Open Syllable Lengthening Before /T/ and /K/ in the Language of Cursor Mundi--the Evidence from Rhyme Vowels‪.‬

ABSTRACT Since Open Syllable Lengthening was a Middle English change, there is nothing particularly surprising in the fact that the results of its operation are visible in Cursor Mundi, itself a Middle English text. This paper argues, however, that it may have been possible for certain vowels to "opt out" of the process, provided they found themselves immediately before an alveolar or a velar fortis stop. That those vowels were Middle English /e/ and /a/, follows from the evidence offered by the rhymes.