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The Great Vowel Shift
The most significant phonetic change of the period was the Great Vowel Shift which began in the 15th century. It left its imprint on the entire vowel system of the period. The essence of the shift was the narrowing of all ME vowels and the diphthongization of the narrowest ones.
| ME long vowels | Changes in the 16th century | Changes in the 17th century | Examples in spelling |
| [a:] | >[ei] | Name, grave, take | |
| [F:] | >[e:] | >[i:] | Beat, meat, clean |
| [e:] | >[i:] | Sleep, keen, see | |
| [O:] | >[ou] | Load, moan, boat | |
| [o:] | >[u:] | Tool, boot, good | |
| [u:] | >[au] | House, down, mouse | |
| [i:] | >[ai] | Like, time, eye |
All these changes show, as has already been stated, one general tendency: narrowing of long vowels and diphthongization of the narrowest ones. Thus, all items of the shift appear as elements of a single process affecting all long ME vowels.
It goes without saying that all these changes occurred gradually, without being noticed by the speakers. It is highly possible that some of the changes must have taken place through a number of intermediate stages, e.g., [i:]>[ai]: [i:> Ii > ei > Fi > æi > ai].
The shift did not result in appearing any new sounds: all of them had existed in ME. However, the vowel shift is an important event in the history of the English sound system, as the distribution of long vowels was completely changed. For example, [i:] appears in MnE in the word see, which in ME had the vowel [e:], and it does not appear in the word time [taim], which was pronounced as [ti:m] in ME.
The causes of the shift have not yet been clarified. It might have been caused by intonation conditions, or by lengthening and shortening of vowels in ME, or by the loss of unstressed vowels.
When a long vowel was followed by the consonant R, the results of the shift were different. The articulation of R favours a broader pronunciation of the preceding vowel, and thus counteracts the main tendency of the shift.
| Spelling | ME (phon) | MnE (phon) | Spelling | ME (phon) | MnE (phon) |
| fate | fa:t | feit | fare | fa:r | fFq |
| beat | bF:t | bi:t | a)bear b)fear | bF:r fF:r | bFq fiq |
| Steep | ste:p | sti:p | Steer | ste:r | stiq |
| Time | ti:m | taim | Tire | ti:r | taiq |
| Boat | bO:t | bout | Boar | bO:r | bO: |
| moon | mo:n | mu:n | Moor | mo:r | muq |
| house | hu:s | haus | power | pu:qr | pauq |
New phonemes appeared: [iq], [Fq], [uq] and the triphthongs: [auq] and [aiq].
In the 16th century short [a] changed into [æ]. Thus the vowel [æ] appeared again in the words hat, cat, ladder, etc. When the [a] was preceded by [w], it remained unchanged, and eventually developed onto [O].
The diphthong [ai] changed into [ei]: OE dæZ > ME day > MnE day [dei].
[eu] in eu/ew > [iu] > [ju]: dew, few, etc.
A new vowel [W] appeared before R in i+r, u+r, e+r and wo+r.
In the 17th century [(w)a] > [(w)o] except before [k], [g], and [N].
[u] > [A] in a short position: but, come, love, some, son, dove.
Thus the new phoneme [A] arose.
[e:] > [i:] – a continuation of the process begun during the Great Vowel Shift: beat, sea, meat.
The consonant [x] disappeared before t as in light, bright, sight, etc. Under this condition [i] > [i:] > [ai].
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