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The values of the long vowels form the main difference between the pronunciation of Middle English and Modern English, and the Great Vowel Shift is one of the historical events marking the separation of Middle and Modern English. Originally, these vowels had "continental" values much like those remaining in liturgical Latin. However, during the Great Vowel Shift, the two highest long vowels became diphthongs, and the other five underwent an increase in tongue height and one of them came to the front.
The principal changes are roughly the following — though exceptions occur, the transitions were not always complete, and there were sometimes accompanying changes in orthography:
This means that the vowel in the English word make was originally pronounced as in modern English father, but has now become a diphthong, as it is today in standard pronunciations of British English (see Received Pronunciation); the vowel in feet was originally pronounced as a long Latin-like e sound; the vowel in mice was originally what the vowel in feet is now; the vowel in boot was originally a long Latin-like o sound; and the vowel in mouse was originally what the vowel in moose is now, but has now become a diphthong.
The Great Vowel Shift was first studied by the Danish linguist Otto JespersenOtto Jespersen is also the name of a famous Norwegian comedian. Otto Jespersen ( July 16, 1860- April 30, 1943) was a Danish linguist who specialized in the grammar of the English language. He was born in Randers in northern Jutland and attended Copenhage (1860 - 1943), who coined the term.
The shift was remarkable for how widespread it was (going through most of Europe and then Great Britain), as well as its rapidity. The effects of the shift were not entirely uniform, and differences in degree of vowel shifting can sometimes be detected in regional dialects, both in written and spoken English. The surprising speed and the exact cause of the shift are continuing mysteries in linguisticsBroadly conceived, linguistics is the study of human language, and a linguist is someone who engages in this study. The study of linguistics can be thought of along three major axes, the endpoints of which are described below: Synchronic and diachronic Sy and cultural historyCultural history at least in its common definition since the 1970s, often combines the approaches of anthropology and history to look at popular cultural traditions and cultural interpretations of historical experience. Most often the focus is on phenomen.
Because English spelling was becoming standardized in the 15th and 16th centuries, the Great Vowel Shift is responsible for many of the peculiarities of English spellingEnglish spelling (or orthography), although largely phonemic, has more complicated rules than many other spelling systems used by languages written in alphabetic scripts. The English language contains many inconsistencies between spelling and pronunciatio. Spellings that made sense according to Middle English pronunciation were retained in Modern English.
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