Word
|
Vowel
| | | | | | |
Middle English
|
Modern English
| | | | | |
Scots/Northern (older)
|
Northern (younger)
|
Southern
|
bite
|
/iː/
|
/ɛi/
|
/ai/
|
/ai/
|
feet
|
/eː/
|
/iː/
|
/iː/
|
/iː/
|
house
|
/uː/
|
/uː/
|
/ɐu~au/
|
/au/
|
boot
|
/oː/
|
/iː/
|
/yː~uː/
|
/uː/
|
The vowel systems of Northern and Southern Middle English immediately before the Great Vowel Shift were different in one way. In Northern Middle English, the back close-mid vowel /oː/ in boot had already shifted to front /øː/ (a sound change known as fronting), like the long ö in German hören [ˈhøːʁən] (
listen) "hear". Thus, Southern English had a back close-mid vowel /oː/, but Northern English did not:
In both Northern and Southern English, the first step of the Great Vowel Shift raised the close-mid vowels to become close. Northern Middle English had two close-mid vowels – /eː/ in feet and /øː/ in boot – which were raised to /iː/ and /yː/. Later on, Northern English /yː/ changed to /iː/ in many dialects (though not in all, see Phonological history of Scots § Vowel 7), so that boot has the same vowel as feet. Southern Middle English had two close-mid vowels – /eː/ in feet and /oː/ in boot – which were raised to /iː/ and /uː/.
The first lengthening of vowels took place as early as Late old English (IX century). All vowels which occurred before the combinations of consonants such as mb, nd, ld became long.
[i] > [i:] climban climben climb
Findan finden find
Cild cild child
[u] > [u:] hund hound hound
- The second lengthening of vowels took place in Middle English (XII – XIII century). The vowel [a], [o] and [e] were affected by the process. This change can be observed when the given vowels are found in an open syllable.
Old English Middle English New English
a > ā talu tale tale
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
