KYIV NATIONAL LINGUISTIC UNIVERSITY

new long vowels.
Rise of new diphthongs and triphthongs.
Consonant changes .

С. 200-214.
Ильиш Б.А. История английского языка. – Л.: Просвещение, 1972.

– С. 254-273.
Иванова И.П., Чахоян Л.П. История английского языка. – М.: Высшая школа, 1976. – С.79-96.
Студенець Г.І. Історія англійської мови в таблицях. - К.: КДЛУ, 1998. – Tables 86-96

this period was the GVS (which involved the change of

all ME
vowels and some of the diphthongs) between the 14th and 18th c.
All the long vowels became closer or were diphthongized

i: keep [ke:p] → [ki:p] ɛ: → e: →

i: sea [sɛ:] → [se:] → [si:] a: → ei name, take ɔ: → ou go, boat o: → u: moon, tool u: → au out, noun

Each stage took more
than 100 years.

“independent” as they were not caused by any phonetic conditions.

GVS – is an additional source of diphthongs in NE.
The difference between spellings lost its phonetic value ea [ɛ:] - ee [e:].
In the 17th century began to serve to distinguish between two words pronounced in the same way
(see- sea, week – weak, meat -meet )

appeared during the GVS could appear from other sources. The

diphthong [ou] was preserved from ME without modifications.
[ei] originates from the ME [ai/ei] which had merged into one diphthong.
The GVS (unlike other most of the earlier phonetic changes) wasn’t followed by any regular spelling changes.
During the shift even the names of some English letters were changed.

system. In fact every vowel which developed under the GVS

can be found in Late ME. However the GVS is an important event in the history of English sound system. Every long vowel as well as some diphthongs
were shifted.
There was one
general tendency:
[u:] house – moon
– narrowing
of long vowels
[au] drawen – house
– diphthongization
of the narrowest of them

in the shift. It left no long vowel unaltered.

All vowels changed in a single direction.
How did the GVS start?
Drag-chain theory
(Jespersen) ME [I:], [u:]
diphthongized first and
the mid vowels [e:], [o:]
moved up into their vacate positions dragging after them selves their neighbors.

pushed
the adjoining vowel away to avoid coincidence the lower

ones moved up into their slots.
When did it start?
A.Martinet, B.Trnka: The GVS began in the 12th- 13th century when two short vowels [i], [u] became more open.
H. Sweet, O. Jespersen: 16-18 c.
R. Lass : 1500

ME not only to phonological but also to morphological factors.

The shift may be stimulated by the loss of the final [e] in the 15th c., which transformed disyllabic words into monosyllabic. The difference between such monosyllabic words was not sufficient
ME fate, fat [fa:tə] – [fa:t] > NE [fa:t] – [fa:t]
ME bite, bit [bi:tə] – [bi:t] > NE [bi:t] – [bi:t]
The GVS emphasized this difference by changing the quality of long vowels and by adding new distinctive features.

dead, head, threat, wealth, friend etc.
ea [ɛ:] >[e:] did

not take the step to [i:], it was stopped by the preceding [r]: break, great
Vowels in the words borrowed later remained unchanged: police, machine, group

seem few and insignificant. Short vowels were more stable than

long vowels. Only two out of five underwent certain alterations (a, u).

of long monophthongs and new diphthongs.
[X], [X΄] had been

vocalized by Late ME.
ME taughte [ˊtauxtə] > [to:t] – [au] was contracted to [o:] and [x] was lost.
ME night [niX΄t] > [nijt] > [ni:t] > [nait].
The most important instance of vocalization is the development of [r]. The sonorant [r] made the preceding vowel more open, retracted [er > ar].

Northern dialects. By the 14th c. it was completed.
It was

final (love [luv])
When it was followed by a consonant (tables, hats, books, lived, stopped)
The sound [ə] is still pronounced in the endings where its falling off could cause difficulties of articulation and understanding. Later [ə] > [I] (horses, bushes)

fricative consonants [f]-[v], [θ]-[ð], [s]-[z] were treated as positional variants.

Sonority depended on the phonetic conditions. Phonologization of voiced and voiceless fricatives was a slow process which lasted several hundred years. [f]-[v] were the first to turn into phonemes (ME veyne [΄veinə] – feign [΄feinə]). In the 16th c. the fricatives were voiced under certain conditions:
when they were preceded by an unstressed vowel;
followed by a stressed vowel.

to transform a voiceless into a voiced one.
Voiced and voiceless

fricatives began to appear in similar phonetic conditions and could be used for phonological purposes (to distinguish different morphemes).
ice [ais] – eyes [aiz]
rice [rais] – to rise [raiz]
teeth [ti:θ] – to teeth [ti:ð]

Late ME palatal [k’], [g’], [sk’] developed in [t∫], [dʒ],

[∫] (ME child, each, ship, shinen + French borrowings, e.g. charme [t∫armə]).
The opposition of velar and palatal consonants disappeared, instead plosives were contrasted to new affricates ([t∫] - [dʒ], [∫] - ?).
New affricates, sibilants appeared in Early NE as a result of the phonetic assimilation of lexical borrowings.
In many French borrowings the stress fell on the last syllable (ME nacioun [na΄sju:n], plesure [ple΄zju:r]).

The final syllables became

unstressed or weakly stressed. The sounds making up the syllable became less distinct. As a result some clusters fused into a single consonant and merged with the phonemes already existing.