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Chain shift
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<p>In <a href="/facts/Historical_linguistics/nj5y6HDR">historical linguistics</a>, a chain shift is a set of <a href="/facts/Sound_changes/NU6EyI1u">sound changes</a> in which the change in pronunciation of one <a href="/facts/Speech_sound/SDJtYApq">speech sound</a> (typically, a <a href="/facts/Phoneme/EXGHlJ7a">phoneme</a>) is linked to, and presumably causes, a change in pronunciation of other sounds. The sounds involved in a chain shift can be ordered into a "chain" in such a way that after the change is complete, each phoneme ends up sounding like what the phoneme before it in the chain sounded like <i>before</i> the change.[<i>specify</i>] The changes making up a chain shift, interpreted as rules of <a href="/facts/Phonology/qWAsvnok">phonology</a>, are in what is termed <i><a href="/facts/Counterfeeding_order/RIaHe4rI">counterfeeding order</a></i>. </p><p>A well-known example is the <a href="/facts/Great_Vowel_Shift/WJKsaEcK">Great Vowel Shift</a>, which was a chain shift that affected all of the <a href="/facts/Long_vowel/BhBqJJu3">long vowels</a> in <a href="/facts/Middle_English/dj1wHvwd">Middle English</a>. The changes to the <a href="/facts/Front_vowel/htKQs3AT">front vowels</a> may be summarized as follows: </p> aː → eː → iː → aɪ <p>A drag chain or pull chain is a chain shift in which the phoneme at the "leading" edge of the chain changes first. In the example above, the chain shift would be a pull chain if /i:/ changed to /aɪ/ first, opening up a space at the position of [i], which /e:/ then moved to fill. A push chain is a chain shift in which the phoneme at the "end" of the chain moves first: in this example, if /aː/ moved toward [eː], a "crowding" effect would be created and /e:/ would thus move toward [i], and so forth. It is not known which phonemes changed first during the Great Vowel Shift; many scholars believe the <a href="/facts/High_vowel/Ne6tHQHR">high vowels</a> such as /i:/ started the shift, but some suggest that the <a href="/facts/Low_vowel/roS0Y7lA">low vowels</a>, such as /aː/, may have shifted first. </p>