From Middle to
Early Modern English:
Middle English:
Chaucer (1400, handwritten
manuscript)
William
Caxton (1490, early
printed text)
Early Modern English:
King James Bible
(1611, Preface,
Genesis
1)
William
Shakespeare (First
Folio, 1623)
BUT…archaic
Everything had
settled down pretty good
Strong Standardized
Dialect
London
Nationalism
Church of England
(1534)
Orthography:
settling down
based
heavily on Chancery and Printing (Caxton)
and
Chaucer
…and then …
Great Vowel Shift
An unconditioned
sound change where all long vowels
from Middle English shift one position
All the long
vowels in Middle English moved up a position
/i/ and /u/
(already at the top, diphthongize!
Another way:
The short vowels
did not shift in the same way, thus we lose the old system of long vs. short
vowels:
one
based on quantity, now based on quality
(i.e., they’re
really different sounds)
god vs good
kit vs kite