The non-front main-stressed vowels in Early Old Nordic – a reconstruction

The comparative data testifies to an Early Old Nordic three-way contrast between short labialised vowels of different origin. From these contrasts, the distribution of non-front vowels in both Old Icelandic and eastern Old Swedish are most economically derived. Nearly always, the 3 vowels merged in Old Icelandic /ǫ/. In eOSw the contrasts among vowels resulting in the ø, o, o/u and a, all from distinct labial-umlauted vowels originated from earlier */a/, calls for explanation.