The Great Vowel Shift and the History of Britain.

Summary

This episode explores the fascinating history behind the English pronunciation of 'tomato' and 'potato,' highlighting the Great Vowel Shift's impact on the language. It delves into how historical events, such as the Black Death and the Hundred Years War, influenced language changes, emphasizing the unique transformation of English from Middle to Modern English.

Takeaways

• 🍅 The pronunciation of 'tomato' has been a topic of debate, highlighted by the song from the 1937 movie 'Shall We Dance', which humorously points out the differences in pronunciation.
• 📚 The Great Vowel Shift (GVS) is a significant historical linguistic event that transformed the pronunciation of English, affecting long vowels and some consonants, and is considered a transition from Middle English to Modern English.
• 🏰 The GVS is believed to have occurred between the mid-14th and 18th centuries, with some scholars suggesting it may have started earlier or lasted longer.
• 🌐 The GVS was not uniform across all regions of England, affecting different areas like Scotland, northern England, and southern England at different times and rates.
• 📜 The shift's exact nature and timing are still debated among scholars, but it had a profound impact on how long vowels were pronounced, making Middle English almost unintelligible to modern speakers.
• 📚 Evidence of the GVS can be inferred from rhymes in poetry, changes in spelling, and the pronunciation of words in personal correspondence, such as Elizabeth I's spelling of 'deep' as 'di PE'.
• 🌳 The Black Death in the 14th century led to significant population shifts and urban migration, which may have contributed to the mixing of dialects and the GVS.
• 🏰 The Norman Conquest and subsequent rule influenced the English language, with French becoming the language of the court and government, while English remained a primarily spoken, unregulated language.
• 🏛️ The Hundred Years War and the resulting resentment towards the French language may have influenced the pronunciation changes in English, as people sought to distance their speech from that of the enemy.
• 🌐 The GVS is unique to English and did not occur in other languages on the continent, making it a distinctive feature of English history and linguistic development.

Q & A

What is the main topic discussed in the script?

The main topic discussed in the script is the history of the English language, particularly the Great Vowel Shift, and its impact on the pronunciation of words like 'tomato'.

What is the Great Vowel Shift (GVS)?

The Great Vowel Shift (GVS) refers to a period of radical change in how the English language is spoken, occurring roughly between the mid-14th century and the 18th century. It affected the pronunciation of long vowels and some consonants, marking the transition from Middle English to Modern English.

Who coined the term 'Great Vowel Shift'?

The term 'Great Vowel Shift' was coined by Otto Jespersen, a Danish linguist, in his 1909 work 'A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles'.

How did the Great Vowel Shift affect the pronunciation of words?

The Great Vowel Shift significantly changed the pronunciation of words with long vowels. For example, words that would have been pronounced with a long 'i' in Middle English, like 'bite', would have been pronounced differently in different regions and times, sometimes sounding like 'beat' or 'bot'.

What historical events contributed to the Great Vowel Shift?

Factors contributing to the Great Vowel Shift include population migration, the mixing of regional dialects, the influence of French loanwords, and the impact of the Black Death. These events led to a significant transformation in the pronunciation of English words.

How did the Black Death impact the English language?

The Black Death led to mass depopulation, which in turn caused people to migrate to cities, mixing different dialects and accents. This mixing of languages and the subsequent recovery of urban populations contributed to the changes in language that occurred during the Great Vowel Shift.

What role did the Norman Conquest play in the development of English dialects?

After the Norman Conquest in 1066, the rulers of England primarily spoke French, and the language of the court and government was French. This led to the development of regional dialects in English, as the language was not regulated and was mainly a spoken language rather than a written one.

How did the Hundred Years War affect the English language?

The Hundred Years War created a resentment towards the French language, as it was associated with the enemy. This led to an aversion to French and an overcorrection in the pronunciation of French-derived words, which may have contributed to the Great Vowel Shift.

Why is the pronunciation of 'tomato' different in different English-speaking regions?

