ABSTRACT
§ 49. The modifications of O.E. vowels which took place in M.E. were some of them isolative, affecting quality only, some of them combinative, affecting quantity chiefly. Of these the changes in quantity are perhaps the more important for the whole history of the language, certainly they are the more complicated and they can be left till later. It is the changes in quality which are treated here and should be studied at this point since they will provide the student with the principles on which to connect up for himself the forms given in the Accidence with those of O.E. with which he is already familiar.
