Editing Great Vowel Shift (section)

==Northern English and Scots==
The Great Vowel Shift affected other dialects and the standard English of southern England but in different ways. In [[English in northern England|Northern England]], the shift did not operate on the long [[back vowel]]s because they had undergone an earlier shift.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wales |first=K |year=2006 |title=Northern English: a cultural and social history |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University |page=48}}</ref> Similarly, the [[Scots language|dialect]] in [[Scotland]] had a different vowel system before the Great Vowel Shift, as {{IPA|/oː/}} had shifted to {{IPA|/øː/}} in [[Early Scots]]. In the Scots equivalent of the Great Vowel Shift, the long vowels {{IPA|/iː/}}, {{IPA|/eː/}} and {{IPA|/aː/}} shifted to {{IPA|/ei/}}, {{IPA|/iː/}} and {{IPA|/eː/}} by the [[Middle Scots]] period and {{IPA|/uː/}} remained unaffected.<ref>{{Citation |last1=Macafee |first1=Caroline |last2=Aitken |first2=A. J. |title=A History of Scots to 1700 |series=DOST |volume=12 |url=http://www.dsl.ac.uk/about-scots/history-of-scots/ |pages=lvi–lix}}</ref>

The first step in the Great Vowel Shift in Northern and Southern English is shown in the table below. The Northern English developments of Middle English {{IPA|/iː, eː/}} and {{IPA|/oː, uː/}} were different from Southern English. In particular, the Northern English vowels {{IPA|/iː/}} in  ''bite'', {{IPA|/eː/}} in ''feet'', and {{IPA|/oː/}} in ''boot'' shifted, while the vowel {{IPA|/uː/}} in ''house'' did not. These developments below fall under the label "older" to refer to Scots and a more [[conservative (linguistics)|conservative]] and increasingly rural Northern sound,{{sfn|Lass|2000|pp=76}} while "younger" refers to a more mainstream Northern sound largely emerging just since the twentieth century.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!rowspan="3" |  Word !! colspan="4" | Vowel
|-
! rowspan="2" |  Middle English !!  colspan="3" | Modern English 
|-
!{{small|Scots/ Northern (older)}}!! {{small|Northern (younger)}} !! {{small|Southern}}
|-
! bite
| {{IPA|/iː/}} || {{IPA|/ɛj/}}|| {{IPA|/aj/}}|| {{IPA|/ɑj/}}
|-
! feet
| {{IPA|/eː/}} || {{IPA|/iː/}} || {{IPA|/iː/}} || {{IPA|/ɪj/}}
|-
! house
| {{IPA|/uː/}} || {{IPA|/uː/}} || {{IPA|/ɐw/~/aw/}}|| {{IPA|/aw/}}
|-
! boot
| {{IPA|/oː/}} || {{IPA|/iː/}} || {{IPA|/yː/~/uː/}}|| {{IPA|/ʉw/}}
|}

The vowel systems of Northern and Southern Middle English immediately before the Great Vowel Shift were different in one way. In Northern Middle English, the back close-mid vowel {{IPA|/oː/}} in ''boot'' had already shifted to front {{IPA|/øː/}} (a sound change known as [[fronting (phonetics)|fronting]]), like the long ''{{lang|de|ö}}'' in German {{wikt-lang|de|hören}} {{IPA|de|ˈhøːʁən||De-hören.ogg}} "hear". Thus, Southern English had a back close-mid vowel {{IPA|/oː/}}, but Northern English did not:{{sfn|Lass|2000|pp=74–77}}
{|
|
{| class="wikitable nowrap" style="text-align: center;"
|+ Southern Middle English<br>vowel system
!
! front !! back
|-
! close
| {{IPA|iː}} || {{IPA|uː}}
|-
! close-mid
| {{IPA|eː}} || {{IPA|oː}}
|-
! open-mid
| {{IPA|ɛː}} || {{IPA|ɔː}}
|-
! open
| {{IPA|aː}} || —
|}
|
{| class="wikitable nowrap" style="text-align: center;"
|+ Northern Middle English<br>vowel system
!
! front !! back
|-
! close
| {{IPA|iː}} || {{IPA|uː}}
|-
! close-mid
| {{IPA|eː, øː}} || —
|-
! open-mid
| {{IPA|ɛː}} || {{IPA|ɔː}}
|-
! open
| {{IPA|aː}} || —
|}
|}
In Northern and Southern English, the first step of the Great Vowel Shift raised the close-mid vowels to become close. Northern Middle English had two close-mid vowels – {{IPA|/eː/}} in ''feet'' and {{IPA|/øː/}} in ''boot'' – which were raised to {{IPA|/iː/}} and {{IPA|/yː/}}. Later on{{when|date=September 2024}}, Northern English {{IPA|/yː/}} changed to {{IPA|/iː/}} in many dialects (though not in all, see {{slink|Phonological history of Scots|Vowel 7}}), so that ''boot'' has the same vowel as ''feet''. Southern Middle English had two close-mid vowels – {{IPA|/eː/}} in ''feet'' and {{IPA|/oː/}} in ''boot'' – which were raised to {{IPA|/iː/}} and {{IPA|/uː/}}.

In Southern English, the close vowels {{IPA|/iː/}} in ''bite'' and {{IPA|/uː/}} in ''house'' shifted to become diphthongs, but in Northern English, {{IPA|/iː/}} in ''bite'' shifted but {{IPA|/uː/}} in ''house'' did not.

If the vowel systems at the time of the Great Vowel Shift caused the difference between the Northern and Southern vowel shifts, {{IPA|/uː/}} did not shift because there was no back mid vowel {{IPA|/oː/}} in Northern English. In Southern English, shifting of {{IPA|/oː/}} to {{IPA|/uː/}} could have caused diphthongisation of original {{IPA|/uː/}}, but because Northern English had no back close-mid vowel {{IPA|/oː/}} to shift, the back close vowel {{IPA|/uː/}} did not diphthongise.