Why was the letter ‘u’ replaced with ‘o’ in certain Middle English words like “monk” (originally “munk”) and “love” (originally “lufu”)?

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French scribes preferred the letter 'o' because it was easier to write quickly with quill pens on parchment.

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The change reflected a genuine phonetic shift in Middle English where the [u] sound merged with [o] in unstressed syllables.

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The sound [u] had evolved into [o] in these words due to the influence of Norman French pronunciation patterns.

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Too many vertical strokes in succession (as in m, n, u, i) created reading difficulties in handwritten manuscripts, so ‘o’ replaced ‘u’ for aesthetic clarity while pronunciation remained unchanged.

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Why was the letter ‘u’ replaced with ‘o’ in certain Middle English words like “m...

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