...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 Italian and 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 with one of them coming to the front. Read full entry
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- 1.Great Vowel Shift - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- The Great Vowel Shift was a major change in the pronunciation of the English ... Great Vowel Shift · short A · low back vowels · high back vowels · high front ...
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G
reat_vowel_shift
- 2.Great Vowel Shift: Definition from Answers.com
- Great Vowel Shift n. A series of phonetic changes occurring in Early Modern English in which the Middle English low and mid long vowels were raised,
- http://www.answers.com/topic/g
reat-vowel-shift
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How do they know there was a No one can hear how people
pronounced words back then, so
what method(s) do linguists
use to determine that there
was a vowel shift in English
between 1200 and 1600 (or
whenever it was)?
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Spelling of Modern and Middle English is a big part of the evidence (along with modern pronunciation). But notice some of the specific TYPES of evicence involved: a) for Modern English, the spelling & pronounciation of clearly related words: e.g., the vowels of "please" and "pleasant" b) for MIDDLE English, the spelling of --- RHYME words -- doubled vowels indicating vowel "length" ---comparison with French and Latin spellings This is laid out in more detail and with example in the following page: http://asstudents.unco.edu/fac ulty/tbredehoft/UNCclasses/ENG 419/GVS.html But a note or two may help - If you've studied other European languages, esp. the Romance languages, you will know that the pronunciations of several of their "long vowels" is quite different from that of many Modern English words, while that for the "short vowels" may be quite close". You may ALSO have seen that in these languages the "short" and "long" versions of the same vowel are more clearly and consistently related than they are in English. This of itself suggests that at some point in the history of English these long vowels shifted. The questions are basically how (much debated!) and when (= from Middle to Modern English as the evidence being mentioned here makes clear). More specifically, note the names we use for the following notes in the scale. These syllables, borrowed from Latin, retain the Latin pronunciation of the long vowels: * "re" -- the original long e - sounds = more like our word "ray", and what WE call "long a" (as in "gate") * "mi" -- long i - sounds more like "me" in English, that is, what we call "long e" Comparing the long & short versions of vowels: * the longe e of "re" is related to the our short e (/eh/ as in "get") * long i of "mi" is related to our short i (compare "mit") |
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How did the great English Perhaps the black death got it
going in making people more to
new areas.
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The Great Vowel Shift was a major change in the pronunciation of the English language that took place in the south of England between 1200 and 1600. You'll find more info on: |
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What was the Great Vowel Shift I tried to read about it but
couldn't work out all those
phonetic symbols
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I could make a poor answer but wiki does it so much better.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G reat_Vowel_Shift If you want to hear examples rather than learn the notation, try this.. http://facweb.furman.edu/~mmen zer/gvs/ These two links are the first to come up on Google. You should try it before asking. |
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