Editing Chain shift (section)

==Examples==
{{Inline audio|section}}
During the Great Vowel Shift in the 15th and 16th centuries, all of the long vowels of Middle English, which correspond to [[tense vowel]]s in Modern English, shifted pronunciation. The changes can be summarized as follows:<ref name="Murray"/><ref name="Fromkin"/>

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Great Vowel Shift
|-
! rowspan="2" | Front vowels
| {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Close-mid front unrounded vowel.ogg|eː}} → {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Close front unrounded vowel.ogg|i:}} → {{Audio-IPA|help=no|En-us-I.ogg|aɪ}}
|-
| {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Open-mid front unrounded vowel.ogg|ɛ:}} → {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Close front unrounded vowel.ogg|i:}} ''or'' {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Close-mid front unrounded vowel.ogg|eː}}
|-
! rowspan="2" | Back vowels
| {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Open-mid back rounded vowel.ogg|ɔː}} → {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Close-mid back rounded vowel.ogg|oː}} → {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Close back rounded vowel.ogg|uː}} → {{Audio-IPA|help=no|En-us-ow.ogg|aʊ}}
|-
| {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Open front unrounded vowel.ogg|aː}} → {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Close-mid front unrounded vowel.ogg|eː}}
|}

Most vowels shifted to a higher [[place of articulation]], so that the pronunciation of ''geese'' changed from {{IPA|/ge:s/}} to {{IPA|/giːs/}} and ''broken'' from {{IPA|/brɔːken/}} to {{IPA|/broːkən/}}. The high vowels {{IPA|/iː/}} and {{IPA|/uː/}} became [[diphthongs]] (for example, ''mice'' changed from {{Audio-IPA|help=no|ME-mice.ogg|/miːs/}} to {{Audio-IPA|help=no|ModE-mice01.ogg|/maɪs/}}), and the low back vowel {{IPA|/aː/}} was [[Fronted (phonetics)|fronted]], causing ''name'' to change from {{Audio-IPA|help=no|ME-name.ogg|/naːmə/}} to {{Audio-IPA|help=no|ModE-name.ogg|/neːm/}}.<ref name="Fromkin"/>

The Great Vowel Shift occurred over centuries, and not all [[Variety (linguistics)|varieties]] of English  were affected in the same ways. For example, some speakers in [[Scotland]] still pronounce ''house'' similarly to its sound in Middle English before the shift, as {{IPA|[hu(ː)s]}}.<ref name="Winkler"/>

A chain shift may affect only one [[regional dialect]] of a language, or it may begin in a particular regional dialect and then expand beyond the region in which it originated. A number of recent regional chain shifts have occurred in English.  Perhaps the most well-known is the [[Northern Cities Vowel Shift]], which is largely confined to the "[[Inland Northern American English|Inland North]]" region of the United States.  Other examples in North America are the [[Western Pennsylvania English|Pittsburgh vowel shift]], [[Southern American English|Southern vowel shift]] (in the [[Southern United States]]), the [[California vowel shift]] and the [[Canadian Shift]] (though the last two may be the same).  In England, the [[Cockney]] vowel shift among working-class Londoners is familiar from its prominence in plays such as [[George Bernard Shaw]]'s ''[[Pygmalion (play)|Pygmalion]]'' (and the related musical ''[[My Fair Lady]]''):{{citation needed|date=February 2017}}
: {{IPA|iː}} → {{IPA|eɪ}} → {{IPA|aɪ}} → {{IPA|ɔɪ}} → {{IPA|oɪ}}

Many chain shifts are [[vowel shift]]s, because many sets of vowels are naturally arranged on a multi-value scale (e.g. [[vowel height]] or frontness).  However, chain shifts can also occur in consonants. A famous example of such a shift is the well-known First Germanic Sound Shift or [[Grimm's Law]], in which the [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] [[voice (phonetics)|voiceless]] [[stop consonant]]s became [[fricative]]s, the plain [[voiced]] stops became voiceless, and the [[breathy voice]]d stops became plain voiced:
: {{IPA|bʱ}} → {{IPA|b}} → {{IPA|p}} → {{IPA|f}}
: {{IPA|dʱ}} → {{IPA|d}} → {{IPA|t}} → {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Voiceless dental fricative.ogg|θ}}
: {{IPA|ɡʱ}} → {{IPA|ɡ}} → {{IPA|k}} → {{IPA|h, x}}

Another is the [[High German consonant shift]] which separated [[Old High German]] from other [[West Germanic languages|West Germanic dialects]] such as [[Old English]], [[Old Frisian]], and [[Old Saxon]]:
:{| class="wikitable"
| {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Voiced alveolar plosive.ogg|d}} → {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Voiceless alveolar plosive.ogg|t}} → {{IPA|ts}}, {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Voiceless alveolar sibilant.ogg|s}}
|-
| {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Voiced velar stop.ogg|ɡ}} → {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Voiceless velar plosive.ogg|k}} → {{IPA|kx}}, {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Voiceless velar fricative.ogg|x}}
|-
| {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Voiced bilabial plosive.ogg|b}} → {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Voiceless bilabial plosive.ogg|p}} → {{IPA|pf}}, {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Voiceless labiodental fricative.ogg|f}}
|}

The Romance languages to the north and west of central Italy (e.g. [[French language|French]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], [[Catalan language|Catalan]] and various northern Italian languages) are known for a set of chain shifts collectively termed ''[[lenition]]'', which affected [[stop consonant]]s between vowels:{{cn|date=April 2022}}
: {{IPA|pp}} → {{IPA|p}} → {{IPA|b}} → {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Voiced bilabial fricative.ogg|β}}, {{IPA|v}}
: {{IPA|tt}} → {{IPA|t}} → {{IPA|d}} → {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Voiced dental fricative.ogg|ð}} (or vanishes)
: {{IPA|kk}} → {{IPA|k}} → {{IPA|ɡ}} → {{Audio-IPA|help=no|Voiced velar fricative.ogg|ɣ}}, {{IPA|j}} (or vanishes)
In this case, each sound became weaker (or more "lenited").