The pronunciation of 'tomato' as 'tomato' or 'tomahto' is influenced by historical and cultural factors, including the Great Vowel Shift and the influence of upper-class Englishmen in the 18th century who affected the pronunciation of certain words.

How can we understand the pronunciation changes that occurred during the Great Vowel Shift?

We can understand the pronunciation changes through clues such as rhymes used by poets like Chaucer and Shakespeare, spellings in personal correspondence, and the study of historical documents like the Domesday Book. These sources provide insights into how words were pronounced before and after the Great Vowel Shift.

Outlines

00:00

🍅 The Great Vowel Shift and the Evolution of 'Tomato'

This paragraph delves into the historical pronunciation of 'tomato' and its connection to the Great Vowel Shift (GVS), a significant transformation in English pronunciation from the mid-14th to the 18th century. The GVS, which affected long vowels and some consonants, is highlighted as a key factor in the divergence of pronunciation between Middle English and Modern English. The paragraph references the Gershwin song 'You Say Tomato, I Say Tomato' to illustrate the cultural significance of language differences and discusses the historical events, such as the Black Death and the Hundred Years War, that may have contributed to the GVS.

05:00

🏰 The Impact of Historical Events on English Dialects and the GVS

The second paragraph explores how historical events, particularly the Black Death and the subsequent migration to cities, influenced the English language. It discusses the Norman conquest and its effects on English as a spoken language, leading to the development of regional dialects. The paragraph also examines the role of the French language in England, especially during the Hundred Years War, and how the shift in language was partly due to the mixing of English dialects with French loanwords. The discussion includes the idea that the GVS might have been a chain shift, where a small change in pronunciation could trigger a series of other changes.

10:00

📚 The Great Vowel Shift's Uniqueness to English and its Aftermath

This paragraph emphasizes the uniqueness of the GVS to the English language, contrasting it with other languages that did not undergo such a dramatic vowel shift. It discusses the irregular application of the GVS to English words and how it led to inconsistencies in spelling and pronunciation. The paragraph also touches on the standardization of spelling through the printing press and how it sometimes preserved old pronunciations that were no longer in use. The discussion concludes with the GVS's role in shaping the English language as a reflection of England's historical and cultural evolution.

15:01

🎤 The Cultural Relevance of Language Differences: Tomato vs. Tomahto

The final paragraph wraps up the discussion by returning to the cultural significance of language differences, exemplified by the pronunciation of 'tomato' and 'tomahto'. It suggests that the difference in pronunciation may have been an affectation of the 18th-century upper-class English and implies that such differences are not as important as they might seem, echoing the sentiment of the Gershwin song. The paragraph also invites viewers to engage with the content by liking, commenting, and subscribing, highlighting the interactive aspect of the video script.

Keywords

💡Ketchup

Ketchup is a condiment made primarily from tomatoes, vinegar, sugar, and spices. In the video, ketchup serves as a conversational entry point to discuss the pronunciation of 'tomato', which is a central theme of the video. The mention of ketchup highlights the historical and cultural significance of food items and their terms in language evolution.

💡Pronunciation

Pronunciation refers to the way in which words are articulated when spoken. The script delves into the pronunciation of 'tomato' and 'tomahto', illustrating how language pronunciation can vary and become a subject of cultural or class distinction, as exemplified in the Gershwin song from the movie 'Shall We Dance'.

💡Great Vowel Shift (GVS)

The Great Vowel Shift (GVS) is a historical linguistic phenomenon that occurred in the English language between the mid-14th and 18th centuries. It marked a significant transformation in the pronunciation of long vowels, affecting the transition from Middle English to Modern English. The GVS is a key concept in the video, as it provides a historical context for changes in English pronunciation, including that of 'tomato'.

💡Historical Events

Historical events are significant occurrences in the past that have a lasting impact on societies and cultures. The script discusses how events like the Black Death and the Hundred Years War influenced the English language, particularly through population migration and the mixing of dialects, which in turn affected pronunciation and词汇 usage.

