-e
has left only vocalic
-n
,
and in
born, torn, thrown,
etc
.
;
-e
has
wholly disappeared from the written form.
§ 2. Consonants
Middle English
gh
[χ] at the end of a syllable became [f], but disappeared when
followed by
-t
(cf.
rough, cough, laugh – brought, daughter, thought
).
-l
stopped to be pronounced in normal speech before the labials
m, f, v
and
before the back consonant
k
, as in
calm, palm, half, talk, folk.
The loss of
b
after
m
is the principal survival of the tendency to eliminate final
consonants once so widespread.
B
stopped to be pronounced in
comb, lamb,
as well
as in the inflected forms of these words before a vowel, such as
combing.
The sound represented by
h
in the combination
-ht-
when preceded by originally
front vowels, as in
night, light,
etc
.,
and when preceded by back vowels as in
daughter, brought,
etc
.,
disappeared in the Southern dialect as early as the 15
th
century.
When
i
was preceded by a consonant and followed by a lightly stressed vowel, it
became [ј] at the beginning of the 17
th
century, and when the preceding consonant
was
t
or
s
, the [ј] combined with it to give [ʃ], as in
special, ambition, partial.
Similarly the group [zј] has given [ʒ] in such words as
pleasure, leisure.
The group
[dј] became [dʒ], as in
soldier, verdure.
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