14. The great vowel shift.

The Great Vowel Shift was a major change in the pronunciation of the English language that took place in England between 1350 and 1700. The Great Vowel Shift was first studied by Otto Jespersen (1860–1943), a Danish linguist and Anglicist, who coined the term.

Because English spelling was becoming standardized in the 15th and 16th centuries, the Great Vowel Shift is responsible for many of the peculiarities of English spelling.

The main difference between the pronunciation of Middle English and Modern English is in the value of the long vowels, described as the Great Vowel Shift. Vowels of Middle English had "continental" values much like those remaining in Spanish and liturgical Latin. However, during the Great Vowel Shift, the two highest long vowels became diphthongs, and the other five underwent an increase intongue height with one of them coming to the front ([uː]).

The principal changes (with the vowels shown in IPA) are roughly as follows. However, exceptions occur, the transitions were not always complete, and there were sometimes accompanying changes in orthography:

• Middle English [aː] (ā) fronted to [æː] and then raised to [ɛː], [eː] and in many dialects diphthongized in Modern English to [eɪ] (as inmake; the [aː] in the Middle English words in question had arisen earlier from lengthening of short a in open syllables and from French loan words, rather than from original Old English ā, because the latter had in the meantime been raised to Middle English[ɔː].)

• Middle English [ɛː] raised to [eː] and then to modern English [iː] (as in beak).

• Middle English [eː] raised to Modern English [iː] (as in feet).

• Middle English [iː] diphthongized to [ɪi], which was most likely followed by [əɪ] and finally Modern English [aɪ] (as in mice).

• Middle English [ɔː] raised to [oː], and in the 18th century this became Modern English [oʊ] or [əʊ] (as in boat).

• Middle English [oː] raised to Modern English [uː] (as in boot).

• Middle English [uː] was diphthongized in most environments to [ʊu], and this was followed by [əʊ], and then Modern English [aʊ](as in mouse) in the 18th century. Before labial consonants, this shift did not occur, and [uː] remains as in soup and room (its Middle English spelling was roum).

This means that the vowel in the English word same was in Middle English pronounced [aː] (similar to modern psalm); the vowel in feetwas [eː] (similar to modern fate); the vowel in wipe was [iː] (similar to modern weep); the vowel in boot was [oː] (similar to modern boat); and the vowel in mouse was [uː] (similar to modern moose).

The effects of the shift were not entirely uniform, and differences in degree of vowel shifting can sometimes be detected in regional dialects both in written and in spoken English. In Northern English, the long back vowels remained unaffected, the long front vowelshaving undergone an earlier shift.^[6] In Scotland, Scots differed in its input to the Great Vowel Shift, the long vowels [iː], [eː] and [aː]shifted to [ei], [iː] and [eː] by the Middle Scots period, [oː] had shifted to [øː] in Early Scots and [uː] remained unaffected.