THE PHENOMENON AND INTERPRETATION OF

THE GREAT VOWEL SHIFT

THE GREAT VOWEL SHIFT

The Great Vowel Shift refers to the major

change in the pronunciation of vowels
took place in England between 1400- 1700.

Оtto Harry Jespersen

a Danish linguist was the first to study this
phenomenon in detail. He coined the term
the Great Vowel Shift
CAUSES

Population migration
French loan words
Middle class hypercorrection
War with France
 LONG VOWELS

The changes affected the 7 vowels in the language .

All the long vowels became closer or were diphthongised.
 THE GREAT VOWEL SHIFT

Change illustrated Examples

ME (Intermediate NE
ME NE
stage)
i:   ai time ['ti:mə] time
      finden ['fi:ndən] find
e:   i: kepen ['ke:pən] keep
      field ['fe:ld] field
ɛ: e: i: street [strɛ:t] street
      east [ɛ:st] east
      stelen ['stɛ:iən] steal
a:   ei maken ['ma:kən] make
      table ['ta:blə] table
ɔ: o: ou stone ['stɔ:n] stone
      open ['ɔ:pən] open
      soo [sɔ:] so
o:   u: moon [mo:n] moon
      goos [go:s] goose
u:   au mous [mu:s] mouse
      founden ['fu:ndən] found
      now [nu:] now
THE EIGHT STEPS BY OTTO HARRY JESPERSEN
 EXCEPTIONS

 ea [ɛ :] >[e:] did not take the step to[i:] , such as great, break, steak, swear, and bear
 influence of following [r]:

 [i:] but [iə] steep but steer

 [u:] but [uə] moon but moor
 [ai] but [aiə] time but tire
 [au] but [auə] house but hour
 long [e:] turned into short [e] before [d], [t], [n], [v], [θ]: : dead, head, threat, wealth
 /o:/ -> /U/ room (ME roum)
 Vowels in the words borrowed later remained unchanged: police,machine, group
SOME INTERPRETATIONS OF THE GREAT VOWEL SHIFT

Drag-chain theory (Jespersen) Push-chain (Luick). The changes started

ME [I:], [u:] at open vowels every step pushed
diphthongized first and the mid vowels [e:], [o:] the adjoining vowel away to avoid
moved up into their vacate positions dragging coincidence the lower ones moved up
after them selves their neighbors into their slots

Push chain: stage 1  Push chain: stage 2

THANK YOU FOR ATTENTION!