Pronunciation The pronunciation of surnames at the time of their creation is entirely different to that of today. Indeed, pronunciation changed markedly between the time of Chaucer and that of Shakespeare, but subsequently only in small ways. A distinction that should be made here is between a root language change (affecting how all the names in a region were pronounced) and individual name changes – what might be termed surname corruption. David Crystal (2004) has highlighted the distribution of surname forms beginning in w- wh- and qw- in East Anglia at the time of the lay subsidies (in his examples, between 1296 and 1334). The Old English spelling for modern White was Hwit, a voiceless w. Perhaps as a result of Norman influence, the initial h in the consonant cluster was gradually dropped, a process reflected in many other words – hnutu becoming, in turn, nut. This process did not occur uniformly, so that surnames commencing with the the initial wh- consonant cluster, White, Whitbread, Whyting, exist alongside shortened variants, Wyting, Wyteman. The relative proportion changed markedly from one eastern county to another. Moreover, the cluster of spellings with a q- in Norfolk in these Lay Subsidy Rolls, suggests that clerks were interpreting local pronunciation for White as chwite and consequently representing it as Quite in the Rolls. Similar regional dissimilarities can be seen in the word for mill (and the surname Miller). In one place a u substitution was found, e.g. Mulner, Muller; in others an e substitution, e.g. Melner, Meller; in others Milne, Miller, Milner. Please compare the 1881 distributions of these forms. Very few are now associated with the eastern counties. In fact, the only significant Qu- surname strongly now associated with Norfolk is Quantrill/Quintrell, which is a nickname of French lexical derivation (Cointerel = a beau) and not of w- derivation. (Source: The Stories of English by David Crystal, pub. 2004, Overlook TP (UK) ISBN 978-1585677191 pp140-143.) Overall, the biggest changes were in the vowel-system and the main changes are referred to as the Great Vowel Shift (GVS). What is the Great Vowel Shift? The GVS was a massive sound change that affected the long vowels of English. In the process, these were now pronounced higher and the tongue moved more to the front of the mouth. This complex phenomenon proceeded at different rates in different dialects. It did not happen overnight, but started in the fifteen century, and was not fully complete till the end of the eighteenth century. At any given time, people of different ages and from different regions would have different pronunciations of the same word. True to say that even today, one can say a word like route to rhyme with either boot or out. However, sociolinguists suspect that, especially in the sixteenth century, the opposing methods of pronunciation were class-based. Some regional speech still reflects pronunciation pre-GVS. For example the Chaucerian pronunciation of the vowel in goat to rhyme with saw, is still heard in Yorkshire and house to rhyme with goose in the north of England. Because of dialectical variation, in some specific words the long vowels did not undergo the GVS e.g. break, great, steak, and yea. Sound Changes in the Long Vowels, (as in…) as in far as in bad (London pronunciation) as in French faire German Zehn tree dipthonged as in time > by 1600 > >by 16th C >by 1500 >by early 15th C. as in saw as in French chose as in goose dipthonged as in poor >by 16/17th C >by 1500 >by early 15th C. Phonetic Consonant loss Initial k e.g. knee, knight Sounded up to c 1600 Initial g e.g. gnat Sounded up to c 1600 Initial w e.g. write Sounded up to c 1600 Examples of pronunciation change on words Modern word Chaucerian pronunciation Shakespearian pronunciation tide as in tree – teed as in admit – tah’d green as in German zehn – grehn as in tree – green meat as in French faire – may-t as in German zehn – meh’t house as in goose – hoose as in go – ho’se knee as in German zehn – k’nay as in tree – k’nee Note: I would like to use phonetic symbols, but am prevented by the lack of standardisation until Unicode is completed The situation was slightly more complicated than this, and anyone wanting to take this further should consult the standard texts. Did the GVS affect surnames? Certainly in how they were pronounced, but not necessarily in how they were spelt. The present-day English spelling reflects Middle English pronunciation: the pronunciation of English before the GVS. “Although the present-day name, and its variants, WEACKES, WEACKS, WEAK, WEAKE, WEAKES,WEAKS, WECKES, WECKS, WEECKES, WEECKS, WEEK,WEEKES, WEEKS, WEYKES, WHICKS, WHIKES, WHYKES, WICK, WICKE, WICKES, WICKS, WIKE, WIKES, WIX, WIXE,WYCK, WYCKES and WYKE in all probability have several different origins, it is likely that one source of the name originates in Saxon times – a wyke was the Saxon term for a dairying hamlet, or small village. It seems likely that the current pronunciation of the name Wykes, with a soft vowel sound, originated, or became more prevalent, in the 18th century. Prior to this, there is evidence to suggest that it was pronounced with a strong vowel sound, as one would pronounce Wicks or Wix or perhaps Weeks. Chaucer uses the spelling wykes for the plural of week (as in 7 days) in the Canterbury Tales. Modern pronunciation of the name Wykes seems to be fairly consistent, rhyming with likes, hikes and pikes.” (Reproduced by kind permission of Harry Whykes.) The surname ‘Dance’ was often recorded as ‘Daunce’ or ‘Dawnce’ prior to 1600. It seems to have been pronounced as if to rhyme with haunts. Words like dance, aunt and chance have origins in borrowings into Middle English from French. “They entered English with an au spelling which, according to Dobson (1968 II:786), corresponded to a dipthong that was later monophthongised into a short a in some areas and a long a in other areas.” After 1600, the au spelling falls away, as if to reflect that the vowel has been shortened, even in the south where the name is predominantly found. This echoes the fact that there was a sporadic shortening of vowels in words of one syllable (especially if they ended in a single consonant). Often short and long variants would be in circulation simultaneously. (Source: Baths and Becks by Anthea Fraser Gupta in English Today 81 (Jan 2005) quoting Dobson. I have concentrated on the GVS because I think it is instructive to learn how our surnames were actually pronounced at different times in the past. However, I would like to emphasise that it is not clear what effect the GVS had (if any) on the recording of surnames. Surname changes were occurring well before the GVS, as the following examples recorded by Reaney reveal: adding an s Scripps for Cripps; Sturgess for Turgoose losing an s Stallworthy becomes Tolworthy s becomes sh Saxby becomes Shakesby loss of r Sartin becomes Sattin Initial p and b interchange Peasegood=Bisgood: Bumphrey=Pumfrey Initial t and d interchange Dunstall=Tunstall; Tizard=Dysart -son may become -som Paul’s son becoming Poulsom Initial h added/omitted at whim Adkins, Hadkins: Oldham, Holdham Further Reading Charles Barber The English Language: a Historical Introduction (Cambridge University Press, 1993) H C Wyld A History of Modern Colloquial English (T Fisher Unwin Ltd, 1920) P H Reaney The Origin of English Surnames (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1967)