This chapter provides an overview of sound inventories and analysis of some segmental changes from Old English (OE) to Present-Day English (PDE). The topic selection is based on relevance to the PDE phonological structure and to the way specific processes are elucidated by current models of language change. The empirical data are treated in terms of the changes’ mechanism and causation in relation to phonetic and system-internal triggers, and in the context of language contacts and sociocultural pressures. Updating the results of existing accounts, the chapter includes many familiar processes, highlighting areas that are either missing or under-represented in the canon. The notorious letter-sound discrepancy for vowels in PDE is prioritised, while space limitations require a less nuanced survey and analysis of consonantal and prosodic changes.

Five examples which appear to show morphophonemic alternations are considered, but none of them is straightforward. In some cases, the application of the apparently morphophonemic rule is not regular, in others the alternations turn out to be orthographic rather than phonological.

This chapter provides a typological overview of segmental quantity in Germanic languages. It begins with an overview of basic terminology, different ways of representing quantity, and the effects of different diachronic processes (e.g., open syllable lengthening and degemination) on the occurrence of contrastive segmental quantity. After a presentation of Riad’s (1995) typology of quantity, the chapter describes North and West Germanic language varieties that preserve both vowel and consonant quantity, varieties that retain only consonant quantity and varieties that retain only vowel quantity. Also included are discussions of complementary quantity, syllable cut and evidence that some Germanic varieties no longer have contrastive segmental quantity.