But you obviously haven't read, for example, Ben Jonson's English Grammar (1616), who says, in his description of letter 'o', 'In the short time more flat, and

But you obviously haven't read, for example, Ben Jonson's English Grammar (1616), who says, in his description of letter 'o', 'In the short time more flat, and akin to u; as... brother, love, prove', indicating that prove was pronounced like love, not the other way round. I suggest you do bit more reading.