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Middle English phonology
A number of changes took place during the Middle English period which altered the sound structure inherited from Old English. Apart from the losses of sounds and changes in clusters just discussed, there were other shifts, especially among vowels which link the Old English to the Early Modern English sound system.
Open Syllable Lengthening
By this is meant that a short vowel in an open syllable was lengthening (and often lowered), e.g. the short stem vowel of Old English in a word like nose was lengthened so that the pronunciation was then [nɔzə]. The open vowel was later raising as part of the Great Vowel Shift (see below). Similar lengthening occurred with front vowels, e.g. mete /metə/ became [mɛ:tə] and was later raised to [me:t] and then [mi:t] to given the modern pronunciation of the word.
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