Middle English

==Phonology==
{{Main|Middle English phonology}}
The main changes between the [[Old English phonology|Old English sound system]] and [[Middle English phonology|that of Middle English]] include:
*Emergence of the voiced [[fricative]]s {{IPA|/v/}}, {{IPA|/ð/}}, {{IPA|/z/}} as separate [[phoneme]]s, rather than mere [[allophone]]s of the corresponding [[voiceless]] fricatives
*Reduction of the Old English [[diphthong]]s to monophthongs and the emergence of new diphthongs due to vowel breaking in certain positions, change of Old English post-vocalic {{IPA|/j/}}, {{IPA|/w/}} (sometimes resulting from the {{IPA|[ɣ]}} allophone of {{IPA|/ɡ/}}) to offglides, and borrowing from French
*Merging of Old English {{IPA|/æ/ and /ɑ/}} into a single vowel {{IPA|/a/}}
*Raising of the long vowel {{IPA|/æː/}} to {{IPA|/ɛː/}}
*Rounding of {{IPA|/ɑː/}} to {{IPA|/ɔː/}} in the southern dialects
*Unrounding of the front [[rounded vowel]]s in most dialects
*Lengthening of vowels in [[open syllable]]s (and in certain other positions). The resultant long vowels (and other preexisting long vowels) subsequently underwent changes of quality in the [[Great Vowel Shift]], which began during the later Middle English period.
*Loss of [[gemination]] (double consonants came to be pronounced as single ones)
*Loss of weak final vowels ([[schwa]], written {{angle bracket|e}}). By [[Chaucer]]'s time, this vowel was silent in normal speech, although it was normally pronounced in verse as the [[meter (verse)|meter]] required (much as occurs in modern [[French language|French]]). Also, nonfinal unstressed {{angle bracket|e}} was dropped when adjacent to only a single consonant on either side if there was another short {{angbr|e}} in an adjoining syllable. Thus, {{lang|ang|every}} began to be pronounced as {{lang|enm|evry}}, and {{lang|ang|palmeres}} as {{lang|enm|palmers}}.

The combination of the last three processes listed above led to the spelling conventions associated with [[silent e|silent {{vr|e}}]] and [[double letter|doubled consonants]] (see under [[#Orthography|Orthography]], below).