The Great Vowel Shift occurred in 15th-century England, changing the pronunciation of long vowels. The reasons for the shift are unknown, but theories suggest French influence or influential people with speech impediments. The shift was not uniform and occurred over time, resulting in many exceptions to spelling rules. The shift is considered the ancestor of modern English pronunciation.
The Great Vowel Shift refers to the 15th-century change in the pronunciation of long vowels in England. After this event, the pronunciation of the vowels moved up one place. So, for example, the “i” in Middle English had a long “e” sound, as in the word “sweet.” Later, the long “i” sound was pronounced as it is now, as in the word “night.”
The reasons for this change are a bit of a mystery and linguists have not been able to explain why. It was first identified and studied by Otto Jesperson, a Danish linguist, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Most linguists agree that the Great Speech Shift didn’t happen all at once, which explains the creative spellings of many English words. Some printers may still have employed earlier vocal pronunciation when spelling, making English one of the more difficult languages to write, because there are so many exceptions to spelling rules.
Some linguists explain the change by suggesting that French domination of England led to disenchantment with the French pronunciation of vowels, which is a pronunciation similar to that of Middle English. To distance themselves from the previous French occupation and rule, the English ruling class may have deliberately changed the way vowels were pronounced to reflect that theirs was a different language. This then filtered down to the lower classes.
Another theory is that England may have had several influential people with speech impediments, and such mispronunciations may have been copied in deference to someone of high enough rank. This theory isn’t held by many, but it shows that linguists attempt to consider all possible explanations for the change. Theories regarding the Large Vowel Shift are mere guesswork, but most linguists tend to the former theory.
The key pronunciation features of the Great Vowel Shift are as follows:
Middle English (ME) “a” is pronounced like “a” in “father”. Modern English (EME) pronounces the long “a” as in “gate”.
ME pronounces the long “e” like the long “a” in “gate”. EME pronounces the “e” as long as the “e” in “tweet”.
ME pronounces the “i” as long as the “e” in “tweet”. EME pronounces the “i” as long as the “i” in “light”.
ME pronounces the “o” long like the “o” in “tool”. EME pronounces the long “o” like the “o” in “goal”.
ME scholars suggest that there is no higher long “u” pronunciation. The “ou” as in the current “day”, would have given the sound “ow”, as in the word “louse”. EME pronounces the “u” long “o” in ME. The long “u” pronunciation in EME is like the long “o” in “tool” or the long “u” in “lute”.
There are of course pronunciation exceptions, such as the words “instrument” and “lute”. The reason words with the same core sound are spelled differently suggests that the Great Vowel Shift was certainly not uniform and occurred over time. In theory, “tool” could reasonably be written “tule”, as well as “mule”. Whatever the theory, linguists see the change as the ancestor of modern English pronunciation, and also because English speakers spell so many words in ways that make little sense phonetically.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
