![]() Since we are talking about pronunciation, we also have to mention the concept of phonemes or units of pronunciation. Unfortunately, the lateral moving doesn’t stop there. Over the course of a few generations, great-grandparents would not have been able to understand their great-grandchildren as easily as we could have communicated with ours due to the vowel shifts. These changes often happened at lightning speeds (linguistically at least). Contrary to the simplicity of ‘vowel A becomes vowel B’ in the first sentence of this paragraph, the reality is that the vowel shifts often went through a few intermediate sounds rather than from pronunciation A to pronunciation B. The second phase saw the other, more open vowels /a: ɛː ɔː/ become /eː iː oː/, which are more closed respectively. Phase Two of the Great Vowel Shift – open vowels This means the placement of the tongue is higher in the mouth than it was before, becoming new, closed vowels /iː uː/. This sounds like /ei ou/ or /əi əu/, while the mid-close vowels (not as close as closed) /eː oː/ underwent a raising process. During the first phase, the closed vowels /iː uː/ became dipthongs this is where two vowels are pronounced by sliding to one another, rather than pronouncing them separately. Quick note: a closed vowel means that during pronunciation, the tongue is very close to the rough of the mouth. The Great Vowel Shift can be split into three parts or phases. Phase One of the Great Vowel Shift – closed vowels If you are familiar with IPA or have read the guide on phonetics, you will see immediately that Middle English vowels sounded quite different from their modern-day counterparts.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |