The great vowel shift
Effect of vowel shift in modern english
Phonetics
grammar
Word-stock
1.72M
Category: englishenglish

New English

1.

New English

2.

The formation of the national literary English
language covers the Early NE period (1475—
1660).
Two major external factors which favoured the
rise of the national language and the literary
standards: the unification of the country and the
progress of culture.
New economic relations began to take shape.
The villain was gradually superseded by the rentpaying tenant.

3.

While feudal relations were decaying,
bourgeois relations and the capitalist
mode of production were developing
rapidly.
Britain began to export woolen cloth
produced by the first big enterprises, the
"manufactures".
The new nobility, who traded in wool, fused
with the rich townspeople to form a new
class, the bourgeoisie.

4.

Economic
and
social
changes
were
accompanied by political unification. In the last
quarter of the 15th c. England became a
centralized state.
After Hundred Years' War there was even
more turbulent period for Britain.
Warlike nobles fought for power at the King's
Court - Wars of the Roses (1455—1485).
The 30-year contest for the possession of the
crown ended in the establishment of a strong
royal power under Henry VII, the founder of
the Tudor dynasty.

5.

Henry VIII (1509—1547), who quarreled
with the Pope, declared himself head of the
English Church and dissolved the
monasteries (the English Reformation,
1529—1536).
The consolidation of people into nation, the
formation of national language and the
growth of superdialect forms of language
to be used as a national Standard.

6.

Henry VIII assembled at his court a group of
brilliant scholars and artists.
The influence of classical languages on English
grew and was reflected in the enrichment of the
vocabulary.
"Artificial writing" as printing was then called,
was invented in Germany in 1438 (by Johann
Gutenberg); the first printer of English books was
William Caxton (1422-1491).
The first English book, printed in Bruges in 1475,
was Caxton’s translation of the story of Troy
“RECUYELL OF THE HISTORYES OF TROYE

7.

In 1475 – the year of the publication of the first
English book – William Caxton introduced the
printing press in England. By 1640 55.000 books
had been printed in England.
Both Caxton and his associates took a greater
interest in the works of medieval literature than
in the works of ancient authors or theological
and scientific treatises.
William Caxton and his successors edited
publications so as to bring them into conformity
with the London form of English used by their
contemporaries.

8.

In NE some consonants were vocalised or gave
birth to diphthongs and triphthongs.
[r] was vocalised at the end of the word in the
16th -17th c.
[j] disappeared as a result of palatalisation;
[j] remained only initially (e.g. year, yard, etc.);
[х, х’] were lost (e.g. ME taughte [‘tauхtə] – NE
taught [to:t], ME night [niх’t] – NE night [neit]
[kn] à [n] (e.g. ME know [knou] – NE know
[nou]);
[gn] à [n] (e.g. ME gnat [gnat] – NE gnat [næt]);

9.

Sound NE Sounds
[sj]
[∫]
[zj]
[ζ]
[tj]
[t∫]
[dj]
[dζ]
ME
commissioun
[komi’sjon]
pleasure
[plə’zjurə]
nature
[na’tjurə]
procedure
[,prosə’djurə]
NE
commission
[kə’mi∫ən]
pleasure
[‘pleζə]
nature
[‘neit∫ə]
procedure
[prə’si dζə]

10.

ME
NE
ME
Sound Sound
[s]
[z]
possess
[pə’ses]
[Ѳ]
[ð]
this [Ѳis],the
[Ѳə],
NE
possess
[pə’zes]
this [ðis],the
[ðə],
[f]
[ks]
[v]
[gz]
of [of]
anxiety
[,ən’ksaiəti]
of [ov]
anxiety
[,ən’gzaiəti]
[t∫]
[dζ]
knowledge
knowledge

11. The great vowel shift

THE GREAT VOWEL SHIFT
All Middle English long vowels underwent the Great
Vowel Shift (in early new English, 15th – 18th century).
They became more narrow and more front. Some of
them remained monophthongs, others developed into
diphthongs.
Middle English
New English
he
[he:]
[hi:]
e: → i:
name [na:me]
[neim] a: → ei
take [ta:ka]–[teik]; beat [be:t]–[bi:t]; meet [me:t]–[mi;t];
like [li:ka]–[laik]; boat [bo:t]–[bout]; tool [to:l]–[tu:l];
house [hu:s]–[haus]
The seven long, or tense, vowels of Middle English
underwent the following change.

12.

Shift
Middle
English
[i:]
[u:]
[e:]
[œ ]
[ɛ]
[ɔ:]
[a:]
Modern
English
[ai]
[au]
[i:]
[u:]
[e] >[ı]
[ou]
[eı]
Example
Middle
English
[mi:s]
[mus]
[ge:s]
[gœs]
[brɛ:ken]
[brɔ:ken]
[na:mə]
Modern
English
[mais]
[maus]
[gi:s]
[gu:s]
[breık]
[brəuk]
[neım]
mice
mouse
geese
goose
break
broke
name

13.

[i:] and [u:] became diphthongs [aj] and [aw], while the
long vowels underwent an increase in tongue height. In
addition, [ɛ ] was fronted to become [i:].
Both of the long (or tense) mid vowels of Middle English,
which can represent by /ē/ and /ō/ were raised and
diphthongized to yield the current high vowels /i/ and /u/
feet (once pronounced /fēt/, now pronounced /fit/) and
mood (once pronounced /mōd/, now pronounced
/mud/).

