Great Vowel Shift: Difference between revisions

[[File:Great Vowel Shift2b.svg|thumb|Diagram of the changes in English vowels during the Great Vowel Shift]]

The '''Great Vowel Shift''' was a series of [[English phonology|pronunciation]] changes in the vowels of the English language that took place primarily between the 1400s and 1600s<ref>{{citation |last=Wells |first=John C. |author-link=John C. Wells |title=Accents of English: Volume 1 |location=[[Cambridge]] |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=1982 |isbn=0-521-22919-7 |pages=184–8}}.</ref> (the transition period from [[Middle English]] to [[Early Modern English]]), beginning in southern England and today having influenced effectively all dialects of English. Through this massive [[vowel shift]], the pronunciation of all Middle English [[Vowel length|long vowels]] altered. Some consonant sounds also changed, specifically becoming silent; the term ''Great Vowel Shift'' is occasionally used to include these consonantal changes.<ref>{{cite book |last=Stockwell |first=Robert |editor1-last=Minkova |editor1-first=Donka |editor2-last=Stockwell |editor2-first=Robert |title=Studies in the History of the English Language: A Millennial Perspective |year=2002 |isbn=3-11-017368-9 |chapter=How Much Shifting Actually Occurred in the Historical English Vowel Shift? |publisher=Mouton de Gruyter |chapter-url=http://www.ling.ohio-state.edu/~ddurian/AWAC/Stockwell%202002.pdf |access-date=2015-07-21 |archive-date=2015-09-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905235250/http://www.ling.ohio-state.edu/~ddurian/AWAC/Stockwell%202002.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Wyld |first=H. C. |title=A Short History of English |orig-year=1914 |year=1957}}</ref>

The standardization of English spelling began in the 15th and 16th centuries; the Great Vowel Shift is the major reason English spellings now often deviate considerably from how they [[Phonemic orthography|represent pronunciations]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Denham |first1=Kristin |author1-link=Kristin Denham |last2=Lobeck |author2-link=Anne Lobeck |first2=Anne |title=Linguistics for Everyone: An Introduction |publisher=Cengage Learning |year=2009 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n0KVSvqvZKYC&pg=PA89 |page=89|isbn=9781413015898 }}</ref>  

Notable early researchers of the Great Vowel Shift include [[Alexander John Ellis|Alexander J. Ellis]], in ''On Early English Pronunciation, with Especial Reference to Shakspere and Chaucer'' (1869–1889); [[Henry Sweet]], in ''A History of English Sounds'' (1874, revised edition 1888); [[Karl Luick]] from Vienna, in a series of works dating from 1892 and ''Untersuchungen zur englischen Lautgeschichte'' (1896); and [[Otto Jespersen]] (a [[Denmark|Danish]] [[Linguistics|linguist]] and [[English studies|Anglicist]]) who first produced a diagram for it and who in Part&nbsp;I (1909) of ''[[A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles]]'' coined the term.{{refn|group=nb|Jespersen writes "the great vowel-shift": with a hyphen, and not capitalized. {{Cite book | first=Otto | last=Jespersen | authorlink=Otto Jespersen | title=[[A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles]]. Part 1: Sounds and Spellings | location=London | publisher=George Allen & Unwin | year=1961 | orig-date=1909 | pages=231–247}}}}<ref>{{Cite journal | title=The rise and fall of the Great Vowel Shift? The changing ideological intersections of philology, historical linguistics, and literary history | first=Matthew | last=Giancarlo | journal=Representations | volume=76 | number=1 | date=Fall 2001 | jstor=10.1525/rep.2001.76.1.27 | pages=38–39| doi=10.1525/rep.2001.76.1.27 }}</ref>

The main difference between the pronunciation of [[Middle English]] in the year 1400 and [[Modern English]] ([[Received Pronunciation]]) is in the value of the [[Vowel length|long vowels]].

