The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #120369   Message #2617477
Posted By: CapriUni
23-Apr-09 - 11:29 PM
Thread Name: BS: It's Shakespeare's Birth (& Death) Day
Subject: RE: BS: It's Shakespeare's Birth (& Death) Day
Desert Dancer: Lovely story. Thank you. I know, that for my own part I made a conscious decision to be cheerful, today, on Will's behalf.

Ebarnacle: I think you're mixing in some Chaucerian English, there, which is 200 years, give or take, prior to Shakespeare's time. Shakespeare's English is archaic, to our ears, but thoroughly modern, all the same. 'Ye' had turned completely to "the," and the English dropped that bothersome final 'e.'

Your reminder that this is Talk Like the Bard day came too late for me, this year. But you nonetheless inspired me to prepare for next year.

So I did a bit of Googling, and found this page: Proper Elizabethan Accents.

The pronunciation page has some enlightening sound samples. And there's also a link, at the bottom of the page, to period songs.