>>>
>>>Our monarchy is always an import.
>>>Before the Germans it was the French with William the conqueror.
>>
>>Oh well at least half of your vocabulary is French import.
>
>They seem to take some satisfaction from mispronouncing a lot of the words. For instance, saying filet as "FILL-it."

I have a theory that the vowel shifts came from the British nobles trying to imitate French pronunciation, and then common folks imitating them.