Table Of ContentLONG-VOWEL SHIFTS IN ENGLISH,
C. 1050–1700
The English language has undergone many sound-changes in its long
history. Some of these changes had a profound effect on the pronun-
ciation of the language: a number of these significant instances of
language evolution are generally grouped together and termed the
‘Great Vowel Shift’. These changes are generally considered unrelated
to other, similar long-vowel changes taking place a little earlier. This
book assesses an extensive range of irregular Middle English spellings
for all these changes, with a view to identifying the real course of
events: the dates, the chronology, and the dialects that stand out as
being innovative. Using empirical evidence to offer a fresh perspec-
tive and drawing new, convincing conclusions, Stenbrenden offers
an interpretation of the history of the English language which may
change our view of sound-change completely.
Gjertrud Flermoen Stenbrenden is Associate Professor of
English Language at the University of Oslo.
Studies in English Language
General editor
Merja Kytö (Uppsala University)
Editorial Board
Bas Aarts (University College London)
John Algeo (University of Georgia)
Susan Fitzmaurice (University of Sheffield)
Christian Mair (University of Freiburg)
Charles F. Meyer (University of Massachusetts)
The aim of this series is to provide a framework for original studies of English,
both present-day and past. All books are based securely on empirical research, and
represent theoretical and descriptive contributions to our knowledge of national
and international varieties of English, both written and spoken. The series covers
a broad range of topics and approaches, including syntax, phonology, grammar,
vocabulary, discourse, pragmatics, and sociolinguistics, and is aimed at an inter-
national readership.
Already published in this series:
Steven Jones, M. Lynne Murphy, Carita Paradis and Caroline Willners: Antonyms
in English: Construals, Constructions and Canonicity
Christiane Meierkord: Interactions across Englishes: Linguistic Choices in Local and
International Contact Situations
Haruko Momma: From Philology to English Studies: Language and Culture in the
Nineteenth Century
Raymond Hickey (ed.): Standards of English: Codified Varieties Around the World
Benedikt Szmrecsanyi: Grammatical Variation in British English Dialects: A Study
in Corpus-Based Dialectometry
Daniel Schreier and Marianne Hundt (eds.): English as a Contact Language
Bas Aarts, Joanne Close, Geoffrey Leech and Sean Wallis (eds.): The Verb Phrase
in English: Investigating Recent Language Change with Corpora
Martin Hilpert: Constructional Change in English: Developments in Allomorphy,
Word Formation, and Syntax
Jakob R. E. Leimgruber: Singapore English: Structure, Variation and Usage
Christoph Rühlemann: Narrative in English Conversation
Dagmar Deuber: English in the Caribbean: Variation, Style and Standards in
Jamaica and Trinidad
Eva Berlage: Noun Phrase Complexity in English
Nicole Dehé: Parentheticals in Spoken English: The Syntax-Prosody Relation
Jock Onn Wong: English in Singapore: A Cultural Analysis
Anita Auer, Daniel Schreier and Richard J. Watts: Letter Writing and Language Change
Marianne Hundt: Late Modern English Syntax
Irma Taavitsainen, Merja Kyto, Claudia Claridge and Jeremy Smith: Developments
in English: Expanding Electronic Evidence
Arne Lohmann: English Co-ordinate Constructions: A Processing Perspective on
Constituent Order
John Flowerdew and Richard W. Forest: Signalling Nouns in English: A Corpus-
Based Discourse Approach
Jeffrey P. Williams, Edgar W. Schneider, Peter Trudgill and Daniel Schreier:
Further Studies in the Lesser-Known Varieties of English
Nuria Yáñez-Bouza: Grammar, Rhetoric and Usage in English: Preposition Placement
1500–1900
Jack Grieve: Regional Variation in Written American English
Douglas Biber and Bethany Gray: Grammatical Complexity in Academic
English: Linguistics Change in Writing
Gjertrud Flermoen Stenbrenden: Long-Vowel Shifts in English, c. 1050–1700:
Evidence from Spelling
Earlier titles not listed are also available
LONG-VOWEL SHIFTS IN
ENGLISH, C. 1050–1700
Evidence from Spelling
GJERTRUD FLERMOEN STENBRENDEN
University of Oslo
University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom
Cambridge University Press is part of the University of Cambridge.