Long vowels in Middle English had "[[Continental Europe|continental]]" values, much like those in [[Italian phonology#Vowels|Italian]] and [[Standard German phonology#Vowels|Standard German]]; in standard Modern English, they have entirely different pronunciations.{{Sfn|Lass|2000|p=72}} The differing pronunciations of English vowel letters do not stem from the Great Shift as such but rather because English spelling did not adapt to the changes.

[[German language|German]] had undergone vowel changes quite similar to the Great Shift slightly earlier. Still, the spelling was changed accordingly (e.g., [[Middle High German]] {{lang|gmh|bīzen}} → modern German {{lang|de|beißen}} "to bite").

| [iː] || [aɪ]

| [eː] || rowspan="3" | [iː]

| rowspan="2" | [ɛː]

!ser''e''ne

| [aː]|| [eɪ]

| [uː]|| [aʊ]

| [oː]|| [uː]

| rowspan="2" | [ɔː]

| rowspan="2" | [oʊ]

!st''o''ne

| rowspan="2" | [æɪ] || rowspan="2" | [eɪ]

!boy

|[ɔɪ]

| rowspan="2" | [ɔɪ]

!point

|[ʊɪ]

| [ɑʊ]|| [ɔː]

| [eʊ]|| rowspan="2" | [juː]

| [ɛʊ]

| [ɔʊ]|| [oʊ]

This timeline uses representative words to show the main vowel changes between late Middle English in the year 1400 and [[Received Pronunciation]] in the mid-20th century. The Great Vowel Shift occurred in the lower half of the table, between 1400 and 1600–1700.

 

[[Image:Great Vowel Shift.svg|700px]]

The Great Vowel Shift changed vowels without [[Sound merger|merger]], so Middle English before the vowel shift had the same number of vowel [[phoneme]]s as Early Modern English after the vowel shift.

The first phase of the Great Vowel Shift affected the Middle English close-mid vowels {{IPA|/eː oː/}}, as in ''beet'' and ''boot'', and the close vowels {{IPA|/iː uː/}}, as in ''bite'' and ''out''. The close-mid vowels {{IPA|/eː oː/}} became close {{IPA|/iː uː/}}, and the close vowels {{IPA|/iː uː/}} became diphthongs. The first phase was completed in 1500, meaning that by that time, words like ''beet'' and ''boot'' had lost their Middle English pronunciation and were pronounced with the same vowels as in Modern English. The words ''bite'' and ''out'' were pronounced with diphthongs, but not the same diphthongs as in Modern English.{{sfn|Lass|2000|pp=80–83}}

Scholars agree that the Middle English close vowels {{IPA|/iː uː/}} became diphthongs around 1500, but disagree about what diphthongs they changed to. According to Lass, the words ''bite'' and ''out'' after diphthongisation were pronounced as {{IPA|/beit/}} and {{IPA|/out/}}, similar to American English ''bait'' {{IPA|/beɪt/}} and ''oat'' {{IPA|/oʊt/}}. Later, the diphthongs {{IPA|/ei ou/}} shifted to {{IPA|/ɛi ɔu/}}, then {{IPA|/əi əu/}}, and finally to Modern English {{IPA|/aɪ aʊ/}}.{{sfn|Lass|2000|pp=80–83}} This sequence of events is supported by the testimony of [[orthoepy|orthoepists]] before Hodges<!-- Need to get a first name --> in 1644.

In Northern and Southern English, the first step of the Great Vowel Shift raised the close-mid vowels to become close. Northern Middle English had two close-mid vowels – {{IPA|/eː/}} in ''feet'' and {{IPA|/øː/}} in ''boot'' – which were raised to {{IPA|/iː/}} and {{IPA|/yː/}}. Later on{{when|date=September 2024}}, Northern English {{IPA|/yː/}} changed to {{IPA|/iː/}} in many dialects (though not in all, see {{slink|Phonological history of Scots|Vowel 7}}), so that ''boot'' has the same vowel as ''feet''. Southern Middle English had two close-mid vowels – {{IPA|/eː/}} in ''feet'' and {{IPA|/oː/}} in ''boot'' – which were raised to {{IPA|/iː/}} and {{IPA|/uː/}}.