The Great Vowel Shift occurred in the twelfth century until the eighteenth century, but had its main effect in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, the sounds of the long stressed vowels in English changed their places of articulation or how sounds are made. Old and Middle English were written in the Latin alphabet. After the shift, many thought that the pronunciation of English had changed dramatically from its visual representation and a new alphabet was needed. Therefore, in the sixteenth century, the first attempts to reform the English spellings occured.

The Great Vowel Shift 

A vowel shift is a "systematic sound change in the pronunciation of the vowel sounds of a language"

Arizona State University

Vowels are the sounds you make when there’s less obstruction of airflow coming out from your lung. Vowels are mainly voices. Examples include \[ae\], \[au\], \[ow\] and others.

Vowels

Wikipedia

Different from the way we characterize consonants, there are 3 most important characteristics of a vowel:

•	Vowel height, which is roughly the height of highest part of the tongue.

•	Vowel frontness and backness, which represent whether the tongue raise forwards or backwords.

•	Roundness of lips when a vowel is pronounced.


Characteristic of Vowels

A syllable consists of consonants and vowels. For example, the word “dog” is a single syllable, and the word “catnip” has two syllables. 

If a syllable starts with a consonant, then that consonant is called the onset.

The core vowel is called the nucleus. 

If there’s any consonant following a nucleus, it’s called a coda.

Syllables

A long vowel is a vowel that is pronounced for a significant period, usually about twice as long as a short vowel. 

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