This document discusses possible explanations for the Great Vowel Shift, a major phonological change in English pronunciation that occurred between 1400-1700. It describes the vowels and diphthongs that were affected and outlines Otto Jespersen's eight step model of the shift. Several potential causes are then presented, including the English Reformation, the Norman Conquest, the Black Death, drag and push chain theories, and social factors like the rise of the London middle class. While the exact cause remains unknown, most scholars argue the shift arose from the need for a common dialect to facilitate trade and commerce in London. The implications of the Great Vowel Shift on English spelling and reading are also noted.

1. Possible Explanations for
the Great Vowel Shift
ATULA AHUJA
CHENRUIXUE LUO
CHADAPORN TEPPIYAWONG
YAN GONG

2. INTRODUCTION
The Great Vowel Shift
 refers to the major change
in the pronunciation of
vowels
 took place in England
between 1400- 1700.
Otto Harry Jespersen;
 a Danish linguist was the
first to study this
phenomenon in detail.
 He coined the term the
Great Vowel Shift

3. INTRODUCTION
In all, seven long vowels, three short vowels
and five diphthongs underwent changes.
The long vowels that could be raised were
raised. Ones that couldn’t be raised ( u:, i: )
became diphthongs.
α: was was fronted to [æ:] →
raised 2 steps up → [ɛ:] → [ej]
(name)

4. Vowels play musical chairs
The Eight steps by
Otto Harry Jespersen.
Step 1: i and u drop → əɪ & əu
Step 2: e and o move up→ i & u
Step 3: a moves forward→ æ
Step 4: ɛ becomes e, ɔ become
o
Step 5: æ moves up → ɛ
Step 6: e moves up→ i
Step 7: ɛ moves up→ e
Step 8: əɪ and əu drop further
to aɪ and au
serene [sere:n]→
[sɪriːn]
house
name
beat
about
fool
[hu:s ]→ [haʊs]
[na:m ]→ [ej]
[be:t] → [bi:t]
[əbu:t] → [əbtαʊt]
[fɔl]→ [fo:l] → [fu:l]

5. THE SHORT VOWELS SHIFT
LATE MIDDLE ENGLISH → EARLY MODERN ENGLISH → LATER ENGLISH
Mid low vowel was moved forward to front low vowel
[a] that ---------------→ [æ]
Back mid vowel fell one step down at back
[ɔ] on , odd -----------------------------------—→[ɔ] or [ɑ]
Back front vowel fell one step down at central
[ʊ] but
---------------→ [ə]

6. DIPHTHONGS
LATE MIDDLE ENGLISH → EARLY MODERN ENGLISH → LATER ENGLISH
Diphthongs became monophthongs
[aʊ] lawe -------------→ [ɔ]
[əʊ] snow ------------→ [o]
[æI ] nail ----→ [a:] ----→[æ:]------→[ɛ:]----→[e]
[yu] has tended to reduced to [u] in written ew, eu, iu,iw and u
[ɛʊ], [Iʊ] few, knew ---------[yu]
The appearance of new diphthongs
[ʊI] join ------------→ [əI]-----→ [aI] ---------→[ɔI]

7. POSSIBLE CAUSES
Henry VIII and
The English Reformation
1. The reform began as a struggle for
a divorce and ended in freedom from the
Papacy.
2. Make an independent Church of England
3. Translate Bible into English
 Great diversity of scribal of forms
from Latin letter
 English Written forms

8. The Norman Conquest in 1066
 One of the most
obvious changes was
the introduction of
Anglo-Norman,
a northern dialect
of Old-French(Latin
roots)
 Displacing Old- English

9.  French became
the language of
the upper class
 English of the
lower class
 French words
entered the
English
language
 The mixture of
spelling by Latin
and English words
 e.g. come,
some,
done and love
are pronounce
[^], not the [o:]
'o' written.

10. POSSIBLE CAUSES
Illustration of the Black Death from
the Toggenburg Bible (1411)
The Black Death
A devastating pandemic in 14th century.
Wiped out 30% - 60% of Europe’s population.
Reduced world population of 450 M to 350 M
Mass immigration to South England.
Sudden geographical movement caused many
languages and dialects to come together.
Difference in accents ; people to modify speech.
Vowels began to shift to accommodate
changes leading to GVS.

11. POSSIBLE CAUSES
drag chains
André Martinet
(1908-1999)
In a drag chain one sound moves
from its original place, and leaves a
gap which an existing sound rushes
to fill, whose place is in turn filled by
another, and so on.
push chains
In a push chain, the reverse happens.
One sound invades the territory of
another, and the original owner
moves away before the two sounds
merge into one.

12. POSSIBLE CAUSES
Social Explanation
DICK LEITH
(1948-2011)
Leith suggests that
• Upper and middle class speakers
of London may have consciously
distanced themselves
from lower class speakers
by adopting changes in
pronunciation which nevertheless
gradually spread to the rest of the
population.

13. POSSIBLE CAUSES
• Middle English did not have
contrastive vowel length. Rather,
vowel length was conditioned by
syllable and word structure.
• However, there were eight long
vowels and only five short vowels,
with typically a two-to-two
correspondence between them.
Example:
long [æ] alternated with short [e,α]
short [e] alternated with long[ε, æ].
Herbert Pilch
(1927-present)

14. THE MOST CONVINCING CAUSE
Middle Class in London required the
creation of a common dialect. Because there was
continual growth in the importance of trading
and commerce from the end of the fourteenth
through the sixteenth centuries, people needed
to be able to communicate more clearly in
English.
Thus a new kind of English
pronunciation evolved that would split the
differences between various dialects in
England, with the London dialect (spoken by
Chaucer, among many others) eventually
winning out, but adopting many of the
pronunciations of the other dialects.

15. Implications
 The GVS has had long-term
implications
I.
II.
III.
for spelling
the teaching of reading
the understanding of any
English-language text written
before or during the Shift.
 The impact of Printing Press:
the spelling in English pronunciation had changing while
the spelling of most English vowels is frozen at a form.

16. Points to remember
 The GVS was limited only to the English language.
 The shift affected words of both native ancestry and borrowings from
French and Latin.
 As a result, the Middle English has quite radically differing
pronunciations in Modern English.
 The GVS has had long-term implications for, among other things,
spelling, the teaching of reading, and the understanding of any Englishlanguage text written before or during the Shift.

17. TO CONCLUDE
GVS is the most mysterious linguistic phenomenon.
It’s time span is 300 years, but most of the long vowels changed
between 100- 1450, just after Chaucer’s death.
2. It was limited to only English. Contemporary neighbouring
languages not affected.
3. Seven long vowels → high vowels
4. Mid 2 short vowels → up 1 position
5. ME diphthongs were monothongised- /snɔu/ → /snow/ ; /laʊw/→ /lɔ/
1.
/ næil/ → /nel/
There are many educated guesses, but the real cause
of GVS is yet to be known.