[19] I also frequently employ (èè) for open long e; and (éé) for close long e, especially in the Glossary. It is also often usual to employ ę for the open e, and ǫ for the open o. Thus (ae) = (èè) = (ęę); and (ee) = (éé).
[20] It is well known that the mod. E. delight is falsely spelt. The M.E. is delyt (O.F. delit). It rimes with parfyt, appetyt, whyt (see Glossary); never with right or bright.
[21] When the Anglo-French scribes discarded the A.S. symbol æ, they had no certain symbol for the sound (æ) left. Hence, probably, the occasional use of the form thet, to denote the A.S. þæt.
[22] Dr. Sweet gives the sound (ai), as in G. mein. But he adds: 'The distinction between ai and ei, as in day and wey, was probably still kept up in Chaucer's pronunciation, but the two diphthongs were beginning to be confused, probably through the a of ai being modified nearly to the sound of our vowel in man.' However, the rimes prove that Chaucer never distinguishes between them at all; and I believe these diphthongs had been confused much earlier. The Anglo-French scribes could have known but little difference; since ai had already become F. open e in the later text of the Chanson de Roland. Again, Norse only exhibits ei, not ai, so that our raise was M.E. reise, also written raise (Icel. reisa). Very significant is Chaucer's rime of eyse with reyse, D 2101. Nearly everywhere else, the mod. E. 'ease' is spelt ese, eese; and the pronunciation was unquestionably (èè·zə) = (ae·zə), as it rimes with please and appease, words in which even the mod. E. spelling with ea shews that the long e was once open. It follows that reyse was (rei·zə) or even (rèè·zə); certainly not (rai·zə). So again, I should say that the statement that the a of ai was 'modified nearly to the sound of our vowel in man' might have been much more strongly asserted. In such a word as day, from A.S. dæg, the a was already (æ) at the first, and needed no modification at all. It was already spelt dei before A.D. 1200; see Specimens of O. English, ed. Morris, Pt. i. p. 20, l. 79.
[23] In sonne, the n is double; but not in sone.
[24] I use italic y for the consonantal sound of y in ye; because I use (y) for the vowel u in Iuge (jy·gə).
[25] I do not here distinguish between primary and secondary accents. For this distinction, see below ([§ 98]).
[26] Mod. E. to soar, O.F. essorer, Low Lat. *exaurare; so that the long open o is due to Lat. au.
[27] Store has the o from Lat. au; cf. instaurare. And radevore is from F. ras de Vaur, with o from au; correctly.
[28] I omit dore, door, riming with underspore; perhaps the o was here (u); cf. A.S. duru.