Middle English
In early Middle English, a vowel /i/ was inserted between a front vowel and a following /h/ (pronounced in this context), and a vowel /u/ was inserted between a back vowel and a following /h/ (pronounced in this context). This is a prototypical example of the narrow sense of "vowel breaking" as described above: The original vowel breaks into a diphthong that assimilates to the following consonant, gaining a front /i/ before a palatal consonant and /u/ before a velar consonant.
Read more about this topic: Vowel Breaking
Famous quotes containing the words middle and/or english:
“And indeed there will be time
To wonder, Do I dare? and, Do I dare?
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair ...
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“The boneless quality of English conversation, which, so far as I have heard it, is all form and no content. Listening to Britons dining out is like watching people play first-class tennis with imaginary balls.”
—Margaret Halsey (b. 1910)