💡Black Death

The Black Death, also known as the bubonic plague, was a devastating pandemic that swept through Europe in the 14th century. The video suggests that the mass depopulation and subsequent migration it caused may have contributed to the Great Vowel Shift by bringing together people with different dialects and accents, thus altering the English language.

💡Norman Conquest

The Norman Conquest refers to the 1066 invasion of England by William the Conqueror, which led to significant cultural and linguistic changes. The script explains that the imposition of French as the language of the court and the subsequent anglicization of the Normans influenced the development of Middle English and contributed to the GVS.

💡Anglo-Norman

Anglo-Norman is a unique form of French that developed in England after the Norman Conquest. It was used by the Norman rulers and their descendants, who increasingly adopted English. The script mentions Anglo-Norman as a factor in the GVS, as the French spoken by the English elite was heavily influenced by English, affecting pronunciation.

💡Hundred Years War

The Hundred Years War was a series of conflicts between England and France that began in 1337. The video suggests that this war may have indirectly influenced the GVS by causing migration due to troop movements and fostering resentment towards the French language, which could have affected English pronunciation.

💡Loanwords

Loanwords are words adopted from another language and integrated into a speaker's language. The script discusses how French loanwords in English, particularly during the period of the Norman Conquest, contributed to the transformation of English pronunciation and the GVS.

💡Chain Shift

A chain shift is a linguistic concept where a change in the pronunciation of one sound triggers a series of changes in other sounds to maintain phonetic balance. The video mentions chain shift as a possible mechanism behind the large-scale changes of the GVS, where a small alteration could lead to a cascade of adjustments in vowel pronunciation.

💡Standardization of Spelling

The standardization of spelling refers to the process of establishing uniform spelling rules for a language. The script notes that the timing of the GVS coincided with the standardization of English spelling through printing, which sometimes did not reflect the pronunciation changes, leading to the irregular spelling and pronunciation seen in modern English.

💡Cultural Identity

Cultural identity is the sense of belonging to a cultural group characterized by shared values, traditions, and history. The video implies that the English language's evolution, including the GVS, is tied to the development of a distinct English cultural identity, separate from the influence of French and other foreign elements.

Highlights

The pronunciation of 'tomato' is a subject of historical linguistic interest due to its variations.

The Great Vowel Shift (GVS) was a period of radical change in English pronunciation between the mid-14th and 18th centuries.

The GVS was first described by Danish linguist Otto Jespersen and is a key example of the connection between historical events and language.

The GVS affected long vowels and some consonants, transitioning English from Middle to Modern English.

The exact nature of the GVS is still disputed among scholars, with variations in pronunciation changes over geography and time.

Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare would have had difficulty understanding each other due to the GVS.

The GVS can be partially understood through clues like rhymes in poetry and spelling in personal correspondence.

Elizabeth I's spelling provides evidence of the shift from Middle to Modern English pronunciation.

The reasons behind the GVS are perplexing, with factors such as population migration and the mixing of dialects being suggested.

The Black Death led to significant population movements and may have influenced the GVS.

The Hundred Years War and the resentment towards the French language might have contributed to the GVS.

The GVS is unique to English and did not occur in other Romance languages during the same period.

The pronunciation of 'tomato' as 'tomahto' was an affectation of 18th-century upper-class Englishmen in southern England.

The GVS and its effects on pronunciation are still evident in modern English, with some words having multiple pronunciations.

The GVS is a testament to the complex history of the English language and its development over time.

The history of 'tomato' and 'tomahto' reflects broader linguistic changes and cultural shifts in England.

