The Great Vowel Shift was a massive sound change during the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries in how long vowels in English were pronounced. First described by Danish linguist Otto Jesperson (at left), the Great Vowel Shift has had long-term implications for, among other things, spelling, the teaching of reading, and the understanding of any English-language text written before or during the Shift. Dr. Melinda Menzer of the Furman English Department, in conjunction with several Furman English majors, created a website to explain this linguistic phenomenon, complete with a moving mouth and spoken voice. Dr. Menzer and her students have presented this widely-recognized site at several conferences. If you would like to see and hear why you don't pronounce things the same way Chaucer did, check out her web page for more information.

     The Great Vowel Shift

     Furman Department of English