• poppy@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    Does she have a southern US accent? Middle English in a southern drawl sounds fun.

    • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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      9 months ago

      Interestingly, linguists believe that the way people spoke in Shakespeare’s time was similar to how people speak on some islands off the cost of the Carolinas in the US South.

      I mean the English language didn’t stay static in England and only changed in other parts of the world. Accents changed in England just as they changed elsewhere. And depending on where in the South someone is from it may actually be more accurate to be speaking older forms of English in those accents rather than in any of the modern English accent.

      As odd as it may seem to hear someone read Shakespeare in s US Southern accent, it’s likely a closer approximation to how it sounded in Shakespeare’s time than someone saying it with a posh English accent.

      TL;DR, You’ve not experienced Shakespeare until you have heard it in the original Southern drawl.

      • poppy@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        You know, now that you say that I recall hearing something to that effect previously! Now I extra have to hear it! Haha

      • gmtom@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        linguists believe that the way people spoke in Shakespeare’s time was similar to how people speak on some islands off the cost of the Carolinas in the US South.

        This is one of those things you hear on the internet all the time that has no real truth behind it. This story was based on 1 paper written by a guy with no expertise is shakesperian English and has been supersceded by much better researched ideas on what Shakespeare sounded like.

        Ben Crystal is probably the best source as to what Shakespeare actually sounded like and its far more west country than American

        https://youtu.be/qYiYd9RcK5M?si=X_QEH4PExwxzyrVq