Appendix:Middle English pronunciation

The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Middle English pronunciations in Wiktionary articles.

Note that Middle English is not a single uniform language; the term refers to the multifarious varieties of English spoken in Britain from 1100–1500 C.E., meaning there was plenty of variation and change in pronunciation across time and space. Unless otherwise noted, the pronunciation shown here and given in entries represents the language of Chaucer, London Middle English of the late 1300s and the early 1400s. Phonemes not shown here may appear within pronunciations representing other stages or varieties of Middle English.

Additionally, our knowledge of Middle English pronunciation leaves much to be desired; one major difficulty is the paucity of contemporary sources covering it, though the Ormulum is invaluable here. Instead, we must often resort to indirect sources, such as loans, modern dialectal reflexes, and orthographic variation, which can sometimes be unclear and ambiguous, if not outright contradictory. With such imperfect information, there are sometimes significant disagreements on how certain sounds or words were pronounced; keep in mind that the pronunciation detailed below represents but one opinion, though selected areas of dispute have been marked throughout.

More discussion about the sounds of Middle English is available at Middle English phonology.