphs of the French tradition – ch, tch, dg, g, sh, sch, ssh..., e.g. OE cild → NE child, OE bricӡe → NE bridge, OE fisc → NE fish. In the transi- tion from ME to NE the same sounds appeared in assimilated French borrowings, where with the shifting of word stress t, d, s, z fused with the following j, to [ t∫ ], [ dӡ ], [∫], [ӡ].
Simplification of “difficult” consonant clusters are illustrated by OE/ME instances with corre- sponding alteration of spelling (hl) and by later losses of consonants without spelling adjust- ments which account for "mute" letters (as in know, gnat, listen, climb, subtle, hour, etc.) which in Modem English are merely spelling peculiarities, e.g. aspirated h in ME honour [ho′nu:r] → NE honour, ME [kn], [gn] → ENE [n], e.g. ME knowen [′knowәn] → ENE know, ME climb [mb] lost its final [b].
Historical changes in the treatment of voiced and voiceless fricatives in the Middle and New period resulted in their changed phonological status: from positional variants of phonemes (allo- phones) the voiced and voiceless pairs turned into phonemes: [f] and [v], [θ] and [ð], [s] and [z]. This new treatment is seen from the changed – and far less strict – conditions of voicing as com- pared with the respective OE conditions. In ME new words appeared with the initial voiced fricative /v/, e.g. veyne. In the transition to NE fricatives were voiced after an unstressed vowel and before a stressed one in the same or following word (cf. to Verner's Law in Proto-Germanic). This voicing affected numerous endings and form words. These voicings were not strictly regular and some of the OE conditions of voicing partly survived; consequently the voiced and voiceless fricatives occur in similar phonetic conditions in NE and thus should be regarded as phonemes
(cf. eyes – ice, thy – thigh), i.e., s → z, f → v, θ → ð, ks → gz, t∫ → dӡ, e.g. ME resemblen [rә′semblә] → NE resemble, ME Greenwich [′gre:nwit∫] → NE Greenwich [′gri:nidӡ].
Vocalisation of fricatives after vowels produced glides and gave rise to new ME "closing" diphthongs with i – and u-glides (OE "opening" diphthongs having by that time fallen together with monophthongs). Vocalisations of [ x, x’ ], took place some time later, e.g. night.
Vocalisation of [γ] and the sonorant [r] occurred during and after the Great Vowel Shift, e.g. ME yeer → ENE year; car, torn. /r/ was vocalised finally and before consonants after short vow- els – for, thorn, and long vowels – shire [∫i:rә], beer [be:r], producing new long vowels [ә:], e.g. girl, or diphthongs in [ә], e.g. [uә], [iә], and many [ә]-inflections.
As a result of the phonetic changes the ME spelling became more conventional.