Chapter 8 - The development of OE ȳ

Summary

Chapter 8 addresses the unrounding of OE ȳ, which started in lOE, as witnessed by numerous forms for OE ȳ, and back-spellings with for etymological ī. The unrounding is believed to have started in the North, and by eME, unrounding seems virtually complete in Northern and Eastern dialects, to judge by ME orthography. In the West and South, the [y:] was retained far into the ME period, as evidenced by and / forms (when use of for OE ū was discontinued, // could be used for a retained rounded reflex of OE ȳ). Even in lME, spellings suggest that a rounded vowel may have co-varied with unrounded allophones in parts of the West and South. In Kent, OE ȳ was lowered and unrounded to [e:], starting at least in the early 1200s. This [e:] participated in the GVS to produce [i:]. In areas where OE unrounded to [i:], this fell in with the existing ME /i:/ phoneme, and participated in the vowel-shift dipthongisation (> PDE /aɪ/). Digraphs from the thirteenth century confirm that the diphthongisation of ME /i:/ from various sources started in the thirteenth century.