A Note on Chaucer's Pronunciation of French "u."

Author / Editor
Storms, G.

Title
A Note on Chaucer's Pronunciation of French "u."

Published
English Studies 41 (1960): 305-8.

Description
Offers evidence (rhymes and phonetic patterns in English and French) to indicate "Chaucer having pronounced 'iu' in French loanwords, with the stress on the first element of the diphthong." Further this "'iu' coalesced with earlier 'ew', 'iw', and, later on, developed into the rising diphthong 'jū' of 'new', 'knew' and 'due'."

Chaucer Subjects
Language and Word Studies