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COPYRIGHT 2004 Adam Mickiewicz University Press
ABSTRACT
The paper discusses the early i-/y-spellings which may indicate the narrowing of the long mid close vowel [e: > i:] even before the 15th century, a date generally considered the initial stage of the Great Vowel Shift. The change, especially round before [r], with only a few examples in other contexts, shows a pattern typical of lexical diffusion. As regards regional distribution, the early raising was in all probability initiated in the non-Western areas of England, most of the relevant evidence coming from Eastern and Northern dialects.
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1. Early e-raisings in English
It is common knowledge that the raising of the long mid-front vowel [e:] to [i:], as in green, meet, tree, etc., is part of a sequence of changes known as the Great Vowel Shift. According to Jordan's (1925 [1974]) and Luick's (1940) classic studies of English phonology, e- and o-raising as well as the remaining three changes (a-raising, i-/u-diphthongisation) took place in the 15th century. However, from the very beginning such dating has been contested by historical linguists who adduced instances of spellings indicating a raised pronunciation of the vowel. Especially frequent proved to bu i-spellings for the earlier e-spellings reflecting long close [e:]. For example, in Layamon's Brut (c. 1200; MS Cott. Calig. A ix) one tan find forms like spiche (OE sp(r)eche 'speech') or sichinde (present participle of OE secan 'seek'). It is even more surprising that the spelling -hydan for -hedan 'heed' occurs as early as Old English (a metrical paraphrase of Psalm LV (LVI), v. 6 (7); cf. Malone 1930).
Quite numerous are forms with the early narrowing in Sir Ferumbras, a metrical romance representing the Southwestern dialect of Devonshire (1380; MS Ashmole 33, Bodleian Library). Among others, the text contains rhymes like me : companee, with a reverse spelling which may testify to the raising of the long close vowel le:]. On the other hand, the early rhymes adduced in Prins's (1942a, 1942b) two well-known articles cannot be treated as the evidence of early narrowing because of the writer's improper interpretation of the spelling evidence (cf. Ikegami 1997).
However, other Old English forms reflecting e-raising are quite numerous. It is sufficient to quote fyt (OE fet; Cart. Sax. II 134, 27), hir (OE her; Lindisfarne Gosp., Mark), slypton (preterite plural of slepan 'sleep'; Psalm LXXV, 6) or scip (OE scep 'sheep'; Lindisfarne Gosp., Matth. 12, 12). All these instances testify to an Old English and Early Middle English tendency to raise long close [e:]. But Malone (1930) rejects a hypothesis of the early occurrence of the Great Vowel Shift, stating that occasional early i-forms should be explained not "as anticipations of the vowel-shift of the fifteenth century, but as survivals of a pronunciation which was more or less current in OE."
Another type of e-raising tan be identified in Southeastern England, i.e. in Kent, where forms like bye[thorn] (3sg present of OE beo[thorn] 'be'), dyevel (OE deofol 'devil') were standard spellings. However, such spellings seem to have represented long close [e:] rather than long [i:], if not diphthongs, and their interpretation remains an open issue.
The author of the present study does not consider the above examples as illustrations of the initial stage of the Great Vowel Shift simply because the effects of these changes were short-lived. None of the words with spellings modified to managed to survive into Late Middle English, and none of them participated in the 15th century diphthongization [i:] > [ii], a part of the Great Vowel Shift.
2. The study
The corpus of the present study only...
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