Phonological history of Old English
Dialects

Phonological history of Old English

Section Title: Dialects
Table Section Text: None

West Saxon	Northumbrian	Mercian	Kentish

Proto-Germanic ǣ > ē	no	yes	yes	yes

palatal diphthongization	yes	limited	no	no

retraction æ > a / rC	yes

smoothing

a > o / N

back mutation	limited

æ > e	no	no	yes	yes

Anglo-Frisian ǣ > ē

y, ȳ > e, ē

Sentence(s)

Old English had four major dialect groups: West Saxon, Mercian, Northumbrian and Kentish.
Old English had four dialect groups: West Saxon, Mercian, Northumbrian, and Kentish.
Old English had four dialect groups: West Saxon, Mercian, Northumbrian, and Kentish.

final_sentence: Old English had four major dialect groups: West Saxon, Mercian, Northumbrian and Kentish.
final_sentence: Old English had four dialect groups: West Saxon, Mercian, Northumbrian, and Kentish.
final_sentence: Old English had four dialect groups: West Saxon, Mercian, Northumbrian, and Kentish.