The Great Vowel Shift

The vowel shift covers roughly the XV-XVI cc. There is no unanimity among linguists as to the chronological frame of the vowel shift. Henry Sweet and Otto Jespersen think that the shift was completed only in the XVIII c., while H.C.Wyld (after studying all sorts of documents of the XV–XVI cc.: private letters, diaries, etc.) came to the conclusion that the shift was completed by the late XVI c.

As the result of the vowel shift all the long vowels became narrower (closer) and the narrowest (closest) long ones developed into diphthongs. These diphthongs were sounds of a new type, in which the first element was comparatively short and open, and the second element, representing the original sound, more clearly marked. Four diphthongs resulted from this development: [ai, ei, ou, au].

(1) ī > ai time ME [ ΄;tīmə] > NE [taim]

(2) ū > au ME mous [mūs] > NE mouse [maus]

(3) ǭ > ou ME hoom [hǭm] > NE home [houm]

(4) ā > ēi name ME [nāmə] > NE [neim]

(5) > ī: he ME [h ] > NE [hi:]

(6) > ī: ME see [s ] > NE sea [si:]

(7) > ū: tooth ME [t θ] > NE [tu:θ]

The names of some letters of the English alphabet can serve as examples of the Great Vowel Shift. Compare the names of some letters before and after the shift:

 

Before the Vowel Shift	A [a:]	E [e:]	O [o:]	I [i:]	B [be]	K [ka:]
After the Vowel Shift	A [ei]	E [i:]	O [ou]	I [ai]	B [bi:]	K [kei]

 

The spelling form did not indicate any change in pronunciation, which contributes greatly to the present discrepancy between spoken and written English.

As the result of the vowel shift there appeared no new sounds that had not existed in ME. Cf

[ei] ME wey [wei] – NE make

[i:] ME time – NE see

[ai] ME sayde – NE time

[ou] ME bowe – NE go

[u:] ME hous – NE moon

[au] ME drawen – NE house

Nevertheless, the Great Vowel Shift has left the deepest traces on the sound system of the NE period. It has changed not only separate sounds but also the whole system of vowels.

It has led to the decrease in the number of long vowels and to the complete change of their distribution, e.g. long [i:] appears in the NE word see (< ME s ), and it does not appear in the word time (< ME [ ΄;tīmə]), which becomes in NE [taim].

Some linguists (V.Plotkin in particular) attribute the Great Vowel Shift to the loss of the final [ə] in the 15 th c., which transformed disyllabic words into monosyllables. The difference between such words as ME fat [fat] and fate [ ′;fa:tə], bit [bit] and bite [ ′;bi:tə] was not sufficient. The Great Vowel Shift emphasised this difference by changing the quality of the long vowels: ME fate [ ′;fa:tə] > NE [feit], ME bite [ ′;bi:tə] > NE [bait].