there has really been a chain shift. See also Chain shift Drift (linguistics) Language change Phonological history of English consonants Phonological history of English vowels Phonological history of the English language Sound change Vowel shift Index Diachronica References Notes Sources Hale, M. (2007), Historical linguistics: Theory and method, Oxford, Blackwell[2][3] Hale, M., Kissock, M., & Reiss, C. (2014) An I-Language Approach to Phonologization and Lexification. Chapter 20. The Oxford Handbook of Historical Phonology. Edited by Patrick Honeybone and Joseph Salmons Hoenigswald, H. (1965). Language change and linguistic reconstruction. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Historical linguistics Phonology Splits and mergers in English phonology Homonymy