Transcripts

recently we did an episode on ketchup

and of course today ketchup is mostly

made from tomatoes and that led a viewer

to send me a question about the English

pronunciation of the word tomato and

asked me well which one is correct and

that is a popular question because of a

song written by George and Ira Gershwin

for the 1937 Fred Astaire and Ginger

Rogers movie shall we dance with the

lyrics you say tomato and I say tomato

you say potato and I say potato let's

call the whole thing off in the the song

says a lot of things about class and

culture but the real point of the song

is that the difference is unimportant I

mean after all tomatoes and tomatoes are

the same thing but how tomato and tomato

came to be pronounced differently is an

interesting historical question because

history surprisingly affects language

and in the history of language a change

that would have changed the

pronunciation of the word tomato and

virtually the whole of the English

language stands out as a shining example

of the intimate connection between

historical events and the words that

describe them the period of the rapid

transformation of the pronunciation of

English that was called the great vowel

shift deserves to be remembered the

great vowel shift or gvs refers to a

period of radical change in how the

English language is spoken the shift

roughly occurred in England between the

mid 14th century in the 18th century

although some argue that it may have

started earlier and did later the term

itself was coined by Otto Jespersen a

Danish linguist and anglicized whose

focus at the time was on the history of

language Jesperson described the GPS in

his 1909 work a modern English grammar

on historical principles the GPS

represents the transition from middle

english to modern english and it mostly

affected the so called long vowels

although it affected some consonants as

well the description of exactly how it

occurred is still a matter of scholarly

disputed didn't occur evenly over either

geography or time that is to say that

affected

Scotland in northern England and

southern England differently and at

different times and it occurred in bits

and starts over a period of centuries

but while other languages have undergone

vowel shifts the significant

transformation and how English

was pronounced over just a few centuries

was well exceptional as to the actual

pronunciation differences I'll largely

leave that up to linguist to describe

but the shift significantly affected how

words with long vowels were pronounced

the word bite for example with a long I

would have in the Middle English of

southern England been pronounced like

the word beat whereas beat would have

been pronounced more like the word bade

which would have pronounced something

like bot and all that means that

Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare

would have had difficulty having a

conversation with each other

well we modern English speakers can read

Chaucer's Middle English and are usually

forced to some time in high school

Chaucer's pronunciation would have been

almost completely unintelligible to the

modern ear the English of William

Shakespeare after the great vowel shift

on the other hand would be accented but

quite understandable that of course

leaves the interesting question of how

we would know how these words were

pronounced differently since there's no

sound recording from the time and the

question is part of the reason that

there's still disagreement over exactly

how the gb/s occurred but it can be

divined from Clues such as what words

poets rind or playwrights used as pawns

Chaucer rhymed words that Shakespeare

did not Chaucer for example rhymed the

word daffy meaning you can't hear with

the word life which was then spelled ly

F today the words life and death don't

rhyme but in Chaucer's time they did

they were pronounced deef and lief

another example is how people spelled

words in personal correspondence

Elizabeth the first spelled deep di PE

and need an ID this indicates that by

her time words spelled with a E had

already at pronunciation from the a

sound of middle English to the long e

sound we use in modern English from Depp

and Ned to deep and need so her use of

the spelling of middle English where I

was pronounced e indicates the

pronunciation of early modern English

after the great vowel shift - there were

scholars at the time noting some of the

changes and some even proposed new

systems of spelling to represent the

changes those can help us understand how

the changes occurred but while the

question of how the shift occurred is

interesting the question of why is even

more perplexing and there's even less

agreement among scholars about that but

somehow history change

language what happened in England and

the approximately 160 years between

Geoffrey Chaucer's death and William

Shakespeare's birth that made it so that

to acknowledge masters of the English

language could not have understood each

other speaking their own version of

English

how did history transform language it's

a difficult question to answer there's

little agreement because scholars can't

even agree over when the great vowel

shift began one of the most significant

factors has been suggested to explain

the rapid shift in language was

population migration pronunciation

buried in medieval England where the

typical person never wandered farther

afield than a dozen miles from their

home areas developed dialects

essentially regional languages but

events in the 14th century drove greater

