7/29/2023 0 Comments Great vowel shift prove![]() His language was „the English of late-fourteenth-century London” (Smith 2005:92). One of the most significant authors during this period is Geoffrey Chaucer. The reason why there exist words such as children and child as well as dead and mead or flood and mood which are spelt the same way but have differently pronounced vowels is because is because of “sporadic shortenings” and “due to the shortening happening at different times” (Smith 2005: 129). " (ib.) Throughout the history of English, vowels did also lengthen and shorten (cf. The third and final raising shift with merger took place in the 18th century: „ was raised to and was raised to. During that shift, „ was tensed to, was tensed to, and long and short were tensed to ” (Kiparsky 1995: 23). The second shift is coined as tensing shift and took place around 1650. Here, the long vowels and were raised to and, and the other long vowels which were already in the highest position and therefore could not be raised any further, namely and, were diphthongized to and. Kiparsky (1995) refers to Dobson (1968) by dividing the GVS into three stages: First, a raising shift, taking place about 1500. According to Kiparsky (1995) the directions of vowel shifts can be generalized in that „tense vowels tend to be raised, lax vowels tend to fall, and back vowels tend to be fronted“. The drag chain theory, on the other hand, was introduced by Jesperson (1909) and implies that and first diphthongize and leave a gap which is subsequently filled by and (cf. The push chain theory was introduced by Luick (1896) and implies that and become and which consequently are pushed to diphthongize to and. „The term was first coined by Jespersen” (Fulcrand 2015: 535) and is a “systemic shift of either push chain or drag chain” (Yamada 1984: 44). The Great Vowel Shift: features and changes ![]() Additionally, works of Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare who serve as representatives for each period are being examined in order to proof the previously stated sound changes by means of English literature. This paper investigates the very basic and commonly agreed on changes of the vowel system from ME to EModE. This period can also be referred to as the change from Middle English, hereafter ME, to Early Modern English, hereafter EModE. The Great Vowel Shift terms the change of sounds of long vowels in the English language within the period from 1400 to 1700. The Great Vowel Shift: features and changesģ.2 Early Modern English vowel pronunciation
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