#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 _f~a~ther_, _mach~i~ne_, _cr~u~de_. 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. _brǫ́́ke(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. (ii) Close _ọ̄_ (pronounced rather as in French _beau_ than as in standard English _so_ which has developed a diphthong _ọu_), derives from OE. _ō_: OE. _gōs_, _dōm_, _góld_ > ME. _gọ̄s_, _dọ̄m_, _gọ̄ld_ > NE. _goose_, _doom_, _gold_. The characteristic modern spelling is _oo_. NOTE.—(1) After consonant + _w_, _ǭ_ often develops in ME. to _ọ̄_: OE. _(al)swā_, _twā_ > ME. _(al)sǭ_, _twǭ_ > later _(al)sọ̄_, _twọ̄_. (2) In Scotland and the North _ọ̄_ becomes regularly a sound (perhaps _ǖ_) spelt _u_: _gōd_ > _gud_, _blōd_ > _blud_, &c.