Great Vowel Shift

Value	Data
Discovered	by Harry Jasperson
Reason?	Trying to differentiate from French; and to differentiate from migration of people from other parts of London to Northern end.
Interesting Fact	French also went through the Vowel shift, but they did update their spelling system.
Timeline:	1400-1700; changes after that are not considered in Great Vowel Shift.

### Explanation
The vowels shifted their pronunciation by one place over several centuries, and this especially affected [[Long Vowel]]. This made it so that the long-vowel was no more merely the extended pronunciation of its short counterpart, but it was another sound altogether - specifically, taking the sound of long pronunciation of the sound next to it in the hieracrchy. Thus, every long-vowel sound was shifted, but the spelling was never updated to show the change.
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### Illustration
![Pasted image 20260721150910.png](/img/user/attachments/Pasted%20image%2020260721150910.png)

Previously, the vowels were pronounced just as elongated versions of short counterpart.
Then:

| Word    | Change                              |
| ------- | ----------------------------------- |
| i and u | went through [[Diphthong]]ism       |
| Other 5 | underwent increase in tongue height |

### Shift in Normal voels
![Pasted image 20260721150847.png](/img/user/attachments/Pasted%20image%2020260721150847.png)
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### Shift in [[Diphthong]]
![Pasted image 20260721150901.png](/img/user/attachments/Pasted%20image%2020260721150901.png)

I need to understand the Diphthong Great vowel shifts. RN the focus is on learning the individual sounds.

!Pasted image 20260723144703.png