The Great Vowel Shift

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The Great Vowel Shift

• The Most Extensive Single Systematic Change in
  the History of English Phonology.

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Typical Description

• When Between 1400 and 1800
• What Six long vowels i, e, a, , o,
  u
• How All raised one position, the highest
  turning into dipthongs.
• Why? ????? (Answer unknown.)

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What does this mean

• The sound of Middle English words containing any
  of the long vowels i, e, a,
  , o, u changed. People changed how they
  said these words and understood the words
  according to the new way of saying them.
• Mostly, the spelling stayed the same it did not
  change with the pronunciation.

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What does this mean today?

• Consider the sentence
• My deep lake flows through town.
• The modern, shifted vowels are the vowels in this
  sentence. In the IPA (International Phonetic
  Alphabet) they are ai, i,
  e, o, u, au.

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What were they before?

• Chaucers classmates in 1350 would have spoken
  the same set of vowels as
• Me dape lock flaws throw tune.
• Compare
• My deep lake flows through town.

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Shifting the Back Vowels

• me my
• i ai
• dape deep
• e i
• lock lake
• a e

• These are called the back vowels because we
  pronounce them with our tongues away (back) from
  our teeth.
• They are raised by the Great Vowel Shift in that
  the back of the tongue moves closer to the roof
  of the mouth.

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Consequences for the Back Vowels

• When me shifts to my a dipthong is created.
  The sound begins with the vowel in lock and
  ends with the vowel in me. The IPA writes it
  ai.
• After the Great Vowel Shift, the vowel in lock
  joins the short vowelsexcept perhaps in father
  and ah! The distinction between long and short
  vowels is no longer phonemic, that is, it doesnt
  distinguish one word from another.

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Shifting the Front Vowels

• flaws flows
• o
• throw through
• o u
• tune town
• u au

• These are called the front vowels because we
  pronounce them with our tongues pressed against
  our front teeth.
• They are raised by the Great Vowel Shift in that
  the back of the tongue moves closer to the roof
  of the mouth

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Consequences for the Front Vowels

• When tune shifts to town a dipthong is
  created. The sound begins with the vowel in
  lock and ends with the vowel in tune. The IPA
  writes it au.
• After the Great Vowel Shift, the vowel in flaws
  is considered a short vowel, and the distinction
  between long and short vowels is no longer
  phonemic.

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So???

• Spelling standardized on the older form.
• Thus, PDE graphemes for vowels do not match the
  Continental values.
• This creates problems in
• Spelling later loan words
• Learning a foreign language.

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So, II

• Some areas changed reluctantly.
• W.B.Yeats is Irish John Keats is English.
• Ronald Reagan / Donald Reagan
• And what was the name of the man who first told
  us that New Jersey and You are Perfect
  Together?
• Place names and family names generally resist
  change longer than other words.

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