The subject of history of English

25. Changes in the System of Spelling

French graphic habits were introduced, and marking the sounds became more European, all the letters were exclusively Latin. English sounds, earlier marked by letters specific only for the English language were replaced by digraphs. ʒ and wynn were replaced by Latin letters: ʒod - god , ʒēar – year

The sound dʒ marked by cʒ was also rendered by g or dg - singe, bridge. In French borrowings the same sound was marked according to the French tradition by j - judge, June.

The letter q always accompanied by u is introduced to denote either the consonant k or the cluster kw - quay; quarter, queen.

z is introduced to denote the corresponding sound in some cases Zephyrus, zel (zeal); but in traditional chesen it was not.

Long ū was replaced by digraph ou, in the French tradition: hūs – hous; it was found in French words: trouble, couch; in final position, and occasionally in medial it was ow: hū- how; cū-cow, dūn - down.

In some cases the sound u came to be represented by 0, especially when it stood neighbouring the letters with many vertical lines lufu - loue; cumen — comen etc.

Long sound ō is now rendered by oo: fōt —>foot

Long Old English ē was marked either by a digraph ee: mētan - mete, meete (to meet) or turned into ie; feld -field;

The sibilant [tʃ] formerly rendered by c before or after front vowels was replaced by a digraph ch: cild, cēosan, hwilc - child, chesen, which (the same sound was found in the words chambre, chair, taken from French);

The sound [dʒ] of various origin is marked by the letters j, g, dg - courage, joy, bridge.

The sound [ʃ] , formerly rendered by sc is rendered by the combinations sh and sch: scip, fisc, sceal - ship, fish, schal.

The sound [k] rendered by c before consonants is rendered by k - cniht - knight.