Editing Middle Dutch (section)

===Vowels===
Most notable in the Middle Dutch vowel system, when compared to Old Dutch, is the appearance of phonemic rounded front vowels, and the merger of all unstressed short vowels.

====Short vowels====

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ Middle Dutch short vowels
!
! [[Front vowel|Front]]<br/><small>[[Roundedness|unrounded]]</small>
! [[Front vowel|Front]]<br/><small>[[Roundedness|rounded]]</small>
! [[Central vowel|Central]]
! [[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
! [[Close vowel|Close]]
| {{IPA|ɪ}}
| rowspan="2" | {{IPA|ʏ}}
|
|
|-
! [[Mid vowel|Mid]]
| {{IPA|e}}
| {{IPA|ə}}
| {{IPA|o}}
|-
! [[Open vowel|Open]]
| colspan="4" | {{IPA|a}}
|}

* The exact height of {{IPA|/ʏ/}} is not certain, and may have varied between actual {{IPA|[ʏ]}} and a lower {{IPA|[ø]}} or even {{IPA|[œ]}}.
* {{IPA|/e/}} and {{IPA|/o/}} could have also been {{IPA|[ɛ]}} and {{IPA|[ɔ]}}, as in modern Dutch.
* {{IPA|/a/}} was a back {{IPA|[ɑ]}} in most varieties, but front {{IPA|[a]}} probably occurred in some western dialects.

====Long vowels and diphthongs====
Long vowels and diphthongs cannot be clearly distinguished in Middle Dutch, as many long vowels had or developed a diphthongal quality, while existing diphthongs could also develop into monophthongs. Sometimes, this occurred only in restricted dialects, other developments were widespread.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ Middle Dutch long vowels
!
! [[Front vowel|Front]]<br/>[[Roundedness|unr.]]
! [[Front vowel|Front]]<br/>[[Roundedness|rnd.]]
! [[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
! [[Close vowel|Close]]
| {{IPA|iː}}
| {{IPA|yː}}
| ({{IPA|uː}})
|-
! [[Close vowel|Close]]-[[Opening diphthong|opening]]
| {{IPA|ie̯}}
| ({{IPA|yø̯}})
| {{IPA|uo̯}}
|-
! [[Mid vowel|Mid]]-[[Opening diphthong|opening]]
| {{IPA|eɛ̯}}
| ({{IPA|øœ̯}})
| {{IPA|oɔ̯}}
|-
! [[Mid vowel|Mid]]
| {{IPA|eː}}
| {{IPA|øː}}
| {{IPA|oː}}
|-
! [[Open vowel|Open]]
| {{IPA|aː}}
|
| {{IPA|ɑː}}
|-
! [[Closing diphthong|Closing]]
| {{IPA|ɛi̯}}
| ({{IPA|œy̯}})
| {{IPA|ɔu̯}}
|}

* The rounded front vowels in brackets only occurred in the eastern dialects, where umlaut of long vowels and diphthongs occurred.
* The rounded back vowel {{IPA|/uː/}} only occurred in the Limburgish dialects.

Many details of the exact phonetics are uncertain, and seemed to have differed by dialect. The overall system is clear, however, as almost all the vowels remain distinct in modern Limburgish: {{IPA|/iː/}}, {{IPA|/iə̯/}}, {{IPA|/eɛ̯/}}, {{IPA|/eː/}} and {{IPA|/aː/}} appear in modern Limburgish as {{IPA|/iː/}}, {{IPA|/eː/}}, {{IPA|/iə̯/}}, {{IPA|/æː/}} and {{IPA|/aː/}} respectively.

The vowels {{IPA|/ie̯/}}, {{IPA|/yø̯/}} and {{IPA|/uo̯/}} developed from Old Dutch opening diphthongs, but their exact character in Middle Dutch is unclear. The following can be said:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/loey001midd03_01/loey001midd03_01_0005.php|title=A. van Loey, Middelnederlandse spraakkunst. Deel II. Klankleer · dbnl|last=DBNL|website=DBNL|access-date=21 September 2017}}</ref>
* In eastern Brabant, and all of Limburg, the pronunciation remained diphthongal.
* {{IPA|/ie̯/}} is frequently found written with just {{angbr|i}}, which may indicate a monophthongal pronunciation. {{IPA|/ie̯/}} never merged with the long vowel {{IPA|/iː/}}, however, as no rhyme pairs between these vowels are found.
* In the coastal areas (Flanders, Holland), {{IPA|/uo̯/}} seems to have been a monophthong {{IPA|[oː]}} or {{IPA|[ʊː]}}. Before velar and labial consonants, the pronunciation was a close {{IPA|[uː]}}. This is revealed by the distinction in spelling between {{angbr|oe}} and {{angbr|ou}}.
* In western Brabant, the pronunciation of {{IPA|/uo̯/}} was more close, probably monophthongal {{IPA|/uː/}}.

