THE GREAT VOWEL SHIFT (GVS)

 

The transition from Mid.E. to New E. is marked by a striking series of sound changes which are difficult to date with any great degree of exactness. The most striking of them, the so-called Great Vowel Shift (GVS), is among the earliest changes probably going back to the 15thc. The exact chronological boundaries of the shift are questionable. The change was evidently gradual with divergences in different dialects. It probably began in the XVth century and was going on up to 17 – 18 c.

The GVS touched all the long vowels, in the result of which all the Mid. E. long vowels acquired a new quality.

The change consisted in the narrowing of the long vowels: open (low) vowels became half-open (mid) vowels, half-open (mid) vowels changed into half- closed (high). As to the narrowest vowels i and u,they changed into diphthongs. In separate changes of long vowels according to the shift a general tendency to narrowing is disclosed, this being the result of a more tense pronunciation of stressed long vowels just at the beginning of the New English period, the latter was probably due to the loss of unstressed vowels. At the close of the Mid.E. period the following long vowels were to be found.:

 

i u

e o

e o

o

In the result of the shift this system completely changed and a new system of long vowels (simple and complex) developed. The shift may be illustrated by the following scheme:

 

i u

 

e o o

o

e o o

 

As it may easily be seen from the scheme, two periods (stages) may be distinguished in the GVSH: at first a successive narrowing of all the long vowels takes place due to which each vowel is raised to a next higher stage, as if forcing the next vowel and taking its position. Mid. E. o (tending to) e, displacing Mid. E. e which in its turn is narrowed into e. After the first general narrowing of all the long vowels which took place in the 15thc later, in the 16 – 17 c.c. new changes took place which led to a new narrowing or diphthongization. Thus the new e Mid. E. e is again narrowed in the 17thc due to which it fuses with the Mid. E. e, the latter having changed into i already in the 15th century.

In the same way the new e Mid. E. o further changed into ei and o Mid. E. o changed into ou

Thus, in the result of the GVS instead of the Mid. E. system of long vowels the following system of long vowels developed in New E.

 

I u

Ei ou

Ai au

The following examples illustrate changes caused by the GVS:

1. Mid. E. like > New E. laik

time > New E. taim

rise > New E. raiz

side > New E. said

child > New E. t aild

kind > New E. kaind

2. Mid. E.meten > New E. mi: t

slepen > New E. sli:p

ken > New E. ki:n

feld > New E. fi:ld

chef > New E. t i:f

receve > New E. risi:v

seze > New E. si:z

se > New E. si:

3. Mid. E. bet > New E. bi:t

clen > New E. kli:n

spek > New E. spi:k

led > New E. li:d

se > New E. si:

4. Mid. E. hus > New E. hauz

nun > New E. naun

hu > New E. hau

dun > New E. daun

5. Mid. E. tol > New E. tu:l

mon > New E. mu:n

fol > New E. fu:l

fod > New E. fu:d

do > New E. du

6. Mid. E. take(n) > New E. teik

name > New E. neim

grave > New E. greiv

same > New E. seim

7. Mid. E. bot > New E. bout

lod.> New E. loud

mon > New E. moun

go > New E. gou

sto n > New E. stoun

1) The GVS led to radical changes in the system of long vowels in English. The changes however did not find their reflection in English orthography as by the time the shift took place the English spelling had already been fixed and stabilized. This resulted in the fact that in English 2) a considerable divergence of spelling and pronunciation is observed. Modern spelling reflects as a rule the Mid. E. pronunciation, whereas the new pronunciation is based on the phonetic standard of Modern English.

3) Due to the GVS vowel letters of the Latin alphabet acquired a new phonetic designation – each of the letters came to have double pronunciation designating two sounds of different quality: i – i and ai; e - e and i:; a - o and ei; etc. As a consequence of this the old rules of the alphabet got loose and the whole system of the Latin script was broken.

4) The GVS also touched the names of letters of the English alphabet: a > ei; be > bi:; ce > si: etc.

5) Due to the GVS new diphthongs appeared in English which differed basically from the Old English ones: in the Old English diphthongs the second element was a vowel of the same level or lower level than the first element (eo, ǽa, io, ie). In the New English diphthongs the second element is a vowel of a higher level than the first.