10-29-2024, 10:18 PM
Quote:The Great Vowel Shift was a series of pronunciation changes in the vowels of the English language that took place primarily between the 1400s and 1600s[1] (the transition period from Middle English to Early Modern English), beginning in southern England and today having influenced effectively all dialects of English. Through this massive vowel shift, the pronunciation of all Middle English long vowels altered. Some consonant sounds also changed, specifically becoming silent; the term Great Vowel Shift is occasionally used to include these consonantal changes.
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The causes of the Great Vowel Shift are unknown[6]: 68 and have been a source of intense scholarly debate; as yet, there is no firm consensus. The greatest changes occurred during the 15th and 16th centuries, and their origins are at least partly phonetic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Vowel_Shift
I have a theory that this was due to an early version of the Mandela Effect, or something like it. A large enough population "timeline shifting" from a world where English is pretty much the same, but pronounced differently, bringing their "radically new" voicing with them. Could this have happened? Other more "scholarly" theories for the Vowel Shift are vague and implausible. If we posit that the Mandela Effect operates "within the cracks" of reality, where a change can occur but yield no definitive proof, then it would make sense that the further back in time we look, where record-keeping and persistent recording was less prevalent, the larger the possible changes could be. Many of the clues we have about pronunciation are vague and interpolated, derived from observations of what poets at the time thought rhymed. We've seen Mandela Effect changes in English spelling, pronunciation, grammar, of minor scope -- could this be the largest one of all?
