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The phonology of the low back vowels of the English language has undergone changes both overall and with regional variations, through Old and Middle English to the present. The sounds heard in modern English were significantly influenced by the Great Vowel Shift, as well as more recent developments such as the cot–caught merger. ==Old and Middle English== In the Old English vowel system the vowels in the low back area were unrounded: . There were also rounded back vowels of mid-height: . The corresponding spellings were and , with the length distinctions not normally marked; in modern editions of Old English texts the long vowels are often written , . As the Old English (OE) system developed into that of Middle English (ME), the OE to become a more central ME . Meanwhile, OE was rounded and raised to ME . OE remained relatively unchanged, becoming a short ME vowel regarded as , while OE became ME (a higher vowel than ). A number of alternative developments were also possible; see English historical vowel correspondences for details. Later, due to ME open syllable lengthening, the short vowel normally changed to in open syllables. Remaining instances of the short vowel also tended to become lower. Hence in Late Middle English (around 1400) the following low back vowels were present, distinguished by length:〔Barber, pp. 108,111〕 * , spelt , as in ''dog'', ''god'' * , often spelt , or before consonant+vowel or certain consonant pairs, as in ''boat'', ''whole'', ''old'' 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Phonological history of English low back vowels」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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