Ne Vowels The Great Vowel Shift

The Great vowel shift is the name given to a series of changes of the English long

vowels between the 14th and the 17th centuries. During this period all the long vowels

became closer or were diphthongised. The changes can be defined as independent, as they

were not caused by any apparent phonetic conditions in the syllable or in the word and

regularly affected every long vowel in any position.

The Great Vowel Shift

Change illustrated			Examples
ME	(Intermediate stage)	NE	ME	NE
I:	(ei)	ai	time ['ti:ma]	time
			finden ['fi:ndan]	find
e:		i:	kepen ['ke:pan]	keep
			field [fe:ld]	field
Ј:	(Ј:)	i:	street [strЈ:t]	street
			eest [Ј:st]	east
a:	(Ј:)	ei	maken ['ma:ken]	make
			table ['ta:ble]	table
):.	(o:)	ou	stone ['st):ne]	stone
			boot [b):t]	boat
o:		u:	moon [mo:n]	moon
			goos [go:s]	goose
u:	(ou)	au	mous [mu:s]	mouse
			founden ['fu:nden]	found

Other vowel changes of ENE period were few and insignificant:

1. short vowels were more stable then long vowels. Only two vowels underwent changes:

ME NE

[a] -> [ae]

[u] -> [Λ]-lost labial character;

2. growth of long monophthongs and diphthongs due to vocalisation of consonants:

1) short vowel + r:

o + r -> o: e.g. for [for] -> for

i + r -> Ј: first [first] -> first

e + r ->Ј: bar [bar] -> bar

u + r ->Ј:

a + r -> a:

a + r -> Ј:

2) long vowel + r:

i: + r -> ai3 e: + r -> i3 e.g. shire [j i:ra] -> shire

Ј: +r -> i3 Ј:+r -> Ј3 beer [be:r] -> beer

a: + r -> Ј3 ): + r -> ): hare ['ha:rЈ] -> hare

o: + r ->uЈ u: + r ->ЈuЈ floor [ flo:r] -> floor

flour [ flu:r] -> flower

	LOE or EME	ENE
Lengthening	before ld, nd , mb, rd, etc. in open syllables	before ss, st, nt, ft
Shortening	before other consonant clusters	before 0, d, t, k