![]() ![]() This is represented in how people used to pronounce "ate as "et".Īt this point, we are looking at how the phoneme "ai" changed from being pronounced as like the "ai" in "bait" to the "ee" in "diva". It went from the long vowel sound of sounding like the "a" in "paid" to being pronounced as a shorter vowel like the "ea" in "head". With the vowels thoroughly in motion, swapping places, people deciding to just start speaking different ways, it's natural that the letter "a" would just switch again. It goes from being pronounced like "o" in "odd" or "dog" to being pronounced like "o" in "go" or "hope". This is where the letter "o" changes again. ![]() This is where the letter "a" went from being pronounced as the "a" in "pan" to the "a" in "paid." Going from being articulated like the "oa" in "toad" sounding like the "o" in "odd." The letter "o" had undergone its own change during this stage. For instance, in the 1400s, the letter "e" was pronounced like "ay" in "stay", but by the 1500s changed to how it is currently pronounced. Notice how the letter "e" has taken the original phonetic sound of the letter "i" from stage one. The letters "e" and "o" went through a phonetic shift during this stage. "i", went from sounding like the "ee" in "bee" to sounding like the "ai" in "raid."Īt the same time, the letter "u" began to change from sounding like "oo" in "moo" to sounding like "ou" in "house." That being said, let's quickly go through the stages that changed English on a fundamental level. Now, the Great Vowel Shift happened in 7 stages again, not all stages happened everywhere simultaneously, and you'll be forgiven for thinking that it hasn't happened at all for some parts of the country. And through reading through a great many texts and poems, experts have been able to paint us a picture of how people talked at various stages of history. By taking a word we know sounded one way at that time, we can then make an educated guess as to how the word that is supposed to rhyme with it would sound. You might be wondering how on earth we would know these things well, apart from certain texts that exist that detailed how some words were pronounced at the time, we can get a lot of information from poems. Before the shift, sheep would have sounded like "Shep" (pronounced with a slightly longer vowel) Take E, for instance if you say the word "Sheep", notice where your tongue is in your mouth to make the "ee" sound. In particular, vowels A, E, I, O, U slowly began to, well, shift. To put it simply, it was a period of time when the basic phonology of the English language changed. Specifically, we're taking a deep dive into the Seven stages of the Great Vowel Shift. Today we're exploring the little known history of the worlds foremost language.
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