(i) f ≻ v (initial): this change, which dates back to OE. times, is carried through in Ayenbyte: e.g. uele uayre uorbisnen = Midland 'fele fayre forbisnes'. In some degree it extended over the whole of the South.
(ii) s ≻ z (initial), parallel to the change of f to v, is regularly represented in spelling in the Ayenbyte: zome 'some', &c. Otherwise z is rare in spelling, but the voiced initial sound probably extended to most of the Southern districts where it survives in modern dialect.
§ 8. PRONUNCIATION. One of the best ways of studying ME. pronunciation is to learn by heart a few lines of verse in a consistent dialect, and to correct their repetition as more precise knowledge is gained. The spelling can be relied on as very roughly phonetic if the exceptional usages noted in § 6 are kept in mind. Supplementary and controlling information is provided by the study of rimes, of alliteration, and of the history of English and French sounds.
Consonants. Where a consonant is clearly pronounced in Modern English, its value is nearly enough the same for ME. But modern spelling preserves many consonants that have been lost in speech, and so is rather a hindrance than a help to the beginner in ME. For instance, the initial sounds in ME. kniȝt and niȝt were not the same, for kniȝt alliterates always with k- (V 43, 107) and niȝt with n- (VII 149); and initial wr- in wringe, wriȝte is distinct from initial r- in ring, riȝt (cp. alliteration in VIII a 168, V 136). Nor can wriȝte rime with write in a careful fourteenth-century poem. In words like lerne, doghter, r was pronounced with some degree of trilling. And although there are signs of confusion in late MSS. (IV a, XVI, XVII), double consonants were generally distinguished from single: sonne 'sun' was pronounced sŭn-ne, and so differed from sone 'son', which was pronounced sŭ-ne (§ 6 vi).
Vowels. Short vowels ă, ĕ, ĭ, ŏ, ŭ (§ 6 vi) were pronounced respectively as in French patte, English pet, pit, pot, put. Final unstressed -e was generally syllabic, with a sound something like the final sound in China (§ 9).
The long vowels ā, ī, ū (§ 6 v) were pronounced approximately as in father, machine, crude. But ē and ō present special difficulties, because the spelling failed to make the broad distinction between open ǭ and close ọ̄, open ę̄ and close ẹ̄—a distinction which, though relative only (depending on the greater or less opening of the mouth passage), is proved to have been considerable by ME. rimes, and by the earlier and subsequent history of the long sounds represented in ME. by e, o.
(i) Open ǭ (as in broad) derives:
(a) from OE. ā, according to § 7 b i: OE. brād, bāt, báld ≻ ME. brǭd, bǭt, bǭld ≻ NE. broad, boat, bold. The characteristic modern spelling is thus oa.
(b) from OE. ŏ in open syllables according to § 7 a iii: OE. brŏcen ≻ ME. brǫ́ke(n) ≻ NE. broken.
NOTE.—In many texts the rimes indicate a distinction in pronunciation between ǭ derived from OE. ā and ǭ derived from OE. ŏ, and the distinction is still made in NW. Midland dialects.