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:
“Said, All you needed to do was just explain;
Reason Reason is my middle name.”
—Josephine Miles (1911–1985)
“When the English have scored a goal, they think nothing more remains to be done.”
—José Bergamín (1895–1983)