One of the most noteworthy points of the orthography is the frequent use of _ie_ in tonic syllables for close _ē_. This appears in French words such as _achieve_, _appiere_, _chief_, _chiere_, _clier_, _grieve_, _matiere_, _messagier_, _pier_, &c. (also in many of these cases _e_, as _chere_, _cler_, _matere_), but it is very commonly used also in words of English origin and seems invariably to be associated with the close sound of the vowel. Thus we have _hiede_, _spriede_, _lief_ (but _levere_), _sieke_, _diel_, _stiel_, _whiel_, _dieme_, _sieme_, _diere_, _fiere_ (= company), _hiere_ (adv.), _hiere_ (verb), _liere_, _stiere_, and others, which have in most cases the alternative spelling with _e_, as _hede_, _sprede_, _seke_, _del_, _stel_, _whel_, _deme_, _seme_, &c., but in all of which the vowel has the close sound. It is impossible here to discuss the question how far this habit of spelling may have been introduced by analogy from French words with a similar sound of the vowel, and how far it may have grown out the Kentish use of _ie_, _ye_ for O. E. _ēo_, _ē_, _īe_. Reference may be made to the remarks in the Introduction to the volume of Gower’s French Works, p. xxi, where it is suggested that _ie_, having lost its value as a diphthong in later Anglo-Norman, came to be regarded as a traditional symbol in many cases for close _ē_, and hence such forms as _clier_, _clief_, _pier_, _prophiete_, &c., and as regards _ie_ in the Kentish dialect there is a useful statement in the paper by W. Heuser, _Zum Kentischen Dialekt im Mittelenglischen_, published in _Anglia_, xvii, 78 ff. In any case the fact is pretty clear that this variation was confined by Gower to words in which he gave to the vowel a close sound, and it is therefore useful as a distinguishing note, though there are few words in which this is the only form of spelling. Both in stems of words and in their terminations _i_ is on the whole preferred to _y_, so that we have _crie_, _hide_, _lif_, _like_, _mile_, _ride_, &c. more usually than _crye_, _hyde_, &c. (but perhaps _y_ more often after _m_, _n_, as _knyht_, _myhte_, _nyht_), and also _arrai_, _mai_, _dai_, _hardi_, _ladi_, _worþi_, _mi_, _thi_, more often on the whole than _array_, _may_, &c., but _-ly_ in adverbs more often than _-li_. In some few cases it seems that a distinction is pretty consistently made, as between _wryte_ (inf.) and _write_ (past participle), and perhaps between _wite_ (know) and _wyte_ (blame). Before _gh_ followed by _t_ we find _a_, _o_ almost regularly in place of _au_, _ou_. Thus we have _aghte_, _straghte_, _taghte_, _boghte_, _broghte_, _doghter_, _noght_, _oghte_, _oght_, _soghte_, _wroghte_, &c., but occasionally _broughte_, _doughter_, _ought_, &c. Beside some of these there are forms in which _au_ (_aw_), _ou_ (_ow_) are written, but followed by simple _h_, as _strawhte_, _tawhte_, _douhter_ (_dowhter_).