i-mutation and its traces in Modern E

Palatal Mutation/i-Umlaut
Mutation – a change of one vowel to another one under the influence of a vowel in the following syllable.
Palatal mutation (or i-Umlaut) happened in the 6th -7th c. and was shared by all Old Germanic Languages, except Gothic (that’s why later it will be used for comparison).
 Palatal mutation – fronting and raising of vowels under the influence of [i] and [j] in the following syllable (to approach the articulation of these two sounds). As a result of palatal mutation:
• [i] and [j] disappeared in the following syllable sometimes leading to the doubling of a consonant in this syllable;
• new vowels appeared in OE ([ie, y]) as a result of merging and splitting:
before palatal mutation after palatal mutation Gothic OE
a ;
o ;
; ;
e badi bedd (bed)
a: ; ;: dails d;lan (deal)
;/; ; ;/; m;tjan m;tan (meet)
;/; ; ;/; (labialised) (new!) fulljan fyllan (fill)
;;/;; ;
;;/;; ; ;;/;; (new!) eald (early OE) ieldra (late OE)
Traces of i-Umlaut in Modern English:
4. irregular Plural of nouns (man – men; tooth – teeth);
5. irregular verbs and adjectives (told ;tell; sold ;sell; old – elder);
6. word-formation with sound interchange (long – length; blood – bleed).