The Great Vowel Shift

1. What is the Great Vowel Shift and why did it happen?
2. What is the Great Vowel Shift with examples?
3. What is meant by the Great Vowel Shift?
4. Who started the Great Vowel Shift?
5. How do we know the Great Vowel Shift happened?
6. Why is Great Vowel Shift great?
7. How many steps are in the Great Vowel Shift?
8. How do vowel shifts happen?
9. Why Middle English was called a period of great change?
10. Where is RP spoken?
11. Why do vowel shift happen?
12. What do you think is causing the Great Northern Vowel Shift?
13. What were the consequences of the Great Vowel Shift?
14. Why do singers change vowels?

What is the Great Vowel Shift and why did it happen?

The Great Vowel Shift was a massive sound change affecting the long vowels of English during the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries. Basically, the long vowels shifted upwards; that is, a vowel that used to be pronounced in one place in the mouth would be pronounced in a different place, higher up in the mouth.

What is the Great Vowel Shift with examples?

The vowels occurred in, for example, the words bite, meet, meat, mate, boat, boot, and out, respectively. The words had very different pronunciations in Middle English from their pronunciations in Modern English. Long i in bite was pronounced as /iː/ so Middle English bite sounded like Modern English beet /biːt/.

What is meant by the Great Vowel Shift?

: a change in pronunciation of the long vowels of Middle English that began in the 15th century and continued into the 16th century in which the high vowels were diphthongized and the other vowels were raised.

Who started the Great Vowel Shift?

In the early 20th century, Danish linguist Otto Jespersen (1860 – 1943) coined the term “The Great Vowel Shift” to describe the move from Middle to Modern English.

How do we know the Great Vowel Shift happened?

A geographic examination of Survey of English Dialects data provides evidence in favor of a push-chain analysis of the Great Vowel Shift, in which the Middle English high-mid long vowels raised before the high long vowels were diphthongized.

Why is Great Vowel Shift great?

"One of the primary reasons that this vowel shift has become known as the 'Great' Vowel Shift is that it profoundly affected English phonology, and these changes coincided with the introduction of the printing press: William Caxton brought the first mechanized printing press to England in 1476.

How many steps are in the Great Vowel Shift?

Now, the Great Vowel Shift happened in 7 stages; again, not all stages happened everywhere simultaneously, and you'll be forgiven for thinking that it hasn't happened at all for some parts of the country.

How do vowel shifts happen?

If you're just joining us, a vowel shift happens when the vowel sounds of a particular accent (or language) move from one part of the vowel space to another. It's best to look at an example: In Chicago and other Great Lakes cities, the vowel in pot moves toward the vowel in pat.

Why Middle English was called a period of great change?

111. Middle English a Period of Great Change.

The Middle English period (1150–1500) was marked by momentous changes in the English language, changes more extensive and fundamental than those that have taken place at any time before or since.

Where is RP spoken?

The abbreviation RP (Received Pronunciation) denotes what is traditionally considered the standard accent of people living in London and the southeast of England and of other people elsewhere who speak in this way. RP is the only British accent that has no specific geographical correlate: it is not…

Why do vowel shift happen?

No one knows for certain what caused the Great Vowel Shift, but it's because of these changes during this period that English has so many strange pronunciations. Students who have difficulty pronouncing English words today can blame people who lived in England in the Middle Ages!

What do you think is causing the Great Northern Vowel Shift?

This is called a chain shift, and it stems from a fundamental problem with short vowel sounds: Too many of them occupy too little phonological space, so they constantly jostle to defend their linguistic turf. As a result, a change in one vowel sound can force the rotation of some—or even all—of the others.

What were the consequences of the Great Vowel Shift?

All the long vowels came to be pronounced with a greater elevation of the tongue and closing of the mouth. The effect of the shift was that vowels were either raised or became diphthongs.

Why do singers change vowels?

Vowel modification is simply: changing a vowel sound to make it easier to sing AND improve the tone quality.