The surface sounds of Chaucerian Middle English (whether allophones or phonemes) are shown in the tables below.
Consonants[]
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | (ŋ) | ||||
| Stop | p b | t d | t͡ʃ d͡ʒ | k ɡ | |||
| Fricative | f v | θ ð | s z | ʃ | (ç) | (x) | h |
| Approximant | r[1] | j | w | ||||
| Lateral | l |
1. The exact nature of Middle English r is unknown. It may have been an alveolar approximant [ɹ], as in most Modern English accents, an alveolar tap [ɾ] or an alveolar trill [r]. This article uses ⟨r⟩ indiscriminately.
Vowels[]
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | unrounded | rounded | |
| Close | i iː | (y yː) | u uː | |
| Close-mid | e eː | (ø øː) | (ə) | o oː |
| Open-mid | ɛː | (œː) | ɔː | |
| Open | a aː | |||