History of English Cont Great Vowel shift and general language change

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History of English (Cont)Great Vowel shift and
general language change

• class 26
• LING 2301 11-20-08

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Some changes in history of English

• Handout
• Vowel inventory, length
• Think about how insane modern English is
• hat hate
• OE made sense
• Single syllable, closed syllable vowel has
  tendency to be short
• 2 syllables, open tend to be longer
• Or ME name (2 syllables, Chaucer 1 Shakespeare)

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OE Vowel Inventory (7 basic)
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Length as a contrasting feature

• in OE each vowel had two versions
• short and long
• Difference was an important contrast as it may
  have been the only reason two words were
  different
• short vowels
• ak but god God ye and
• Long vowels
• ak oak (tree) god good ye you
• spelled oak good ye

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Vowel Shift (in 1500s)

• Beginning in the15th century (and largely
  finished by the late 16th or early 17th century)
  the pronunciations of long vowels started
  changing in a complicated but systematic way.
  The long vowels began to shorten.
• Each long vowel moved UP one slot, while the
  two highest vowels i and u were lowered
  through the central segment of the vowel
  trapezoid and were changed into diphthongs. The
  short vowels DID NOT shift.

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Great Vowel Shift cont.

• One theory is that the long high front vowel i
  and the long high back vowel u began to
  develop slurred pronunciations in some
  phonological context. Thus causing them to start
  moving towards the center of the vowel space.
• With this opening other long vowels began to
  shift as well. The second stage may have been
  mid vowels moving into those open spaces.
• e ? i and o ? u
• In the next stage the next lower long vowels
  shifted up as well.

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Great Vowel Shift cont.

• This type of shift is know as a chain shift.
• Each non-high vowel rises one height, and the
  high vowels w/ cannot rise any more become
  diphthongs
• Chain aspect is the systematic interconnection
  
• does not imply chronological order but rather
  that there is a system-wide movement

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Great Vowel Shift cont.

• Another theory argues that the GVS was a Mixture
  of a Push Chain and a Drag Chain where the mid
  vowels started rising which pushed the high
  vowels in to diphthongs with more central vowels
  and then pulled lower vowels up with them.

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Great Vowel Shift cont.

• Examples
• ME 1550(?) 1600(?)
• bite i ei ai
• beet e i i
• mate a a e
• out u ou au
• boot o u u
• boat ? o o

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Great Vowel Shift cont.
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Great Vowel Shift cont.

• Thus
• a (as in ak oak ) ? o as in oak
• o (as in god good) ? u as in who
• e (as in ye you) ? i in tree

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Great Vowel Shift cont.

• While it is possibly interesting to speculate HOW
  the GVS happened it is not necessarily as useful
  to explain WHY it happened.
• it is possible that there was sufficient
  variation of possible forms and some evidence of
  different dialects around London in early 1500s.
  such that vowels in words like meat meet began
  merging.

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EME Changes in Vowels

• Unstressed vowels were reduced to ? or ? in
  ME and continued in EME
• http//facweb.furman.edu/mmenzer/gvs/seehear.htm
  
• http//facweb.furman.edu/mmenzer/gvs/what.htm
• http//courses.fas.harvard.edu/7Echaucer/vowels.h
  tml
• See handout Fennell p 158-161
• (push chain / pull chain)
• Clark Language p 250, 337

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Silent e forms

• was previously a sound like that in the modern
  sounds of may mud
• you may have heard the phrase
• Blessed are the peacemakers as blessed
• or
• Dearly beloved as beloved

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Lexical Change

• An final important type of language change is
  that of Language-internal change
• For instance consider the following words and
  their earlier meaning
• tægl rear appendage of a horse
• mill place of manufacturing by grinding
• do?g a mastiff
• What do tail, mill, dog mean now?
• What has happened to them?
• widening (generalization)

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Lexical Change

• Furthermore consider these words and their
  earlier meaning
• meat food
• steorfan to die
• hund dog
• What do meat, starve, hound mean now?
• What has happened to them?
• narrowing (more specific specialized)

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Lexical Change

• Finally consider these words and their earlier
  meaning
• bead prayer
• gay to be happy or carefree
• quick alive
• What do bead, gay, quick mean now?
• What has happened to them?
• shift (changed context)

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Introduction to the OED

• The OED is the Oxford English Dictionary.
• The OED is an authoritative resource on the
  evolution of the English language over the last
  millennium. Provides information on the meaning,
  history, and pronunciation of words
• Lets look for a minute at the word nice
• http//libproxy.uta.edu2213/cgi/entry/00324202?qu
  ery_typewordquerywordnicefirst1max_to_show1
  0sort_typealpharesult_place3search_ideN4E-W4
  Qqgz-13876hilite00324202

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Introduction to the OED

• Lets look for a minute at the word nice
• A. adj.
•    1. a. Of a person foolish, silly, simple
  ignorant. Obs.
• c1300 St. Mary Magdalen (Laud) 493 in C.
  Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 476 Bote
  ich e seide hou heo heold mi lif, for-so e ich
  were nice.
• a1375 William of Palerne 491 Ich am vn-wis
  wonderliche nyce. c1400 (?a1300) King Alexander
  (Laud 622) 652 He dude e childe habbe noryce,
  Gentil leuedyes and nou th nyce.
• a1450 (c1410) H. LOVELICH Hist. Holy Grail xlii.
  73 They seiden he was a fool..and that they sien
  neuere so Nise A man.
• a1500 (c1477) T. NORTON Ordinal of Alchemy (BL
  Add.) 50 He that is not a grete clerke Is nyse
  lewde to medle with that werke.
• ?1567 M. PARKER Whole Psalter xlix. 141 As well
  the wyse as mad and nyse, to others leave theyr
  port.
• 1568 (?a1513) W. DUNBAR Poems (1998) 78 Quha that
  dois deidis of petie..Is haldin a fule, and that
  full nyce.
• 1617 in W. B. Armstrong Bruces of Airth (1892) 51
  Many a nyse wyfe and a back doore Oft maketh a
  riche man poore.

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Introduction to the OED

• Lets look for a minute at the word nice
• A. adj.
• 3. a. d. Refined, cultured associated with
  polite society.
• 1588 T. HARIOT Briefe Rep. Virginia sig. A4v,
  Some also were of a nice bringing vp, only in
  cities or townes, or such as neuer (as I may say)
  had seene the world before.
• 1603 S. DANIEL Panegyrike sig. H2v, Eloquence and
  gay wordes are..but the garnish of a nice time,
  the Ornaments that doe but decke the house of a
  State.
• 1697 J. VANBRUGH Relapse I. 15 The Lards I
  commonly eat with, are People of a nice
  Conversation. 1792 R. BURNS in J. Johnson Scots
  Musical Museum IV. 341 O' nice education but sma'
  is her share.
• 1794 A. RADCLIFFE Mysteries of Udolpho I. i. 14
  As conversation awakened the nicer emotions of
  her mind, that threw such a captivating grace
  around her.
• 1818 SHELLEY Julian Maddalo 536 As we could
  guess From his nice habits and his gentleness.
• 1874 G. ELIOT in Macmillan's Mag. July 162
  Truce, I beg! Said Osric, with nice accent.
• 1918 W. CATHER My Ántonia I. xvii. 143 Heavy
  field work'll spoil that girl. She'll lose all
  her nice ways and get rough ones.
• 1981 Cook's Mag. Nov.-Dec. 46/1 Trash fish. (A
  nicer phrase is underutilized speciesthe fish
  that fishermen toss back into the sea).