migration and especially congregation in

the cities which then brought together

people who had different accents and

dialects and the mixing of those changed

the language part of the reason goes

back to Norman rule after William the

Conqueror's victory in 1066 the rulers

of England primarily spoke French albeit

the more country-bumpkin Norman French

as opposed to Parisian French for the

following three hundred years the

language of the court and government was

French

while written language was mainly done

in Latin but some 95 percent of the

population still spoke English as the

Norman rulers Youth English as a low and

vulgar tongue it went unregulated and

was mainly a spoken language rather than

a written language combined with low

population mobility that led to the

development of regional dialects or at

least a further diversion from dialects

of Old English some linguists estimate

that a common person in England in the

12th century would not be able to

understand the English language spoken

just fifty miles away but in the 14th

century people moved the likely cause

was the black play the first known case

of the illness in England was a sailor

from Gascony in June of 1348 by December

the outbreak was estimated killed

between 40 and 60 percent of the

population the impacts of this mass

depopulation were profound changing

economics and culture but could it

change language the initial reaction to

the depopulation of the plague was for

people to Fleet locations with high

mortality rates like London but an

interesting study published last year

looking at data from medieval cities

found a surprising result this

the devastation of the plague and

periodic return of the illness urban

populations recovered to pre plague

populations by the 16th century further

research on abandoned rural villages and

deforestation suggests that rural

populations decreased over the same

period and took more than a century more

to return to the pre plague population

the result is counterintuitive

the general thought would be that places

harder hit by the pandemic would recover

more slowly both because their

population was harder head and because

people would be reticent to return to

high mortality areas instead the data

suggest that people moved from low

mortality areas in the country to high

mortality areas in the city the

conclusion is that factors such as

quality of land and human infrastructure

such as roads and trade routes affected

migration more than mortality rates as

the population decreased people move

from more marginal land and land with

fewer amenities to areas with better

agricultural land and more amenities the

finding support the idea that southeast

England including London saw a

significant increase in immigration from

the northern England following the

pandemic this conclusion is supported by

records that have been accumulated by

the universities of York and Sheffield

in England's immigrants database which

tracks emigration to England between

1330 and 1550 in the period following

the plague the resulting labor shortage

meant a demand for labour

thus conditions and wages were

relatively good compared to many places

in Europe that attracted immigrants from

the rest of the British Isles Northwest

Europe and even farther afield the

research suggests as many as one in

every hundred people in medieval England

was an immigrant the result is not just

a mixing of English dialects but of

foreign loanwords over much of the

period of the great vowel shift in

loanwords particularly French loanwords

or another part of the explanation

the Normans brought a huge number of

French words into the English language

thousands of them those French words in

pronunciations of course would transform

language for example names for animals

cow pig sheep although pronounced

differently in Middle English than

modern English came from English but the

names for their meat beef pork mutton

were derived from French courts of

justice were also conducted largely in

French so many Englishmen while still

primarily speaking English also learned

French but why would this mix of

languages cause a vowel shift hundreds

of years after the Norman Conquest

well the French used by the court

developed into a unique form called

anglo-norman the Normans became

increasingly anglicized over time Norman

Nobles became increasingly likely to

speak English as well as French the loss

of Normandy to philip ii of france and

1204 meant that Norman Nobles started

becoming more dependent upon their

English holdings and divorced from the

French Court and customs increasingly

the people in power were speaking

English but with a heavy French accent

and were speaking a version of French

that was highly influenced by English

and the people who were not in power

wanted to sound more like the people who

were in power because it was more

prestigious the effect of French

loanwords on English pronunciation was

further impacted by war with the French

the series of conflicts that would be

called the Hundred Years War began in

1337 the war itself might have impacted

language in a few ways for example

causing migration based on the

recruitment and movement of troops and

the number of Englishmen who spent time

on the continent fighting in the wars

but the war also created a resentment

towards the French language as the

language of the enemy Henry the fourth

who to post his nephew Richard ii in

1399 was the first English King for whom

English was his mother tongue and he

took his oath in English this new

aversion to French even as the

