The Great Vowel Shift was a huge sound change affecting vowel diction and pronunciation that lasted from 1350 to 1750. Back then, pronouncing words with the vowels sounded flatter and less dynamic, as heard in Old and Middle English. For example, house used to rhyme with moose or whose, so house was pronounced as ‘Hoos.’ Day rhymed with die, east rhymed with best, you get the idea. Of course, english would’ve sounded completely different today, but would it really have an impact on society and pop culture?

The Great Vowel Shift was a huge sound change affecting vowel diction and pronunciation that lasted from 1350 to 1750. Back then, pronouncing words with the vowels sounded flatter and less dynamic, as heard in Old and Middle English. For example, house used to rhyme with moose or whose, so house was pronounced as ‘Hoos.’ Day rhymed with die, east rhymed with best, you get the idea. Of course, english would’ve sounded completely different today, but would it really have an impact on society and pop culture?


It still happens to this day.

In the last 20 years, linguists have finally realized that California has developed it's own unique regional dialect.  To many it is invisible because of hearing it all the time in popular culture, like TV, Movies and music.  But when one Californian meets another across the country, we can often identify each other just by how we talk and what we say.

Some things are just unique to us.  In a great many words (wreck, kettle) the vowel has shifted strongly towards as (they sound more like rack and cattle).  We also tend to pronounce our Spanish names much closer to the original Spanish (most say rodeo as a single syllable where it is almost all run together).  In California it is much more common to pronounce it with 3 clear syllables.  And words like Cahuenga, Camarillo, La Jolla, El Sobrante, and many others.  Even an Easterner or Northerner who has lived here for years will tend to pronounce them very differently, closer to the way it is spelled rather than the way the root words are pronounced in Spanish.  And this has caused us to alter the way we often pronounce R and N.  Even completely Anglo Californians often put a slight roll in our Rs, and an N in the middle of a word is almost always elongated, almost to the point of 2 sounds (Canada is almost Can-na-da here, not Can-a-da).  That is because of the many names with the ñ sound, like La Cañada or Los Baños.

Sometimes people ask me why I pronounce some words differently. One time I was talking about Pink (the singer), and I was asked, "Why do you say Peenk?". And I didn't realize I pronounced it that way. It's just me I guess.

I see I see  :P But the majority of people still uses almost the same vowel diction and pronunciation since 1945, and even though it seems like it still happens to the smallest extent, it's very subtle and almost unnoticeable if you compare it to the 1800s English language. Also, the shift has been very slow since 1750, so the majority of people might still understand 1700s English. With 1500s/1600s English (Shakespeare), the words will seem weird but still understandable, in a written play or book. But, it would be extremely difficult to talk to people if you travelled back.

I have also noticed in the slow, not so great Vowel Shift that some vowel dictions and pronunciation are slowly coming back, as what Jessica Ann said. A few people are doing it, but it's still something. Pink can be pronounced as peenk.

Anyways, but would pop culture and the world be different today? Would we still have iPhones and computers or whatnot?

I tend to say e as ae. I thought it was just an individual quirk, but I must have heard it from somewhere and picked it up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_vowel_shift

"For convenience, California English will be compared with a "typical" General American English, abbreviated "GA". /ɛ/ is pulled towards (wreck and kettle are sounding more like rack and cattle), is pulled towards , and /ɑ/ towards (cot and stock are sounding more like caught and stalk)."