Great Vowel Shift printable pdf download

Some English words illustrating the Great Vowel Shift.

ca. 1400

ca. 1500

ca. 1600

present

‘bite’

bi:tә

bәit

‘beet’

be:t

bi:t

‘beat’

bɛ:tә

be:t

be:t ~ bi:t

bi:t

‘abate’

aba:tә

aba:t > abɛ:t

әbe:t

әbe

‘boat’

bɔ:t

bo:t

‘boot’

bo:t

bu:t

‘about’

abu:tә

abәut

әbәut

әba

Note that, while Chaucer’s pronunciation of the long vowels was quite different from

ours, Shakespeare’s pronunciation was similar enough to ours that with a little

practice we would probably understand his plays even in the original pronuncia-

tion—at least no worse than we do in our own pronunciation!

This was mostly an unconditioned change; almost all the words that appear to have es-

caped it either no longer had long vowels at the time the change occurred or else

entered the language later.

However, there was one restriction: /u:/ was not diphthongized when followed immedi-

ately by a labial consonant. The original pronunciation of the vowel survives

without change in coop, cooper, droop, loop, stoop, troop, and tomb; in room it

survives in the speech of some, while others have shortened the vowel to /

/; the

vowel has been shortened and unrounded in sup, dove (the bird), shove, crumb,

plum, scum, and thumb. This multiple split of long u-vowels is the most signifi-

cant

regularity in the phonological development of English; see the handout on

Modern English sound changes for further discussion.

The Middle English vowel /e:/ underwent a number of divergent developments which are

difficult to date; the following are the important complications.

Instead of /i:/ we find a long e-vowel in bear (both meanings), pear, swear, tear (the

verb), and wear; remarkably, all six of these words (counting bear as two) con-

tained Old English

/e/ followed by /r/ in an open syllable. The usual story

SHORT

is that this vowel was lengthened to /ɛ:/ in open syllables in Middle English, but

Great Vowel Shift

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