conversion of french-speaking Nobles to

english-speaking increase the use of

loanwords may have caused an

overcorrection when the pronunciation of

French derived words was changed to

sound less French this overcorrection

might explain why a language so

influenced by Romance languages ended up

being pronounced so differently from

them but this doesn't really explain why

the change was so massive well some

linguists think that that might be

explained by something called a chain

shift roughly speaking that means that a

small change might cause a change

somewhere else for example pronouncing a

vowel one way differently might require

them that another vowel be pronounced

differently so that the two don't sound

too much alike phonological systems tend

to naturally seek economy and symmetry

and well it's not as mechanistic as it

sounds what it means is that a small

shift might have driven a chain of

shifts that led to something large like

the great vowel shift one result of the

great vowel shift is that it partially

explains why English is so well

difficult spread more or less haphazard

over time in geography the great vowel

shift did not apply uniformly to all

relevant words for example the letter

combination spelled ei was pronounced a

in Middle English meek was met it went

through a phase or was pronounced a meet

would have been mate and then finally

the long e sound it has today meet along

with words like speak and being but some

words got stuck along the way met became

meet but stay which would originally

have been pronounced stack got stuck in

the middle at stake with words like

great didn't move along to become steek

and a few other words took another shift

to a diphthong or combined vowel sound

to make words like bear and swear in

Middle English those words would have

alright but in modern English that same

vowel combination is pronounced three

different ways it was roughly over the

same period that printing in England was

standardizing spelling in English some

of the new standardized Spelling's

missed the effects of the gb/s and thus

many words in english are not written as

they sound in Chaucer's time to e at the

end of words would have been pronounced

as with all consonants many of the

sounds have become silent in smoking

language but the letters were still

retained in printing in other cases word

spelling was changed and that obscured

the relationship between them and the

European languages from which they were

derived there's more confusion as

there's still many artifacts of middle

English for example the word Shire every

Britain will tell you that

Buckinghamshire Oxfordshire and

Bedfordshire are pronounced

Buckinghamshire Oxfordshire and Bedford

sure the reason is not laziness a

dialect it's that the pronunciation of

those names was set before the great

vowel shift when Shire would have been

pronounced Shearer those names are

literally artifacts of anyone's past and

speaking of England's past ween the

conquerors Domesday book from which

we've learned so much about England's

past is pronounced doomsday but spelled

Domesday do mes da why not because the

Normans couldn't spell but because dome

was pronounced doomed before the great

vowel shift and so the Norman King who

spoke French left us an artifact of

middle English

one of the most interesting things about

the great vowel shift is that it didn't

occur elsewhere on the continent I mean

all languages are subject to some amount

of vowel shift but the French language

for example hardly changed over the same

period even though the French faced the

same plague and the same war the great

vowel shift is an artifact of the

uniqueness of English history of Norman

Lords who spoke a bastardized form of

French and of a language of a population

that was considered so low class that

went unregulated only to rise again and

have to find its own path it's of a

language that is permeated by foreign

words whose foreign pronunciations at

some points were considered desirable

and at other points considered anathema

as the nation found its identity it

represents a period where England went

from a backwater vassal of the French to

a great nation in its own right of a

period when the people moved from

largely rural to much more urban it is a

language that is as complex as the

history of the English people so what

about tomato and tomahto

well Chaucer likely would have

pronounced that tomahto except that

tomatoes hadn't been introduced to

England in Chaucer's time Shakespeare

would have recognized what a tomato was

but he likely would have pronounced it

with the short a and called it a tomato

in in modern English it was pronounced

tomato for a very long time he was

nothing but an affectation of 18th

century upper-class Englishman in

southern England that turned chance

dance and Castle into Charles dolls and

Castle and turned tomato into tomahto

and like the song implies maybe that

difference isn't all that important and

we don't really have to call the whole

thing off I hope you enjoyed this

episode of the history guy short

snippets a forgotten history between ten

and fifteen minutes long and if you did

enjoy please go ahead and click that

thumbs up button if you have any

questions or comments or suggestions for

future episodes please write those in

the comment section I will be happy to

personally respond be sure to follow the

history guy on Facebook Instagram

Twitter and check out our merchandise on

teespring com and if you'd like more

episodes on forgotten history all you

need to do is

scribe

[Music]