1. DEVELOPMENTS-PROCESSES IN RP AND GEN AM
The non-Standard/reference accents were exempt from such changes either partly or totally

2. 1 THE GREAT VOWEL SHIFT
About 15TH c: long, short vowels underwent changes in quality
Middle E Early Mod E Examples
( ) ( )
i: → eɪ (=əi) time PRICE
e: → i: sweet↗ FLEECE
ɛ: → e: clean ↗
a: → ɛ: name FACE
ɔ: → o: stone GOAT
o: → u: moon GOOSE
u: → ou (=əʊ) house MOUTH

3. SO WHAT HAPPENDED IN THE GVS?
All the mid(open, close) vowels and open/low Vs: moved one step higher
/e:→i:/, /ɛ:→e:/, /a:→ɛ:/, /o:→u:/, /ɔ:→o:/ moved one step higher and the close-high Vs:
Got diphthongised
/i:→eɪ/, /i:→aɪ/, /u:→oʊ (→/ aʊ/)

4. THE GVS DIAGRAMMATICALLY
i: ↘ eɪ (→aɪ) u: ↘ ou (→əʊ)
↑ ↑
e: o:
ɛ: ɔ: ↑ a:

5. Which were the precipitating factors of GVS?
Two competing explanations: raising of mid vowels first : push chain or
Diphthongisation of the high/close Vs: drag chain
Did these changes happen simultaneously or in succession??
Whatever happened, all changes were interdependednt and no loss of oppositions appeared

6. GVS: fully completed by the 1600
Chaucer: pre GVS but Shakespeare: GVS era
Which do you think were the consequences of the GVS for present day English??

7. The impact of GVS on present-day English
. No consequences on spelling orthography bcs it reflects pre-GVS era but
Tremendous repercussions on present day speech: the mismatch btwn E spelling+ Modern E pronunciation is bcs of the GVS
E.g., Middle E /i:/ and /i/: similar quality Vs, so in spelling, they were represented by same letter ‘i’ (kite, kit) today: we use the same spellings but ‘kite’: diphthong.
e.g., theme-them, rate- rat, note-not: two different vowels in quality today (first part of the pair: diphthong)

8. The impact of GVS on present day English
In morphology (derivation):
Middle E: shortened/lengthened Vs: in some contexts: trisyllabic shortening:
[V+stress]→[-long] /-CVCV e.g., divine-divinity , serene-serenity, profane-profanity
In Middle E: these alternations were btwn:/i:/vs /i/, /e:/vs/e/ , /a:/vs/a/ we still have these alternations but btwn: /aɪ/ vs/ɪ/, /i:/vs /e/, /eɪ/vs/ᴂ/ that is, bcs of quality

9. How can we explain idiosyncratic lexical items?
Privacy, lever, fetid, patriot, patent:
historical fluctuation or bcs of uncerainty in reading rules, spelling pronunciation
So the value of GVS nowadays is purely historic except: 1. spelling-pronunciation mismatch
2. morphological derivation

10. Impact of GVS to other accents?
All front Vs underwent raising but
Back Vs: regionally restricted: North, Scottish E: /o:/ front V e.g., goose: [gɪəs], house: [hu:s]

11. 2) NG COALESCENCE In about 1600 A.C: educated London speech:
Wrds: ‘sing’, ‘long’: final /g/→ᴓ / {+Nasal
/sɪng/,/lɔng/ //, #}
Then, n→was left exposed alone, so a third nasal phoneme /ŋ/ appeared bcs of two sounds /n+g/→/ŋ/ BUT in some accents North, Liverpool, Birmingham, NY: ng coalescence: not take place /roŋg/, sɒŋg/, etc
Hypercorrection:/g/deleted where it should not be *lɔŋ/→/lɔŋə/, /strɔŋ/→/strɔŋə/

12. 3. THE VELAR FRICATIVE ‘gh’ /x/,
Middle E /x/ with /ɕ/ palatal allophone
By the end of 17th c: either it ceased to be pronounced: ‘high’, ‘dough’, ‘bough’ or:
/x/→[f] : ‘rough’, ‘tough’, ‘enough’
Still retained in some wrds in Scotland, North
e.g., Scots ‘bricht moonlicht nicht’ (/x/or [ɕ]), trough:/trɒx/, in Welsh: ‘Buchman’: /ˈbʌxmən/
RP/St.E: /braɪt/, /laɪt/,/trɒf/ ‘trough’, /bʌkmən/

13. 4. FOOT-STRUT Present-day Reference accents: minimal pairs:
/ʊ/ vs /ʌ/ Middle E: just one /u/ which
Put, putt in the 17th c split into: /ʊ/, /ʌ/
Could cud but: North England, Ireland
(partly): NOT operated
Look luck ←: homophones

14. Foot vs strut split
Some wrds now belonging to FOOT, STRUT sets derive from Middle E /o:/, some of them underwent shortening and they joined either the /u/ set or some others: now pronounced with /ʌ/ e.g., ‘blood’, ‘flood’ BUT: /ʊ/ e.g., ‘foot’, ‘stood’

