Change and Development in the English Language22 Essay

Change and Development in the English Language22 - Essay Example However, later this practice was reversed. At the end of Late West Saxon era there were again changes made to the vowels structure. Vowels were usually lengthened in open syllables (13th century), except when trisyllabic laxing would apply. Remaining unstressed vowels merged into //. (IPA transcription text of text 174-Late Saxon english , Last line last word). Similary in the S. Midland era, further changes to the vowels were made. The changes in vowels in this era is known as "Great Vowel Shift. The changes in Great Vowel Shift were that all long vowels raised or diphthongized. /a/, //, /e/ become //, /e/, /i/, respectively. (IPA Transcription text 174-S.Midland English, 1st line second word) ,//, /o/ become /o/, /u/, respectively. (IPA Transcription text 174-S.Midland English,5th line 1st word), and also /i/, /u/ become /i/ and /u/, later /ai/. Apart from changes in vowel, the other main change was Changes in Diphthong. Inherited height-harmonic diphthongs were monophthongized by the loss of the second component, with the length remaining the same. // and // became // and //. (as appeared throughtout in IPA transcription text of text 174-Late Saxon english for e-g in the first line second word second alphabet). In S. Midlands Loss of most remaining diphthongs. Like /ou/ (and former /u/, merged into /ou/ in Early Middle English) became /o/ and /ei/ became /e/ after the shift causing the long mid mergers. (as appeared in IPA transcription Text 174 S Midlands, 4th line 8 word) There were also changes made in Syllables which was first step of transition towards the development of modern English. In Late-West Saxon era, there was Middle English open syllable lengthening: Vowels were usually lengthened in open syllables (13th century), except when trisyllabic laxing would apply (as discussed in the vowels part. In S.Midlands there was a Loss of // in final syllables. How many different dialects of english and prnounciation do we hear nowadays. All these were part of development of English from Late West Saxon Era and S.Midland's era. The major pronounciation that took place in Late West Saxon era was Voiced fricatives became independent phonemes through borrowing and other sound changes and /sw/ before back vowel becomes /s/; /mb/ becomes /m/. (as in Sword and lamb became sord and lam in pronounciation). In the S.Midland era, there were some pronounciation changes as well. This era is marked by the development of some the common accents including some in Northern England, East Anglia, South Wales. Thus, the development of English has a history to tell. It has seen thousand of years of development before it has come in its modern form. It has become a common language because it is a mixture of many languages particulary German and who knows how many other languages had played their part in its development. English, at first was difficult but it was more towards the German. But as the times passed various changes like Changes in Vowels , Diaphtongs, and Syllables made it easy to read, write and speak. Thus, due to this progress, changes and development of English, we see it today as a language of common-culture and people from different parts of the World use it as their means of communication. References : Wikipedia.com