Influences of the Black Death on the Great Vowel Shift

【Abstract】The Black Death—a devastating plague of the fourteenth century had a great influence not only on the economics， population and social structures， but also on language changes. As a prominent change in the pronunciation of the English language， the Great Vowel Shift （GVS） had been studied by many scholars. Although most of them had mentioned the relationship between the Black Death and the GVS， few of them had done enough systematic research about it. The singular purpose of this paper is to endeavor to answer the question what were the influences of the Black Death on the GVS.

【Key words】Black Death； Great Vowel Shift （GVS）； influence； language changes

【作者簡介】周鴻，昭通學院，助教，四川大學碩士研究生，研究方向：英語語言學，英語翻譯理論與實踐，商務英語。

1. Introduction

As an important stage in the development of languages， the GVS had a great influence on Modern English and resulted in the major difference between the pronunciation and the spelling system of Modern English. Judging from the time-span of the Black Death and the GVS， we can see that the peaking time of the Black Death （1348-50） is just the beginning of the GVS （1350-1700）， from which we can deduce that the GVS might be largely influenced by the Black Death.

This paper will talk about the impacts of the Black Death on the GVS by analyzing how the disease influenced languages from the following aspects， namely， the mass migration， social mobility and prestige accent. A brief introduction of their background information will be given respectively， so as to simply introduce the Black Death and the GVS.

2. Why the Black Death might be the Possible Reason of the GVS？

2.1 A Brief Introduction of the Black Death

“Ate lunch with their friends， and ate dinner with their ancestors in paradise.” is an Italian writer Boccaccios description of victims during the Black Death—a fatal bubonic plague which is also known as “the Great Mortality” . It affects large geographical areas and “killed anywhere from 33 to 60 percent of Europes total population—roughly 25 to 45 million men， women and children” in the fourteenth century.

It began in central Asia and spread into Italy first， and then swept through much of western and central Europe， including England then followed by Scotland and Scandinavia. The devastation of the plague is beyond measure. It exerted a profound influence on almost every aspect of Europeans lives and resulted in the mass migration， social mobility， political and social upheaval， which might be the possible causes of the GVS.

2.2 A Brief Introduction of the GVS

The Great Vowel Shift is “the systematic shift in the pronunciation of stressed， long vowels in English， which occurred from the middle of the 15th century to the middle of the 16th century in England and permanently changed the pronunciation of the English language. It effectively marks the shift from Middle English to Modern English.”It was first studied by a Danish linguist Otto Jespersen （1860–1943） and helps explain why todays English is not phonetic.

Apart from several exceptions， the major changes of GVS have been though eight steps as followed：

Step 1. The highest vowels [i] and [u] diphthongized and became [??] and [??]

Step 2. [e] and [o] shift upwards and became [i] and [u]

Step 3. [ɑ] became [?]

Step 4. [?] and [?] moved up and became [e] and [o]

Step 5. [?] became [?]

Step 6. [e] moved up to [i]

Step 7. [?] became [e]

Step 8. [?i] and [??] drop to [a?] and [a?]

In the above-mentioned steps， the highest long vowels became diphthongs and the others were raised higher in tongue height. Besides， the transitions among the eight steps are gradual and not always complete. The following examples can best represent the stages of the shift：

2.3 The Influences of the Black Death on the GVS

2.3.1 The Mass Migration

When the deadly pestilence hit the continent， people who can move all tried their best to flee to other places. Wherever they went， they brought with them not only their family members or fortunes but also their vernaculars. To live in the new place， they had to learn the local language and their children had to go to the local school and accepted the education there. Since most primary and secondary school instructors along with most university professors who taught Latin and French died in the devastating disaster， students had to learn vernaculars at that time. However， if there are too many differences among all the vernaculars， its hard for people to communicate with each other， “the difference in accents led to some groups modifying their speech to allow for a standard pronunciation of vowel sounds”.

Apart from those who ran away for their lives， there were some fervent believers who were called flagellants initiated a kind of wired psychological response which was called the flagellants movement of 1348-1350 to the pestilence. Believing that the plague was Gods punishment for human sinfulness， they began traveling across Europe， whipping themselves and each other with knotted ropes publicly at least three times a day. These zealots abused themselves as an act of repentance. Such movement soon spread from Austria to Hungary， Poland， Germany， France， Flanders and Holland. By July of 1349， it had attracted millions of followers in central and Western Europe. While they wandered from town to town， they not only flogged themselves， sang hymns and prayed but also preached to the large crowds who gathered to watch their bizarre performances. Feeling desperate in front of the plague， many people resorted to such kind of self-abuse method and to join these flagellants， people in other places had to learn to speak in the same way like the core members of the movement. While they were preaching， people who were convinced to be members of their religion might want to learn the preachers language since they believed that the language will bring them closer to God. The great migration among believers could be another reason of the GVS， through which people changed their accents and followed the divine language in their minds.

2.3.2 Social Mobility and Prestige Accent

The disease brought a huge social mobility from two aspects. On the one hand， the terrifying pandemic also hit the aristocracy， which left room for some lower level class who survived the pandemic to move up and replaced their place. On the other hand， the poor， especially most serfs who were working for their masters suffered more than the rich during the plague. The great mortality among the lower social ranks led to a serious shortage of labor. Villeins ran away for their lives and those who were left behind had to face the threatening of death and more work and harder working conditions， thus a general spirit of discontent arose， which led to the Peasants Revolt and destroyed some ruling class. Peasants urged an increase of wages and a better working condition. With the help of the plague， they had the bargaining chip and some even take the opportunity to change their social status and became masters themselves. “By the large， the effect of the Black Death was to increase the economic importance of the laboring class and with it the importance of the English language which they spoke.”The rise of the middle class and the change of their social status played an important role in helping English to recover its former prestige.

However， since the medieval aristocracy had spoken French， the upper class still favored it although many of them began to use English by the early 15th century due to the above mentioned reasons. For those who just moved to the high levels， they were much eager to speak English with the “prestige accent”. To distinguish their speech with other lower ranks， they tried to make their pronunciation “more French” in style or changed their speech in some other way， like do some hypercorrection to the former English and made it sound “more English”. When the higher class changed their pronunciation， the middle or low class would again follow the step of the aristocracy to get a prestige accent by themselves as well. All these changes could be the possible reasons that catalyzed the later GVS.

3. Conclusion

A series of movements or changes brought by the Black Death mentioned above accelerated the changing speed of English pronunciation. The great migration of ordinary people and religious believers made languages interact with each other and then urged them to standardize these vernaculars and change their accents to allow for a standard pronunciation or to follow a divine language. To some extent， language is a persons identity. The social mobility during the Black Death changed some peoples social status and these people tended to adjust their pronunciation to make their speech more noble and prestigious. All these could be the factors that influenced the GVS.

At last， one thing should be clear is that although the Black Death might be the possible reason of the GVS， the reason why English changed and the exact cause of the shift are still remain a mystery in linguistics and cultural history.

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