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The Great Vowel Shift in English

The Great Vowel Shift was a series of major changes in the pronunciation of the English language that took place primarily between the 15th and 18th centuries. This massive sound change affected the long vowels of Middle English. In simple terms, long vowels began to be pronounced higher up in the mouth, and the highest vowels became diphthongs, which are sounds formed by combining two vowels in a single syllable. For example, the Middle English word 'hus' (pronounced like modern 'hoose') evolved into the Modern English 'house'.

The precise causes of the Great Vowel Shift are still a subject of scholarly debate. One theory suggests that a large migration of people to southeast England after the Black Death led to a mix of different accents, which triggered a chain reaction of pronunciation changes as social classes sought to distinguish their speech. Another theory posits that the influx of French loanwords after the Norman Conquest created a new system of vowel prestige, causing native English vowels to shift. Whatever the cause, the shift happened gradually over several generations.

One of the most significant consequences of the Great Vowel Shift is the apparent inconsistency in English spelling. The English spelling system was becoming standardized during the 15th and 16th centuries, around the same time the shift was beginning. However, as pronunciation continued to change, the spelling remained largely fixed. This created a major disconnect between a word's written form and its sound, which explains many of the irregularities that learners of English face today, such as the different vowel sounds in 'food', 'good', and 'blood'.