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Shakespeare: Original pronunciation (The Open University)

OpenLearn from The Open University · 5.6M views · 2011-10-17 · 10:22

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Overview

David and Ben Crystal introduce the Original Pronunciation production of Shakespeare and show what it reveals about the history of English, including puns and rhymes lost in modern speech.

On Hacker News

Frequently linked as a short, accessible demonstration of how Shakespeare actually sounded.

Recommended by 4 HN people across 3 months · HN mentions 2013–2025

Topics

Language & linguisticsLiterature & writing craft
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shakespearelinguisticshistory of englishpronunciationben crystal

What people said

gchucky · 2021-04 · Recommendation

The vowel shift is one of the major reasons why Shakespeare's poetry doesn't rhyme when spoken with modern English. There was a rather fascinating video that went around awhile back of a father and son demonstrating the changes.[1] [1] [VIDEO]

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petercooper · 2021-04 · Recommendation

Along similar lines, some years ago I really enjoyed [VIDEO] as an introduction to the realities of the pronunciation of Shakespeare's English. Jump to 5 minutes in for a demonstration of how "lines" and "loins" were pronounced the same and resulted in a pun that's missed in modern pronunciation.

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zhte415 · 2014-03 · Recommendation

I very much enjoyed this quick introduction to Shakespeare in Original Pronunciation (the sound of speech at the time) and how many puns and much interpretation is lost in modern accents. From the Open University: [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by OpenLearn from The Open University, played through YouTube.

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