and English laugh OE þōht → Modern Scots thocht and English thought However, some words such as tho (though) and throu ('through') have dropped the . Old English became for a number of speakers, though is widespread (e.g. OE hwæt, 'what', became whit). Metathesis occurred in some words (e.g. OE græs, 'grass', became girse). OE became vocalised after resulting in the diphthong in Modern Scots (e.g. boga, 'bow', became bowe). Similarly, in the Early Scots period, was vocalized after: (e.g. pullian, 'pull', became Modern Scots pou). (e.g. bolster, 'bolster', became Modern Scots bowster), becoming and then changing to in Modern Scots. (e.g. healdan, 'hold', became Modern Scots haud); becoming and then changing to or , depending on dialect. Vowels The following table shows the modern realisation of the various Scots vowels along with their pronunciation in Early Scots, the Early Middle English vowels they can largely be derived from, and the main Old English sources of these vowels. See also Middle English phonology for a more in-depth overview of the Old English sources of the Early Middle English vowels below. External sources are: For the principal Old English, Norse and Romance sources of the Early Scots vowels see Aitken, A.J, (Ed. Macafee C.) (2002) pp. 89–95; for an overview of the historical developments see Vowel systems of Scots: a rough historical outline in A History of Scots to 1700, p. lvii. Vowel 1 Old English and Old Norse ī and ȳ, Old English i+ld and y+nd, as well as Old French i became in Early Scots then in Middle Scots and subsequently conditioned by the Scottish Vowel Length Rule to when short and or when long in Modern Scots, for example: wyce (wise), wyte (blame), bide (remain), kye (cows), hive and fire from wīs, wīte, bīdan, cȳ, hȳf and fȳr. Similarly with Norse grice (pig), sile (strain), tyke (curr), lythe (shelter) and tyne (lose), and Romance advice, fine, cry, sybae (onion) but where Romance words entered Scots after this sound shift the original (Vowel 2) remained in Scots, for example bapteese (baptise), ceety (city), ceevil (civil), eetem (item), leeberal (liberal), leecence (license), meenister (minister), obleege (oblige), peety (pity), poleetical (political), poseetion, releegion (religion) and speerit (spirit). Similarly with Old French ai and ei, for example Modern Scots chyce (choice), eynment (ointment), eyster (oyster), evyte (avoid), jyne (join), ile (oil), pynt (point), syle (soil), spyle (spoil) and vyce (voice) Vowel 2