Whereas the distribution of _ǭ_ and _ọ̄_ is practically the same for all ME. dialects, the distinction of open _ę̄_ and close _ẹ̄_ is not so regular, chiefly because the sounds from which they derive were not uniform in OE. dialects. For simplicity, attention will be confined to the London dialect, as the forerunner of modern Standard English. (iii) South-East Midland open _ę̄_ (pronounced as in _there_) derives: (_a_) from OE. (Anglian) _ǣ_: Anglian _dǣl_ > SE. Midl. _dę̄l_ > NE. _deal_; (_b_) from OE. _ēa_: OE. _bēatan_ > ME. _bę̄te(n)_ > NE. _beat_; (_c_) from OE. _ĕ_ in open syllables according to § 7 a iii: OE. _mĕte_ > ME. _mę́te_ > NE. _meat_. The characteristic modern spelling is _ea_. (iv) South-East Midland close _ẹ̄_ (pronounced as in French _été_) derives: (_a_) from OE. (Anglian) _ē_ of various origins: Anglian _hēr_, _mēta(n)_, _(ge)lēfa(n)_ > SE. Midl. _hẹ̄re_, _mẹ̄te(n)_, _lẹ̄ue(n)_ > NE. _here_, _meet_, _(be)lieve_. (_b_) from OE. _ēo_: OE. _dēop_, _þēof_ > ME. _dẹ̄p_, _þẹ̄f_ (_þief_) > NE. _deep_, _thief_. The characteristic modern spellings are _ee_, and _ie_ which already in ME. often distinguishes the close sound (§ 6 ii). NOTE.—The distinction made above does not apply in South-Eastern (Kentish), because this dialect has ME. _ea_, _ia_, _ya_ for OE. _ēa_ (iii b), and OE. _ē_ for Anglian _ǣ_ (iii a). Nor does it hold for South-Western, because the West Saxon dialect of OE. had _gelīefan_ for Anglian _gelēfa(n)_ (iv a). West Saxon also had _strǣt_, _-drǣdan_, where normal Anglian had _strẹ̄t_, _-drẹ̄da(n)_, but the distribution of the place-names _Stratton_ beside _Stretton_, and of the pa. t. and pp. _dradd(e)_ beside _dredd(e)_ (p. 270 and n.), shows that the _ǣ_ forms were common in the extreme South and the East of the Anglian area; so that in fourteenth-century London both _ę̄_ and _ẹ̄_ might occur in such words, as against regular West Midland and Northern _ẹ̄_. In NE. Midland and Northern texts some _ē_ sounds which we should expect to be distinguished as open and close rime together, especially before dental consonants, e.g. _ȝēde_ (OE. _ēode_): _lēde_ (Anglian _lǣda(n)_) I 152-3. § 9. INFLEXIONS. Weakening and levelling of inflexions is continuous from the earliest period of English. The strong stress falling regularly on the first or the stem syllable produced as reflex a tendency to indistinctness in the unstressed endings. The disturbing influence of foreign conquest played a secondary but not a negligible part, as may be seen from a comparison of some verbal forms in the North and the N. Midlands, where Norse influence was strongest, with those of the South, where it was inconsiderable: