The History of English Part 3 – Early Modern English, the language of the Tudors

In today's Claire Chats video talk, I look at the changes to the English language that took place in the 15th to 17th century and examine the English that our favourite people, the Tudors, spoke. Was it like ours? How did they sound?

Here are the links to the first two parts:

• The History of English Part 2 - Middle English
• The History of English Part 1 - Old English

The lecture from the Virtual Linguistics Campus on the Great Vowel Shift:

David Crystal - Puns:

David Crystal – Rhymes:

Shakespeare – Original Pronunciation:

Sonnet 116:

David Crystal - 16th century grammar books and Shakespeare’s Original Pronunciation:

Ben Crystal - Speaking the bright and beautiful English of Shakespeare:

Ben Crystal talks about Original Pronunciation:

Shakespeare's accent – Ben Crystal:

Hamlet – To Be, or Not to Be:

RP vs OP:

Dealing with Accents:

How to talk like Shakespeare:

Sources and further reading

• What is the Great Vowel Shift? - http://facweb.furman.edu/~mmenzer/gvs/what.htm
• The Great Vowel Shift - https://sites.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/vowels.html
• Early Modern English - http://www.thehistoryofenglish.com/history_early_modern.html
• How Shakespeare spoke: Original Pronunciation, rhymes, and puns - https://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2016/03/28/shakespeare-spoke-original-pronunciation-rhymes-puns/
• Shakespeare's lost puns and rude jokes revealed in new guide to Elizabethan pronunciation - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/12159454/Shakespeares-lost-puns-and-rude-jokes-revealed-in-new-guide-to-Elizabethan-pronunciation.html
• Such Ado: The Fight for Shakespeare’s Puns - https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/03/loves-labours-found-saving-shakespeares-puns/471786/
• The Great Vowel Shift - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Vowel_Shift
• Early modern English pronunciation and spelling - https://public.oed.com/aspects-of-english/english-in-time/early-modern-english-pronunciation-and-spelling/
• Words and Phrases Coined by Shakespeare - http://www.pathguy.com/shakeswo.html