history of phonological language change

Question 1

anglo-saxon english

Answer 1

• old english spoken widely from about the 5th to the 11th century - it would have evolved through this period
• regional dialects were more obvious in those days as people mixed far less
• the Lord Prayer written in old english shows some similarity to modern english (eg. and)

Question 2

middle english

Answer 2

• merchant called Geoffrey Chaucer wrote early literature called “The Canterbury Tales” - shows the evolution and prominence of religious and natural language (eg. april, pilgrimage)

Question 3

middle english - GVS

Answer 3

• first recorded instance of major phonological change
• unparalleled and still ill-understood change occurred to the pronunciation of vowel sounds
• many of the ‘long’ sounding vowels (as in ‘far’) changed in quality and became ‘shortened’ (as in ‘fat’)
• the cause of many modern spelling and pronunciation oddities, e.g. clean / cleanliness, bit / bite.
• social prestige is a powerful reason for language to change - became prestigious to speak with shortened vowels (like the influence of “Estuary English” today)
• differences in degree of vowel shifting can sometimes be detected in regional dialects both in written and spoken English
• the less the effects of the Great Vowel Shift are noticeable further north

Question 4

Otto jespersen