the later Middle English and Early Modern English eras. The timing of this process was dependent on dialect; the fricatives were still pronounced in some educated speech in the 16th century, but they had disappeared by the late 17th. Loss of the fricatives was accompanied by some compensatory lengthening or diphthongization of preceding vowels. In some cases, the velar fricative developed into ; as such the preceding vowel was shortened, and the of a diphthong was absorbed. However, the palatal fricative in no instances became . Some possible developments are illustrated below: OE niht ('night') > ME > > NE (by the Great Vowel Shift) OE hlæhhan ('to laugh') > ME > LLME > ENE > NE OE tōh ('tough') > ME > LLME > NE This variable outcome, along with other variable changes and the ambiguity of the Middle English spelling (either or in Early Middle English) accounts for the numerous pronunciations of Modern English words in -ough- (e.g. though, through, bough, rough, trough, thought, with -ough- pronounced respectively). spelled -gh- is realized as even today in some traditional dialects of northern England and more famously Scots. Some accents of northern England lack the , instead exhibiting special vowel developments in some such words; for example, night as (sounds like neat) and in the dialectal words owt and nowt (from aught and naught, pronounced like out and nout, meaning 'anything' and 'nothing'). The modern phoneme most commonly appears today in the typically Scottish word loch and in names such as Buchan. Here the is usual in Scotland, although the alternative is becoming more common among some younger speakers. The same is true in Wales, in names such as Loughor. English speakers from elsewhere may replace the in such cases with , but some use in imitation of the local pronunciations (as they may in certain foreign words such as Bach, Kharkiv, Sakhalin, chutzpah, etc.). Great Vowel Shift The Great Vowel Shift was a fundamental change in late Middle English (post-Chaucer) and Early Modern English that affected the pronunciation of all of the long vowels. The high vowels and were diphthongized, ultimately producing the modern diphthongs and , and all other vowels were raised. Diphthong loss Although not normally considered a part of the Great Vowel Shift, during the same time period most of the pre-existing Middle English diphthongs were monophthongized: > ENE > > NE > ENE > ENE