ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the major changes between the late fifteenth and early seventeenth centuries, in particular the Great Vowel Shift: the systematic raising and fronting of Middle English long monophthongs in stressed positions. The chapter looks at written evidence for the Great Vowel Shift, while also exploring new developments in vocabulary and syntax to illustrate how English was becoming a language of intellectual discourse and the literary imagination. The chapter also looks at the ways in which writers of the time were aware of language change and how they sought to describe it.
