Phonological History of English High Front Vowels/met-mat Merger

Famous quotes containing the words history, english, high, front and/or vowels:

    “No cause is left but the most ancient of all, the one, in fact, that from the beginning of our history has determined the very existence of politics, the cause of freedom versus tyranny.”
    —Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)

    “What else has been English news for so long a season? What else, of late years, has been England to us,—to us who read books, we mean?... Carlyle alone, since the death of Coleridge, has kept the promise of England. It is the best apology for all the bustle and the sin of commerce, that it has made us acquainted with the thoughts of this man.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “The Forefathers’ day—Pilgrim day. We are at the same high call here today—freedom, freedom for all. We all know that is the essence of this contest.”
    —Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)

    “You know, some of these folks look as queer in church as a mule does in the front parlor.”
    —Howard Estabrook (1884–1978)

    “Playing “bop” is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing.”
    —Duke Ellington (1899–1974)