I'm wondering what some possible catalysts/ reasons for loss of final -e /ǝ/
in Middle English might have been (For instance, OE /tɑlu/
> ME /taːlǝ/
> MnE tale /teɪl/
).
I'm wondering because to my knowledge, all other Germanic languages have retained final shwa as part of their inflectional system (Dutch "een klein meisje, het kleine meisje").
I'm interested in social as well as linguistic factors.
tale
istaal
today.