Theme: Great vowel shift in Middle English. Introduction. Great vowel shift in English language. Middle English vowel system. Vowels in the unstressed position Vowels under stress The Development of Vowel System in Middle English Phonetical changes

The phonemicisation of voiced fricatives

Due to many loanwords from French a contrast arose in Middle English between voiceless and voiced fricatives. While these were predictable in Old English this was no longer the case in Middle English, e.g. voiced fricatives occurred in initial or final position in French loans, e.g. zeal, seize. Voiced fricatives also appeared in final position due to the loss of endings, e.g. baþian /baðian/ > /bað/ > /ba:ð/. This led to a contrast between noun and verb arising, cf. bath versus bathe in present-day English.