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

Question

Answer

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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