LINGUIST List 13.978

Tue Apr 9 2002

Qs: Great V Shift, Eng Syllable Shape Frequencies

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>



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Directory

  • Cornelia Gerhardt, The Great Vowel Shift
  • Dr Martin J. Ball, Syllable shape frequencies in English

    Message 1: The Great Vowel Shift

     Date: Tue, 09 Apr 2002 14:57:01 +0200
    From: Cornelia Gerhardt <c.gerhardtmx.uni-saarland.de>
    Subject: The Great Vowel Shift


    Dear fellow linguists,

    I am looking for publications that discuss the following sociolinguistic explanation of what caused the Great Vowel Shift in English (see Jeremy Smith. 1996. An historical study of English: Function, form and change. London: Routledge.) To put it in a nutshell, the trigger was that East-Anglians and the 'Mopsae' hyperadapted certain features of upper-class London speech.

    Thank you for bibliographical information or your opinion, I'll post a summary.

    Cornelia Gerhardt Lehrstuhl f�r englische Sprachwissenschaft Universit�t des Saarlandes, Saarbr�cken, Germany

    c.gerhardtmx.uni-saarland.de

    Message 2: Syllable shape frequencies in English

     Date: Tue, 09 Apr 2002 08:59:11 -0500
    From: Dr Martin J. Ball <mjb0372louisiana.edu>
    Subject: Syllable shape frequencies in English


    I wonder if colleagues could point me towards any references on syllable shape frequencies in English (any variety)? Specifically I want to know the relative frequency in representative texts of open as opposed to closed syllables; and for closed syllables I wish to find out the relative frequency of final stops, fricatives, nasals and liquids.