The vowels {{IPA|/eɛ̯/}}, {{IPA|/øœ̯/}} and {{IPA|/oɔ̯/}}, termed "sharp-long" and denoted with a circumflex ''ê'' ''ô'', developed from Old Dutch long vowels. The opening diphthong pronunciation was probably widespread, and perhaps once universal, as it is nowadays still found in both West Flemish and in Limburgish, at opposite ends of the Middle Dutch language area. In the general area in between, including standard Dutch, the vowels merged with the "soft-long" vowels during the early modern Dutch period.
* In southern Flanders, southern Brabant and Holland, {{IPA|/eɛ̯/}} appears spelled with {{angbr|ie}} (e.g. ''stien'' for ''steen''), while {{IPA|/ie̯/}} appears with {{angbr|e}} (e.g. ''speghel'' for ''spieghel''), suggesting a merger between these phonemes.
* {{IPA|/oɔ̯/}} is sometimes found to rhyme with {{IPA|/oː/}}. It is possible that the two vowels merged under some conditions, while remaining distinct in other cases.
* In Brabant, {{IPA|/oɔ̯/}} occasionally rhymes with {{IPA|/uo̯/}}. In western Brabant, this implies a close monophthongal pronunciation {{IPA|[uː]}}.

The vowels {{IPA|/eː/}}, {{IPA|/œː/}} and {{IPA|/oː/}}, termed "soft-long" and denoted with a macron ''ē'' ''ō'', developed through the lengthening of Old Dutch short vowels in open syllables, but also frequently before {{IPA|/r/}}. They were simple monophthongs in all Middle Dutch dialects, with the exception of western Flanders where {{IPA|/eː/}} later developed into {{IPA|/ei̯/}}. They might have been close-mid but also perhaps open-mid {{IPA|[ɛː]}}, {{IPA|[œː]}} and {{IPA|[ɔː]}}, as in modern Limburgish.

There were two open vowels, with "sharp-long" ''â'' developed from the Old Dutch long ''ā'', and "soft-long" ''ā'' being the result of lengthening. These two vowels were distinguished only in Limburgish and Low Rhenish at the eastern end, and in western Flemish and coastal Hollandic on the western end. The relative backness of the two vowels was opposite in the two areas that distinguished them.
* On the coast, ''â'' was front {{IPA|/aː/}} or {{IPA|/æː/}}, while ''ā'' was central or back {{IPA|/ɑː/}}.
* In the eastern varieties, ''â'' was back {{IPA|/ɑː/}}, while ''ā'' was front or central {{IPA|/aː/}}. {{IPA|/ɑː/}} merged into {{IPA|/oː/}} during Middle Dutch, first in Low Rhenish, then later also in Limburgish further south.
* In all dialects between, the two vowels were not distinguished. The phonetic realisation ranged from back {{IPA|[ɑː]}} (in Brabant) to front {{IPA|[aː ~ æː]}} (Holland further inland).

The closing diphthong {{IPA|/ɛi̯/}} remained from the corresponding Old Dutch diphthong. It occurred primarily in umlauting environments, with {{IPA|/eɛ̯/}} appearing otherwise. Some dialects, particularly further west, had {{IPA|/eɛ̯/}} in all environments (thus ''cleene'' next to ''cleine''). Limburgish preserved the diphthong wherever it was preserved in High German.

The closing diphthong {{IPA|/ɔu̯/}} has two different origins. In the vast majority of the Middle Dutch area, it developed through [[l-vocalization]] from older {{IPA|/ol/}} and {{IPA|/al/}} followed by a dental consonant. In the eastern area, Limburg in particular, it was a remnant of the older diphthong as in High German, which had developed into {{IPA|/oɔ̯/}} elsewhere. L-vocalization occurred only in the modern period in Limburgish, and the distinction between {{IPA|/ol/}} and {{IPA|/al/}} was preserved, being reflected as ''ów'' and ''aa'' respectively.