# How Hard is it to Speak/Understand Elizabethan English? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 14, 2003, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-speak-understand-elizabethan-english/181829 "2003-06-14T13:56:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-speak-understand-elizabethan-english/181829/21 "2003-06-14T22:21:16Z")
Of course, speaking of “Elizabethan English” as a single entity is somewhat misleading, since there were at _least_ as many regional dialects of English in the sixteenth century as there are now. (Playwrights in those days had a lot of fun with dialect; the scenes with the Irish, Welsh, and Scottish captains in _Henry V_ are probably the most familiar example, but Shakespeare’s contemporaries also created plenty of comic characters with exaggerated regional accents from other parts of England.) In fact, I have a pet theory that a modern-day person with some basic background knowledge could blend into Elizabethan London with no trouble – as long as they claimed to be from some out-of-the-way part of the British Isles and managed not to run into anybody else from that particular place. Every second person in London was from somewhere else in Shakespeare’s day, and regional differences would go a long way toward explaining any eccentricities of language or behavior. As soon as they develop a vaccine for the plague, I want to try it 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-speak-understand-elizabethan-english/181829/22 "2003-06-14T22:34:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ruadh \* > \*\*Well, first of all the term “British accent” is so overbroad as to not be very useful at all. An Aberdeen accent is as much a “British accent” as a London accent, and the two have almost nothing in common with each other. So you would really have to specify what part of Britain the accent seems to derive from. > > FWIW that doesn’t sound British to me at all. That sounds like a working class Dublin accent. \*\* I’ve also heard a few of the people from the North Carolina outer banks, and they do sound startlingly different from the various southern US accents. But I’ve always thought they sounded akin to the locals in New Orleans, Louisiana and Baltimore, Maryland, which are also coastal cities. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-speak-understand-elizabethan-english/181829/23 "2003-06-14T22:46:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MonkeyMensch \* > **What jjimm points out here is what I recall from the PBS production of _The Story of English_, which is a great watch by the way. I didn’t relize there was a companion book to the series, though.** And you’re better off not realising it. It’s not a reliable source. ---
**Author:** ![YWalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/6f9a4e/32.png) [@YWalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YWalker)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-speak-understand-elizabethan-english/181829/24 "2003-06-14T23:11:31Z")
I don’t know much about the various British accents. But the OB people sound very British to me and to most people. If you took some of the outer banks people I am talking about and asked 100 Americans where they were from probably at least 80 would say they are from England. Very few people would think they are from NC or anywhere in the US. ---
**Author:** ![YWalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/6f9a4e/32.png) [@YWalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YWalker)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-speak-understand-elizabethan-english/181829/25 "2003-06-14T23:29:43Z")
This is a good link that discusses the Ocracoke accent: [http://www.ncsu.edu/linguistics/code/Research%20Sites/ocracoke/curriculum.htm](http://www.ncsu.edu/linguistics/code/Research%20Sites/ocracoke/curriculum.htm) ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-speak-understand-elizabethan-english/181829/26 "2003-06-14T23:29:58Z")
Well, “England” narrows it down a bit (there’s a difference between that and “Britain”). But let’s face it, the average American is pretty useless at distinguishing foreign accents. I wonder if 80 of 100 English people would think the Outer Banks residents sounded anything like themselves? ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-speak-understand-elizabethan-english/181829/27 "2003-06-14T23:31:00Z")
Sorry, posted that before I saw your link, YWalker. I’ll take a look at it after I’ve had some sleep 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2003, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-speak-understand-elizabethan-english/181829/28 "2003-06-15T00:33:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fretful Porpentine \* > **Of course, speaking of “Elizabethan English” as a single entity is somewhat misleading, since there were at _least_ as many regional dialects of English in the sixteenth century as there are now. (Playwrights in those days had a lot of fun with dialect; the scenes with the Irish, Welsh, and Scottish captains in _Henry V_ are probably the most familiar example, but Shakespeare’s contemporaries also created plenty of comic characters with exaggerated regional accents from other parts of England.)** This reminds me of a character in Lear who says “he is ta’en” instead of “taken”. I could make no sense of this at the time, but then I listened to people from Newcastle saying “ta’en” (with a glottal stop in place of the “k”) and I thought Shakespeare was representing a Geordie or other northern accent, or else a feature that has survived in these accents. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-hard-is-it-to-speak-understand-elizabethan-english/181829.md?page=1)