15. 4. JOD DROPPING Threw-through / ɪῠ/ vs /u:/
Brewed-brood different bcs of:
[ɪῠ]→[ju:]→[j]→ᴓ Early jod dropping: 17th, 18th c
Some Welsh, North, Am accents still:
[ѳrɪῠ] ‘threw’ vs [ѳru:] ‘through’
In London: [ɪῠ]→[Ῐu:]=[ju:], j→ᴓ homophones :
Threw=through, brewed=brood,
Also: j →ᴓ/ {+palatal, r, C1 }_ : ‘chute’, ‘rude’, ‘blew’
In Gen Am, South Midlands: more extensive jod dropping (later jod dropping) : e.g., ‘duke’, ‘tune’

16. THE GREAT DIVIDE
Polite English accent: early-mid 18th c 1750: end of shared developments btwn RP, Gen Am. Other developments here-after: no impact on either accent

17. British prestige innovations after 1750
Vowels before /r/: ‘beer’, ‘chair’, ‘more’
bi:r ʧɛ:r mo:r
a)Pre-R-Breaking: b) pre-Schwa Laxing: c)r→ᴓ
bi:r→bi:ər bi:ər→bɪərd bɪəd
ʧe:r→ʧe:ər ʧɛ:ər→ʧeər ʧɛə
mo:r→mo:ər mo:ər→moər moə

18. AMERICAN INNOVATIONS Took place after the separation in N. America
Or in some local accents in England
Gen Am: rather conservative accent vs RP:
a) vowels before/r/: Early Mod E /i:r/,/ɛ:r/, /ʊ:r/
RP /ɪə/, /eə/, /ʊə/
Gen Am: /ɪr/, /ɛr/, /ʊr/

19. AMERICAN INNOVATIONS B) Later jod dropping:
j→ᴓ/[ +C, +Coronal] _ e.g., ‘student’, ‘numerous’…
but: not in East, South Am
c) jod coalescence : j→ᴓ even in unstressed syllables in Gen Am
e.g., /ˈsɪtjʊeɪt/ RP vs /ˈsɪʧʊeɪt/ =/ˈsɪʧəweɪt/: vulgar RP!

20. Some American innovations
D) Tapping
/t/, /d/→[ɾ]/ [ˈV-V] within, across morpheme boundaries : ‘betting’, ‘getting’, ‘get in’

21. SOME BRITISH INNOVATIONS
Not in the USA
Popular South English speech NOT RP
a) h- dropping: 1800 and later; one of the most popular Br working class innovations (Trudgill, 1974) proves class differences
Hit, hammer, house, hedge → [i:t], [ˈᴂmə], [ˈeʤ]
Loss of minimal pairs: ‘edge’ vs ‘hedge’, ‘heat’ vs ‘eat’ , ‘hall’ vs ‘all’ :

22. Some British innovations
B) diphthong shift:19c Cockney, Australia, New Zealand i:→eɪ→aɪ→ɔɪ→oɪ u:→əʊ→aʊ ,→ᴂ Fleece i: →[eɪ] or [əɪ] Face eɪ→ [aɪ] or [ʌɪ] the early settlers took it to Australia Price aɪ→ [ɔɪ] or [ɑɪ] Choice ɔɪ→[oɪ] Goose u:→[əʊ] Goat əʊ→[ʌʊ] or [aʊ] Mouth aʊ→[ᴂʊ] or [ɛʊ]

23. Some British innovations
C) HAPPY- tensing
/i:/= /ɪ/ or /i/ in the 19th c primarily: vulgar speech
In the USA as well
D) ‘l vocalization’ : [ɬ]→[ɤ] or [o] or [ʊ]
e.g., [ˈmɪɬk]→[ˈmɪŏk]
[ˈʃeɬf]→[ʃeŏf]
[ˈfi:ɬ]→[fi:o]
[mɪdɬ]→[mɪdo]

24. Implications of ‘l vocalization’?
New diphthongs : /ɪʊ/ ‘milk’, /eʊ/ ‘shelf’
A development of the 20th c, not appearing in Shaw’s ‘Pygmalion’ . It appears in London local accent but starts seeping into RP
E) Glottalization : /p, t, k, ʧ/ often preceded by [ʔ] 20th c development: pre-glottalization
E.g., [ˈhəʊpləs]→[ˈhəʊʔpləs]
[ˈmᴂtrəs]→[ˈmᴂʔtrəs] acceptable

25. L-vocalization
North England, London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, local accents: glottaling in all environments
e.g., [ˈbʌʔṇ], [ˈ bɒʔo] in the USA too
f) –ing
‘running’: /ˈrʌnɪŋ/: formal, upper class
[ˈrʌnɪn]: lower class
In 18th c: fashionable [-ɪn]: remains in E folk (Wyld, 1936) pres day E: all Accents show /n/-/ŋ/variation but more working classes produce /n/

26. Consolidation of innovations in RP-Gen Am
1) go to Google, type: ‘how did Chaucer sound like?”
2) What Shakespeare’s English sounded like and how we know”
3)Shakespeare –original pronunciation (The Open University)
4)How did Romeo and Juliet sound to Shakespeare’s contemporaries? D Crystal
5) READ: J.C. Wells article: “Whatever happened to Received Pronunciation?”