Which historical change is commonly associated with orthography-pronunciation mismatches in English?

• A. Great Vowel Shift
• B. Printing press
• C. Industrial revolution
• D. Internet age

Answer: (A)

The question tests understanding of a historical sound change that created gaps between how words were written and how they were spoken. The Great Vowel Shift refers to a long period (roughly the 14th to 18th centuries) when long vowels in English were raised in pronunciation in England. Spelling, however, remained relatively fixed, so the written forms captured older pronunciations rather than the new ones. When printing and later standardization locked in those spellings, the mismatches between orthography and pronunciation became a lasting feature of modern English. Other events like the spread of the printing press helped fix spellings after the shift, but they didn’t cause the vowel changes themselves, and the industrial revolution or the internet age occurred long after this shift and aren’t the primary reason for the discrepancy.