A Handbook of the English Language

by R. G. Latham

Permutation of Vowels.

a	to	ĕ,	as	man, men.
a	to	oo,	as	stand, stood.
a	to	u,	as	dare, durst.
a	to	ē,	as	was, were.
ea	to	o,	as	speak, spoken.
ea = ĕ	to	ea = ē,	as	breath, breathe.
ee	to	ĕ,	as	deep, depth.
ea	to	o,	as	bear, bore.
i	to	a,	as	spin, span.
i	to	u,	as	spin, spun.
ī = ei	to	o,	as	smite, smote.
i = ei	to	ĭ,	as	smite, smitten.
i	to	a,	as	give, gave.
i = ei.	to	a,	as	rise, raise.
ĭ	to	e,	as	sit, set.
ow	to	ew,	as	blow, blew.
o	to	e,	as	strong, strength.
oo	to	ee,	as	tooth, teeth.
o	to	i,	as	top, tip.
o	to	e,	as	old, elder; tell, told.
ŏ	to	e,	as	brother, brethren.
ō = oo	to	i,	as	do, did.
o = oo	to	o = ŭ,	as	do, done.
oo	to	o,	as	choose, chose.

Permutation of Consonants.

f	to	v,	life, live; calf, calves.
þ	to	ð,	breath, to breathe.
þ	to	d,	seethe, sod; clothe, clad.
d	to	t,	build, built.
s	to	z,	use, to use.
s	to	r,	was, were; lose, forlorn.

In have and had we have the ejection of a sound; in work and wrought, the transposition of one.

Permutation of Combinations.

ie = i	to	ow,	as	grind, ground.
ow	to	i = ei,	as	mouse, mice; cow, kine.
ink	to	augh,	as	drink, draught.
ing	to	ough,	as	bring, brought.
y (formerly g),		ough,	as	buy, bought.
igh = ei	to	ough,	as	fight, fought.
eek	to	ough,	as	seek, sought.

It must be noticed that the list above is far from being an exhaustive one. The expression too of the changes undergone has been rendered difficult on account of the imperfection of our orthography. The whole section has been written in illustration of the meaning of the word permutation, rather than for any specific object in grammar.