What Shakespeare Sounded Like to Shakespeare

[Thorn Wilde]

 

What did Shakespeare’s English sound like to Shakespeare? To his audience? And how can we know such a thing as the phonetic character of the language spoken 400 years ago? These questions and more are addressed in the video above, which profiles a very popular experiment at London’s Globe Theatre, the 1994 reconstruction of Shakespeare’s theatrical home.

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I find this very interesting. It shows that for instance Irish and west country dialects are in many ways a lot closer to English the way it was spoken in Shakespeare's time than more 'refined' or 'straight-edged' dialects.

[Bill W]

Very enlightening.  Some of the original spellings had indicated the words might have been pronounced differently, but it was intriguing to actually hear the difference. 

[Red_A]

Now the question is, what is David Crystal's  basic accent.  I remember at school. a boy was given a piece of shakespierce to read  with that same accent, an it sounded 'non sensible'.  The same piece by 'correct' english accent was bland, A bristol lad did not finish the piece,  it was deemed too saucy!

[MikeL]

The Globe Theatre is an amazing place and a Shakespeare play performed there is a real treat.  We have been there several times when in London.  I heartily recommend it to everyone.

[Thorn Wilde]

I was lucky enough to catch A Midsummer Night's Dream when I was there earlier this autumn, and not only was it wonderfully performed, but they really played on the homoerotic undertones of Oberon and Puck's relationship, going to far as to have them kiss. And Oberon was HOT, too!

 

I've been to The Globe once before, but then I saw Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and not Shakespeare. That was awesome, too, though. Other than that, I've seen two productions with The Royal Shakespeare Company; Love's Labours Lost and Hamlet.