A History of English Language

The renaissance, 1500-1650 219
heap with keep, speak with seek, etc. Toward the close of the fifteenth century an attempt
was made to distinguish between them by the spelling. The closer sound was often
spelled with ee or ie (deep, field) while the more open sound was as often written ea (sea,
clean). But the practice was not consistently carried out. Although the two sounds are
now identical, this variation in spelling is a reminder of the difference in pronunciation
that long existed. We should also probably notice considerable difference in the
pronunciation of words containing a This regularly developed into [u:], as in
room, food, roof, root, and it retains this sound in many words today. In some words the
vowel was shortened in the fifteenth century and was unrounded to the sound in blood,
flood. In still other words, however, it retained its length until about 1700 but was then
shortened without being unrounded, giving us the sound in good, stood, book, foot. It is
apparent that in Shakespeare’s day there was much fluctuation in the pronunciation of
words containing this Middle English vowel, both in the different parts of the country and
in the usage of different individuals. Consequently we find in the poetry of the period a
word like flood rhyming not only with blood but also with mood and good. In fact, as late
as Dryden we find in the same rhyme flood—mood—good, the three developments of the
sound at the present day. It is only in recent times that the pronunciation of these words
has been standardized, and even today there is some vacillation between a long and short
vowel in some of them, for example, in broom, room, and roof. In addition to such
differences in the quality of vowels there were some differences of accent. Shakespeare
said persev′er, demon′strate, and generally aspect′, de′testable, while he has charact′er,
com′mendable, envy′, se′cure, welcome′, etc., in contrast to the accentuation that is
customary in these words today. On the whole, however, we should probably have little
more difftculty in understanding Shakespeare’s pronunciation than we experience in
listening to a broad Irish brogue. The situation would be very different with the language
of Chaucer. And the reason is that in the course of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
the vowels of Middle English, especially the long vowels, underwent a wholesale but
quite regular shifting, about which something must be said.
174. The Importance of Sound-changes.
The subject of sound-changes is just as important in the history of languages as the
changes in grammar and vocabulary. But it lends itself less readily to generalization and
brief presentation. Any treatment of even the vowels, if it would have value, must
proceed by examining each of the vowel sounds individually, determining its character at
a given time, tracing its source in the preceding period, and following its subsequent
development both independently and under the influence of neighboring sounds and
varying conditions of accent, often noting significant differences in its development in
different dialects, and, sometimes, in individual words, its modification through the
analogical influence of other words. It is obviously impossible to enter upon such a study
here. Some sounds in English have been less subject to change than others and would
offer little difficulty. For example, the short e under certain conditions has remained
unchanged since Old English times: OE bĕdd is still bed today. On the other hand, to take
a fairly simple case, the ā in OE stān (stone) became about 1100 a sound like that in law