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English-language vowel changes before historic /r/

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History and description of English pronunciation Historical stages Old English Middle English Modern English General development Overview In Old English In Scots Development of vowels Overview Great Vowel Shift High front A Low back High back Diphthongs Pre-L Pre-R Development of consonants Single consonants Clusters Variable features Rhoticity Flapping L-vocalization T-glottalization TH R WH Related topics History of English Spelling v t e This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. In English, many vowel shifts only affect vowels followed by /r/ in rhotic dialects, or vowels that were historically followed by an /r/ that has since been elided in non-rhotic dialects. Most of them involve merging of vowel distinctions, so t...