Newsgroups: sci.lang
From: ross@foxearth.demon.co.uk (Ross Burgess)
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!howland.reston.ans.net!pipex!demon!foxearth.demon.co.uk!ross
Followup-To: sci.lang
Reply-To: Ross Burgess <ross@foxearth.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: vowel shift in Early English and German
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References: <hplant-2212940045090001@lanrover4-line8.uoregon.edu>
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Date: Wed, 28 Dec 1994 15:55:48 +0000
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In Article 
<hplant-2212940045090001@lanrover4-line8.uoregon.edu> 
Helmut Plant writes:

>German, too, underwent a vowel shift, albeit only of its
>high vowels, both rounded and unrounded; this is known in 
>the trade as the Middle High German diphthongization
>(Mittelhochdeutsche Diphthongierung):
>/mi:n niuwes hu:s/ ==> /main noies haus/ =mein neues Haus 
>'my new house.'
>The difference to the Great Middle English Vowel Shift is 
>in the writing: it changed in German, so that the symbols reflected
>the (new) sounds. The writing in English, however, did not change and
>therefore today fails to reflect this historical vowel shift.

Is this similarity between the changes in English and 
German merely a coincidence, or did one influence the other 
(and if so, which)?

And can anyone suggest why English spelling is more 
conservative than German in this respect?

-- 
      =====================================================
                  Ross Burgess  (Purley, UK)
                  ross@foxearth.demon.co.uk
      =====================================================

