fyxenn "vixen"); verbal derivatives (fōda "food", fēdan "to feed"); comparative adjectives (eald "old", ieldra "older, elder"). Many echoes of i-mutation are still present in the modern language. Close-vowel loss: Loss of word-final and (also from earlier ) except when following a short syllable (i.e. one with a short vowel followed by a single consonant.) For example, PIE * > PG > OE sunu "son (nom. sing.)", PIE * > PG > OE feohu "cattle (nom. sing.)", PIE * > PG > OE ƿine "friend (nom. sing.)", but PrePG * > PG > WG > OE "foot (nom. pl.)". Loss of and following a long syllable. A similar change happened in the other West Germanic languages, although after the earliest records of those languages. This did not affect the new (< ) formed from palatalisation of PG , suggesting that it was still a palatal fricative at the time of the change. For example, PG > early OE * > OE ƿrēġan (). Following this, PG occurred only word-initially and after (which was the only consonant that was not geminated by and hence retained a short syllable). H-loss: Proto-Germanic is lost between vowels, and between and a vowel. The preceding vowel is lengthened. This leads to alternations such as eoh "horse", pl. ēos, and ƿealh "foreigner", pl. ƿēalas. Vowel assimilation: Two vowels in hiatus merge into a long vowel. Some examples come from h-loss. Others come from loss of or between vowels, e.g. PG frijōndz > OE frīond > frēond "friend"; PG saiwimiz "sea (dat. pl.)" > *sǣƿum > OE sǣm. Back mutation: Short e, i and (in Mercian only) a are sometimes broken to short eo, io, and ea when a back vowel follows in the next syllable. Hence seofon "seven" < PG *sebun, mioluc, meoluc "milk" < PG *meluks. Palatal umlaut: Short e, eo, io become i (occasionally ie) before hs, ht. Hence riht "right" (cf. German recht), siex "six" (cf. German sechs). Vowel reductions in unstressed syllables: became in final syllables, but usually appears as o in medial syllables (although a and u both appear). and (if not deleted by high-vowel loss) became in final syllables. normally became in a final syllable except when absolutely word-final. In medial syllables, short are deleted; short are deleted following a long syllable but usually remain following a short syllable (except in some present-tense verb forms), merging to in the process; and