It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of
education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence.
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107055759
© Gjertrud Flermoen Stenbrenden 2016
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2016
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data
Stenbrenden, Gjertrud Flermoen, author.
Long-vowel shifts in English, c. 1050–1700 : evidence from spelling / Gjertrud Flermoen
Stenbrenden.
pages cm. – (Studies in English language)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-107-05575-9 (hardback)
1. English language–Middle English, 1100–1500–Vowels. 2. English language–Middle English,
1100–1500–Orthography and spelling. 3. English language–Old English, ca. 450–1100–Vowels.
4. English language–Old English, ca. 450–1100–Orthography and spelling. 5. English language–
Pronunciation–History. 6. English language–Phonology, Historical. 7. English language–
Grammar, Generative. 8. Lingusitic change–History. I. Title.
PE553.S74 2016
427′.02–dc23 2015028161
ISBN 978-1-107-05575-9 Hardback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of
URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication,
and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain,
accurate or appropriate.
Contents
List of figures page xi
List of tables xii
List of abbreviations xiv
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Chain-shifts 1
1.2 Topics and aims 3
1.2.1 Middle English long-vowel change 3
1.2.2 Previous research on the ‘Great Vowel Shift’ 7
1.2.3 What is wrong with the traditional account of the ‘GVS’? 10
1.2.4 The purpose and scope of this study 12
1.3 Description of sources and method 14
1.3.1 Introduction and description of LALME 14
1.3.2 Introduction and description of SMED 15
1.3.3 Introduction and description of LAEME 18
1.3.4 Introduction and description of additional ME sources 20
1.3.5 The corpus approach 21
1.4 Presentation of material, notation, and organisation 22
1.4.1 Material from LAEME 23
1.4.2 Material from SMED 23
1.4.3 Material from LALME 23
1.4.4 Material from additional ME sources 24
1.4.5 Notation 24
1.4.6 Organisation 25
1.5 On using spelling as evidence for sound change 25
2 The development of OE ā 37
2.1 Introduction 37
2.2 On the nature of OE ā 37
2.3 Handbooks on the development of OE ā 40
2.4 Discussion 42
2.4.1 On <o(o)> as evidence of change 42
2.4.2 On French loans and MEOSL 44
vii
viii Contents
2.5 Discussion of material for OE ā 45
2.5.1 Discussion of LAEME material 46
2.5.2 Discussion of SMED material 48
2.5.3 Discussion of LALME material 52
2.5.4 OE w+ā 53
2.5.5 OE –eald, –ald 53
2.6 Summary and conclusions 58
2.7 Tables of ME material 65
2.7.1 Material from LAEME 65
2.7.2 Material from SMED 73
3 The development of OE ǣ 78
3.1 Introduction 78
3.2 Discussion 80
3.2.1 Discussion of LAEME material 80
3.2.2 Discussion of SMED material 94
3.2.3 Discussion of LALME material 95
3.2.4 Discussion of material from additional sources 96
3.3 Summary and conclusions 97
4 The development of OE ē and ēo 103
4.1 Introduction 103
4.2 Discussion 106
4.2.1 Discussion of LAEME material 106
4.2.2 Discussion of SMED material 111
4.2.3 Discussion of LALME material 117
4.2.4 Discussion of material from additional sources 119
4.3 Summary and conclusions 125
4.3.1 Old English ē 125
4.3.2 Old English ēo 127
5 The development of ME ī 138
5.1 Introduction 138
5.2 The developments of various OE sources to eME ī 139
5.2.1 OE ӯ/y 139
5.2.2 OE ī/i before g and voiced consonant clusters 139
5.2.3 The diphthongs io, eo, ea 139
5.2.4 Palatal mutation 141
5.2.5 Other considerations 143
5.3 On <ei>/<ey> as evidence of diphthongisation of ME ī 143
5.3.1 Arguments against interpreting <ei>/<ey> as evidence of
diphthongisation 143
5.3.2 Arguments for using <ei>/<ey> as evidence of diphthongisation 147
5.3.3 The chronology of changes in the front vowel area 149
