I or y, the descendants of original u (which in Old English [Anglo-Saxon] had already become y or i in consequence of i- mutation or umlaut)—are found rhyming with original i:—ll. 449, 881, kyn : him, 2060 : wynne; 1657, fille : stille; 1973, fire : desire, &c. It must, however, be noted that the rhyme king : inne (l. 372) or king : thing (ll. 173, 236) cannot be regarded as an East-Midland peculiarity, because king, drihten, chikken, the i of which is a modification of original u, are to be met with in all Middle-English dialects, as has been shown by Professor Zupitza in the Anzeiger für deutsches Altertum, vol. vi. p. 6.
Old English short a, which is liable to change into o, appears in this poem—
(1) always as o, before n- combinations (nd, nt, ng):—531, stronge : istonge; 3166, bronte : fonte; 214, amonge : longe, &c.
(2) as a, before the single consonants m and n:—1120, name : shame, 935 : same, 1739 : grame; 785, 1773, man : Lavan; 3125, came : Lavan (cf. 2579, Lavan : tane); 2160, came : dame, &c.—The fact that com (ll. 547, 1395, 3095, &c.) is used as well as cam as sing. preterite indic. need occasion no difficulty if we remember that the original short a (or o) of cam (or com) had already been lengthened into ô in the O.E. period.[73] Came and come as pret. sing. are employed indifferently in Chaucer as well as in the Celestin (ed. Horstmann, Anglia, i. 56), which is known to have been composed in the East-Midland dialect.
O long, from O.E. â, in our poem has that broad sound which is peculiar to the East-Midland dialect. We find it rhyming with—
(1) original ô:—1025, wrothe : sothe; 801, goo : doo; 60, inowe : blowe; 325, so : ido, &c.
(2) unchangeable a:—257, Aufricanes : stoones; 506, gon : than; 2049, agoon : Lavan, &c.
As many East-Midland works[74] the Sowdan has three forms for O.E. þâr:—thare, thore, there, all of which are established by the rhyme:—1805, thore : Egremoure (cf. 2895, Egremoure : tresoure, 1003, Agremore : more); 126, thore : lore; 430, thare : sware; [‹xxxvi›] 2245, there : chere, 2404 : bere; 2604, there : were (w
ron), 208 : were (werian), &c.