1. Martha’s Vineyard Change
Change in dipthongs:
[au]  [əu]
(“trout, house”)
[ai]  [əi]
(“night, like”)
Why these two sounds? Is there a connection between the changes?

2. a, e, i, o, u (as in pan, pen, pin, upon, pun)
Vowel sounds
Say the following vowel sounds aloud:
a, e, i, o, u (as in pan, pen, pin, upon, pun)
What differences can you spot between the position of your tongue in your mouth as you say these words?

3. How does this relate to Martha’s Vineyard?
Vowel triangles
High
[i]
[u]
Front [e]
[o] Back
[a]
Low
How does this relate to Martha’s Vineyard?

4. Martha’s Vineyard : Vowel shifts
Change in dipthongs:
[au]  [əu]
(“trout, house”)
[ai]  [əi]
(“night, like”)
High
[i]
[u]
Front [e]
[o] Back
[a]
Low
Because the [a] sound is moving up the vowel triangle on one side ( [au]  [əu] ), the opposite sound is copying it ( [ai]  [əi] ).

5. “The Great Vowel Shift”

6. Sally Gunnell interview
Sally Gunnell interview

7. Estuary English: what is happening?
In ‘Estuary English’, the following changes are taking place:
“mean” [miin]  “main” [mein]
“main” [mein]  “mine” [main]
“mine” [main]  “moin” [moin]
“moon” [muun]  “moan” [moun]
“moan” [moun]  “moun” [maun]
“mound” [maund]  “meund” [meund]
Using the vowel triangle, try to work out what is happening with these sounds.
Clue: try to split the dipthongs into two groups to begin with.

8. Estuary English vowel sound shifts

9. Homework: Research William Labov’s study of New York ‘r’ sounds and write up your findings.

10. How might this link to other areas of language change
How might this link to other areas of language change?   What other areas of sound changes might we be interested in?