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Changes in Long Vowels

i: thy and child
Long i in ME become aI in PDE.
 

	ME	midshift	PDE
"child"

e: she, three, me, years
Long e in ME usually becomes i in PDE. However, there are exceptions. As we see in the word "years," postvocalic r can affect vowels; the e in ME "years" became I before the r (see Görlach 72 for a discussion of postvocalic r and the GVS).
 

	ME	PDE
"she"

 

EXCEPTION	ME	PDE
"years"

e: yea and speke/speak
Long e in ME usually becomes i in PDE, but there are many exceptions. The vowel in "yea," like the vowel in "break" or "Yeats" goes no higher in the mouth than e. (See Pyles and Algeo 173 or Millward 256).  Compare the vowel in "ready" or "leaf" which shortened and stayed at e.
 

	ME	midshift	PDE
"speke"

 

EXCEPTION	ME	PDE
"yea"

a: name and age
Long a in ME becomes e in PDE. ME a is the only phoneme to go through three steps in the GVS. The schwa at the end of ME "name" is lost through the usual processes.
 

	ME	after step 3	after step 5	PDE
"name"

u: loud
Long u in ME becomes aU in PDE; the schwa is lost through the usual schwa-dropping processes.
 

	ME	midshift	PDE
"loud"

o: soon, to and good
Long o in ME becomes u in PDE.  "Good" is not exactly an exception, because the vowel did rise in the GVS; however, after rising, it became lax U.
 

	ME	PDE
"to"

 

pseudo-exception	ME	after shift	PDE
"good"

open o: holy
Long open o in ME becomes o in PDE.
 

	ME	PDE
"holy"

Notes on Changes to Short Vowels

Of course, short vowels were not affected by the GVS.  Here are a few notes on some changes to short vowels that appear in the dialogue

that and Ann
In EMnE, ME short a became æ.
 

	ME	PDE
"Ann"

 

wonder and of
The U in "wonder" and the open o in "of" became schwas.

	ME	PDE
"wonder"