14.

The current orthography still reflects the former
pronunciation in spellings such as five (once
pronounced /fīv/, now pronounced /faiv/). As for the
spelling of Old English tūne for “town”, the vowel had
been pronounced /ū/ before the diphthong /aʊ/ was
created.
Two of the long low vowels, /æ/ and /ɔ/, were also
raised to yield a new set of mid vowels, /ei/ and /oʊ/,
respectively
mate /meit/ was formerly pronounced /mæt/
goat /goʊt/ was formerly pronounced /g ɔt/

15.

Alternating forms of morphemes in English:
please – pleasant; serene – serenity;
sane – sanity; crime – criminal; sign – signal.
Before the Great Vowel Shift, the vowels in each pair
were the same. The vowels in the second word of
each pair were shortened by the Early Middle English
Vowel Shortening rule.

16. Effect of vowel shift in modern english

EFFECT OF VOWEL SHIFT IN MODERN ENGLISH
Middle
Shifted
English
Vowel
Vowel
ī
ā
ē
ō
ā
ai
au
i
u
e
Short
Vowel
i
o
e
ɔ
æ
Word with Word with
Shifted
Short
Vowel
Vowel
divine
profound
serene
fool
sane
divinity
profundity
serenity
folly
sanity

17. Phonetics

PHONETICS
The system of stress
Native English words are short – a rhythmic
tendency of the language to have one
stressed syllable and one unstressed one → in
borrowed words there developed a system of
two stressed syllables: ‘conso’lation .
Sometimes the stress is used to differentiate
the words formed from the same root by the
process (to pro'duce – 'produce).

18.

Vowels
a) Loss of vowels at the end of the words. Some of
them were preserved for phonetic reasons only,
where the pronunciation without a vowel was
impossible.
The plural forms of nouns:
Old English
-as
Middle English New English
-es
[z] dogs
[s] cats
[iz] dresses

19. grammar

GRAMMAR
The strengthening of analytical features of the
language: in many more cases empty
grammatical words are used (form-words);
Analytical forms of the Middle English are
preserved, non-finite analytical forms appear
(in Middle English only finite forms could be
analytical);
A fixed word order is established.

20. Word-stock

WORD-STOCK
Ways of enriching the vocabulary:
inner means (conversion: hand → to hand);
outer means. direct and indirect contacts with
the world.
In the beginning of the Early New English (15th
– 16th century) – the epoch of the Renaissance
– there are many borrowings from Greek,
Italian, Latin.

21.

The Renaissance Period.
Significant developments in science, art and culture.
Revival of interest in the ancient civilizations of
Greece and Rome and other languages. Hence, there
occurred a considerable number of Latin and Greek
borrowings.
In contrast to the earliest Latin borrowings (1st c.
B.C.), the Renaissance ones were rarely concrete
names. They were mostly abstract words (e.g. major,
minor, filial, moderate, intelligent, permanent, to
elect, to create).

22.

The loan-words from the Parisian dialect of
French known as Parisian borrowings.
Examples: regime, routine, police, machine,
ballet,
matinée,
scene,
technique,
bourgeois, etc.
Italian also contributed a considerable number
of words to English, e.g. piano, violin, opera,
alarm, colonel.

23.

The authors of the numerous books printed in
England used many Greek and Latin words, and as
a result, many words of ancient Greek and Latin
entered the language.
From Greek came drama, comedy, tragedy,
scene.
Latin loan words in English are numerous. They
include: bonus, scientific, exit, aquarium,
describe.

24.

Many of them formed the basis for international
terminology:
e.g. Latin borrowings: facsimile, introvert,
radioactive, relativity, etc.;
Greek borrowings: allergy, antibiotic, hormone,
protein, stratosphere, etc.
Many of them increased the number synonyms
in English:
Native Germanic
Word
French Borrowing
Latin Borrowing
reckon
size
kingly
count
calibre
royal
compute
magnitude
regal

25.

The 17th century is the period of Restoration →
borrowings come to the English language from
French.
In the 17th century the English appear in America
→ borrowings from the Indians’ languages are
registered. (moccasin, toboggan)
In the 18th century the English appear in India →
borrowings from this source come to the English
language (ex.: curry).
In the 19th century the English colonisers appear in
Australia and New Zealand → new borrowings
follow (kangaroo).

26.

At the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century
the English appear in Africa, coming to the regions
formerly colonized by the Dutch → borrowings from
Afrikaans and Dutch appear.
Russian borrowings appear in New English in the
20th century – soviet, kolkhoz, perestroika, etc.
The scientific and technological advances of the 20th
century brought a great number of new international
words: atomic, antibiotic, radio, television,
sputnik.

27.

Syntactic Change: Auxiliary Verbs versus Main Verbs
Distinction between auxiliary verbs and main verbs
reflected in questions (Can you leave?), negative
sentences (only auxiliary verbs can take the contracted
negative n’t, as in You can’t leave) and tag questions
You can leave, can’t you?).
NO syntactic distinctions between main verbs and
auxiliary verbs
I deny it not. (I don’t deny it).
Forbid him not. (Do not forbid him).
Revolt our subjects? (Do our subjects revolt?)
Gives not the hawthorn-bush a sweater shade? (Does
the hawthorn-bush not give a sweeter shade?)
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