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 first step in the Great Vowel Shift in Northern and Southern English is shown in the table below. The Northern English developments of Middle English /iː, eː/ and /oː, uː/ were different from Southern English. In particular, the Northern English vowels /iː/ in bite, /eː/ in feet, and /oː/ in boot shifted, while the vowel /uː/ in house did not.

These developments below fall under the label "older" to refer to Scots and a more conservative and increasingly rural Northern sound,[18] while "younger" refers to a more mainstream Northern sound largely emerging just since the twentieth century.