ABSTRACT Between the sixteenth and the seventeenth century, i and y shifted from an early distribution principle to a new, modern standard, which generally resulted in the establishment of vocalic word-initially and word-medially, as well as for glides word-initially and for vowels word-finally. Previous scholars have offered interesting insights into some of the graphemes above, but the overall history of development in i and y, and the factors behind their modern standardisation, still remain partially uncovered. This paper investigates graphemic changes in the two letters in printed English between 1500 and 1700, using a quantitative model for the analysis of patterns across a range of texts from Early English Books Online. The analysis establishes the presence of a quantitative shift in the wholesale uses of and between the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries, and provides a precise chronology for the standardisation of word-initial, word-medial and word-final graphemic changes in i and y. The discussion reflects upon the development of the positional graphemes, and argues for pragmatic factors within the Early Modern English printing industry as primarily responsible for the modern standardisation of i and y.

中文翻译：

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早期现代英语中 i 和 y 的标准化（1500-1700）

摘要 在 16 世纪和 17 世纪之间，i 和 y 从早期的分配原则转变为新的现代标准，这通常导致声乐词首和词中词以及滑音词首和词的建立。对于元音词-finally。以前的学者对上述一些字素提供了有趣的见解，但 i 和 y 的整体发展历史，以及它们现代标准化背后的因素，仍有部分未被发现。本文研究了 1500 年至 1700 年印刷英语中两个字母的字形变化，使用定量模型分析早期英语在线书籍中的一系列文本的模式。该分析确定了 16 世纪和 17 世纪之间的大量使用存在数量上的转变，并为 i 和 y 中词首、词中和词尾字形变化的标准化提供了精确的年表。讨论反映了位置字素的发展，并认为早期现代英语印刷业中的实用因素主要负责 i 和 y 的现代标准化。