Middle English Open Vowels and Pronouns: Practice Before You Read
| ME Open Vowels | a ("ah") | e ("eh") | i ("ee") | o ("oh") | u ("oo") |
| ME Pronouns | he, she, we, the(y) | I, (the)y | yo(u) | (yo)u |
Note: "They" and "you" contain two vowel sounds that would be sounded as a glide (like the modern "white,"--"whi-eet"). In this table, the glide vowels are separated by parentheses. To hear some examples of the before and after vowel sounds, click here.
These classic diagrams by an Old World craftsman illustrates how the vowels moved from their Middle English to Modern English positions in the period between about 1400 and 1500: