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vowel shift
This term is a specialized linguistic concept used primarily in phonology and historical linguistics. It describes a chain reaction where the change of one vowel's position in the mouth triggers a series of subsequent changes in other vowels to maintain distinctiveness between sounds.
Because it refers to a specific systemic phenomenon rather than a random change in a single word, it is typically used in academic or technical registers. While it can be used generally to describe any such shift in any language, it most frequently refers to the Great Vowel Shift that occurred in English between the 14th and 17th centuries.