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Re: USAGE: The Great Vowel Shift

From:H. S. Teoh <hsteoh@...>
Date:Sunday, April 6, 2003, 23:15
On Sun, Apr 06, 2003 at 06:38:30PM -0400, John Cowan wrote:
> Here are four versions of the same dialogue, illustrating the progress of the > English GVS. In each case, the male speaker is the more conservative, and > the female speaker is more advanced. > > http://alpha.furman.edu/~mmenzer/gvs/sound/me.wav > http://alpha.furman.edu/~mmenzer/gvs/sound/1450.wav > http://alpha.furman.edu/~mmenzer/gvs/sound/1550.wav > http://alpha.furman.edu/~mmenzer/gvs/sound/1650.wav
!!!! This is amazing. Thanks for the link! Middle English sounds completely like a foreign language the first time I heard it.
> And here's a recap of the 8 steps: > > 1. i and u move down to @I and @U. > 2. e and o move up to i and u. > 3. a moves forward to &. > 4. E and O move up and out to e and o. > 5. & moves up to E. > 6. e (both inherited and from step 4) moves up to i. > 7. E (both inherited and from step 5) moves up to e. > 8. @I and @U move down and break to aI and aU. > > To which we can add: > > 9. e and o break to eI and oU. > 10. (RP) oU moves down and in to VU. > > Steps 1-7 constitute a classical pull-chain shift.
[snip] Fascinating. And now, to work a sound change scheme that mutates Ebisedian beyond all recognition. :-P T -- Some days you win; most days you lose.