== Sound Changes Misplaced == 

 "Loss of /ə/ in final syllables. " 

 This is listed late in the 1400 to 1600 group.  In the book on the Canterbury tales I have, the pronunciation guide says it was unlikely that Chaucer himself pronounced the final schwa represented by e in Middle English.  In fact many see this as the impetus of the Great Vowel Shift that occurred in the 15th cent.  No longer were the vowels in 'name'[na:m] and 'nam' [nam] "I took" in complementary distribution.  Thus a new long vowel /a:/ came about causing the vowels above it to shift upwards to better differentiate themselves.  GVS was the result. 

 "American and Australian English flapping of /t/ and /d/ to [ɾ] in some circumstances." 

 This phonetic weakening also occurs in some British dialects, notably cockney, as a glottal stop.  It might be added that a similar allophonic distribution occurred in British English but was "stamped out" by their spelling pronunciation.  This is the reason that final stops are released in RP unlike in every other dialects (thus the /t/ and /p/ in 'tip' and 'pit' have virtually identical aspirated values in RP) and also why certain word that have histories preceding the Enlightenment are pronounced more closely to their spelling (earlier artic became arctic [a:ktIk] in British English.)