NE Phonetic Changes: the Great Vowel Shif

The Great Vowel Shift is the major event in the historical development of English vowels. The Great Vowel Shift involved the change of all ME long monophthongs and some of the diphthongs.

The Great Vowel Shift is the series of changes of vowels between the 14-th and 18-th centuries. All long vowels became closer or were diphthongized.

These changes can be called “independent” because they were not caused by definite phonetic conditions in the syllable or in the word. These changes affected regularly every stressed long vowel in any position.

The Great Vowel Shift

Thus the essence of the shift is the narrowing of all the long vowels and diphthongization of the narrow long ones.

The Great Vowel Shift was not followed by any regular spelling changes which contribute greatly to the present discrepancy between the spoken and written English.

During the shift even the names of some English letters were changed.

ME a / R/ e /e:/
NE /eI/ /J/

ME o / o:/ i /J/
NE /EV/ /QI/

The Great Vowel Shift didn’t add any new sounds to the vowel system. But it was the most profound and comprehensive change in the history of English vowels:

every long vowel and some diphthongs were “shifted” and the pronunciation of all the words with these sounds changed

Changes of Short Vowels in Early NE
The short vowels were more stable than the long vowels. Only two short vowels (out of 5) underwent certain changes. These are /a/ and /u/

ME /a/ normally changed into /x/
ME cat /kat/ - NE cat /kxt/
ME glad /glQd/ - NE glad /glxd/
ME man /man/ - NE man /mxn/

After /w/ sound /a/ was rounded and coincided with /O/
OE wxs > ME was > NE was /wOz/

Short /V/ was delabialized in the 17-th century and it developed into a new sound /A/
e.g. cup, son, sun, up

The same sound is observed in “blood, flood, mother” in which /H/ was shortened (before the 17-th century).
ME blod > NE /blHd/ > /blud/ > /blAd/

A preceding labial consonant usually presented the delabialization of /u/ as in: full, pull, bull.

Diphthongs
ME diphthongs /aI/ and /eI/ were gradually levelled under /eI/, the spelling was ay/ai
ME day – NE day
ME wey – NE way
ME seil – NE sail

ME /aV/ was monophthongised and became /L/ as in “paw, law, cause, pause". ME /eV/ > /IV/ which soon became /jH/ as in “new, dew, view”.

The sound /u/ in French loan-words was usually replaced by /Iu/, later /jH/. This is the reason why letter u is called /jH/, the letter q - /kjH/.

Consonants
One of the most important changes of the 15-th century was the voicing of /f/, /s/, /T/, /C/ and /ks/ in weakly stressed words and syllables.

This phenomenon is somewhat similar to that discovered by K. Verner in the old Germanic languages.

ME /f/ > /v/ “of”, active (ME actif)
ME /s/ > /z/ is, his, comes
ME /T/ > /D/ with, the, they

ME /C/ > /G/ knowledge
(ME knowlenche), Greenwich /'grInIG/
ME /ks/ > /gz/ examine, exhibit, exact

ME /x/ (written as gh) has either been lost (mostly before /t/) or it has changed to /f/ (mostly when final)

ME daughter /daVxtqr/ - E /dLtq/
eight /eixt/ - E / eit/
ME laugh /laVx/ > /laVf/ > /lRf/

Short /I/ preceding /x/ was usually lengthened when the latter was lost
ME night /nIxt/ > /nJt/ > /naIt/

Final /b/ has been lost after /m/: climb, dumb, comb

Final /ng/ has been reduced to /N/
ME thing /Ting/ > NE /TIN/

Initial /k/ or /g/ before /n/ and /w/ before /r/ has been lost: knife, wrong

In the 15-th century /d/ before /r/ often changed into /D/:
ME fader > E father
ME weder > E weather

New sibilants developed in the 17-th century from the combinations
s sj > S
z + j zj > Z
t tj > S
d dj > G