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  • Similarly with 'pronounce' and 'pronunciation' but the spelling is different too. Commented Nov 10, 2020 at 11:58
  • @WeatherVane: Pronounce - pronunciation is the result of Trisyllabic Laxing. About the spelling: It's because the digraph ⟨ou⟩ doesn't often represent the /ʌ/ vowel in Modern English, but ⟨u⟩ does. So the O has been removed for that reason. Also see profound - profundity. Commented Nov 10, 2020 at 12:05
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    I spent more than two hours on tracing their roots and reading vowel shortenings/lengthenings but to no avail. :( I'll just add a comment and hope someone will come up with a good explanation. ///// 'North' is pronounced with a short vowel /ɔ/ in AmE (correct me if i'm wrong), but in BrE, it has a long version of the /ɔ/ vowel because of the deletion of r as BrE is non-rhotic (you lengthen the vowel after the deletion of r in other words too in BrE). 'North' had a short vowel in MidEng and Old Eng too. 'Northern' too had a short vowel in both MidEng and Old Eng, it's strange. [cont...] Commented Nov 10, 2020 at 14:46
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    Both 'east' and 'eastern' had the vowel /æ͜ɑː/ in Old Eng. In Middle English, both had /ɛː/. And in ModEng, both have /iː/. /// 'Eastern' was trisyllabic in both MidEng and OE... I don't know what to make of it. I read several shortening and lengthening processes, but didn't come up with anything :( Commented Nov 10, 2020 at 14:50
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    @rjpond: Good point! lore has a long vowel because r deletion,if the r had remained, it would've been a short vowel. Law has a long vowel too perhaps because it's an open syllable, and in open syllables, vowels were lengthened at some point. /// court has long vowel because of r deletion.... the long vowel in caught, night, knight etc is the result of compensatory lengthening triggered by the deletion of /x/ which was represented by the digraph gh. I suspect the long vowel in lawn is because of the vocalisation of the w. //// in lot, we have a short vowel because it's a closed syllable :) Commented Dec 16, 2020 at 3:33