Editing Great Vowel Shift (section)

===Middle English vowel system===
{{more citations needed section|date=March 2020}}
Before the Great Vowel Shift, Middle English in Southern England had seven long vowels, {{IPA|/iː eː ɛː aː ɔː oː uː/}}. The vowels occurred in, for example, the words ''mite'', ''meet'', ''meat'', ''mate'', ''boat'', ''boot'', and ''bout'', respectively.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Southern Middle English<br>vowel system
!
! front !! back
|-
! close
| {{IPA|/iː/}}: ''mite'' || {{IPA|/uː/}}: ''bout''
|-
! close-mid
| {{IPA|/eː/}}: ''meet'' || {{IPA|/oː/}}: ''boot''
|-
! open-mid
| {{IPA|/ɛː/}}: ''meat'' || {{IPA|/ɔː/}}: ''boat''
|-
! open
| {{IPA|/aː/}}: ''mate'' || —
|}

The words had very different pronunciations in Middle English from those in Modern English:
* '''Long ''i''''' in ''mite'' was pronounced as {{IPA|/iː/}}, so Middle English ''mite'' sounded similar to Modern English ''meet''.
* '''Long ''e''''' in ''meet'' was pronounced as {{IPA|/eː/}}, so Middle English ''meet'' sounded similar to modern Australian English ''met'' but pronounced longer.
*'''Long ''a''''' in ''mate'' was pronounced as {{IPA|/aː/}}, with a vowel similar to the broad ''a'' of ''ma''.
* '''Long ''o''''' in ''boot'' was pronounced as {{IPA|/oː/}}, so Middle English ''boot'' sounded similar to modern Southern England, Australian and New Zealand English ''bought''.

In addition, Middle English had: 
* '''Long {{IPA|/ɛː/}}''' in ''meat'', like Received Pronunciation ''air'', or modern short ''e'' in ''met'' but pronounced longer.
* '''Long {{IPA|/ɔː/}}''' in ''boat'', with a vowel similar to ''aw'' in modern Northern England English ''law'', or like modern Southern England, Australian and New Zealand English ''bot'' but pronounced longer.
* '''Long {{IPA|/uː/}}''' in ''bout'', similar to Modern English ''boot''.