Nice site with loads of sounds demonstrating the GVS - and it's seems that it's mysterious as to why to most people.
It also mentions "advanced" and "conservative" speakers, almost a patchy infection (my words) of the GVS.
http://www.furman.edu/~mmenzer/gvs/
>
> English has of course been more dynamic than most languages because of the
> gradual infiltration into the native speech of the language of the
> conquerors. And then there's that always-mysterious-to-me Great Vowel
> Shift, whereby Chaucer's pronunciation became thoroughly archaic over the
> course of a mere century. I've never understood the mechanism behind this,
> and would love to be informed by anybody out there.
>
> Of course in roaming about in the British Isles I've discovered that the
> vowel shift didn't happen as thoroughly as the textbooks indicate--there
> are corners of the Lake District where Canute the Wise might feel quite at
> home, and I suspect that Henrysoun and Tom Leonard could still chat over a
> pint. Rare and endangered vowels survive even in urban pockets. Which is
> why I like to see British films in France--the subtitles are a big help.
>
> OK, off to a day of meetings. I await enlightenment upon my return.
>
> Mark
>
>
> >On Wed,
> >>
> >>"La «questione della lingua»
> >>The "question of the language", an attempt to establish linguistic norms
> >and
> >>codify the language, engrossed writers of all persuasions. Grammarians
> >>during the 15th and the 16th centuries attempted to confer upon the
> >>pronunciation, syntax, and vocabulary of 14th-century Tuscan the status of
> >a
> >>central and classical Italian speech. Eventually this classicism, which
> >>might have made Italian another dead language, was widened to include the
> >>organic changes inevitable in a living tongue.
> >>
> >>In the dictionaries and publications of the Accademia della Crusca,
> founded
> >>in 1583, which was accepted by Italians as authoritative in Italian
> >>linguistic matters, compromises between classical purism and living Tuscan
> >>usage were successfully effected. The most important literary event of the
> >>16th century did not actually take place in Florence. In 1525 the Venetian
> >>Pietro Bembo (1470-1547) set out his proposals (Prose della volgar
> lingua -
> >>1525) for a standardized language and style: Petrarca and Boccaccio were
> >his
> >>models and thus became the modern classics. Therefore, the language of
> >>Italian literature is modeled on that spoken in Florence in the 15th
> >>century."..
> >>
> >>Which seems to suggest the standardized literary form of Italian is based
> >on
> >>a model which postdates Dante by at least a century, and recall that
> >>modelling does not mean absolute identity, amd most certainly implies that
> >>modern literary Italian, let alone its spoken multiplicities, would not be
> >>identical to the language Dante spoke.
> >>
> >>david bircumshaw
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >I have a problem with this post - David....BOCCACCIO was actually born in
> >1313, and was only a child aged 8 when DANTE died at the age of 56. Do you
> >think that in the same identical town of Florence, the current language
> >spoken by people could so dramatically change - so as to stand as a totally
> >different model to dear Cesare Bembo, as you seem to suggest?
> >
> >And PETRARCA himself who was born in 1304 was himself already 17 when Dante
> >died as a still rather young man, being as Boccaccio, Dante's contemporary
> >fellow. Would you think that the language your children or student use can
> >be ever regarded as considerably different from yours David, as to stand as
> >a different model for a national language? Boccaccio and Petrarca ,
> >moreover , admired Dante and were their followers (Petrarca in particular
> >in his use of the sonetto form). Trust me...it is the Divine Comedy the
> >first model for the present Italian idiom.
> >
> >Therefore, let's correct the wrong information suggested. There is not a
> >century between Dante's language and that of Petrarca and Boccaccio's.
> >Being an Italian speaker and a reader of Petrarca, Boccaccio, Dante, I can
> >assure you that even if there was a century of distance, there would have
> >been NO difference
> >whatsoever.
> >Let me quote from a friend of Dante, Cavalcanti who I consider the
> >greatest model of all:
> >
> >Io vo' come colui ch' e' for di vita
> >che pare a chi lo sguarda como sia
> >fatto di rame o di pietra o di legno
> >e si conduca sol per maestria
> >e porti ne lo core una ferita]
> >che sia com'egli e' morto
> >aperto segno.
> >
>
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