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Summary Shakepear Pronunciation

This document summarizes key phonetic features of Early Modern English (EME) pronunciation as described by David Crystal in his book on Shakespeare's English. It outlines EME's rhotic dialect, with /r/ sounds present even in post-vocalic positions. It also describes the pronunciation of various lexical sets such as TRAP and LOT as more open vowels. Diphthongs like FACE were more monophthongal. Additional features included abundant elision, dropping of initial /h/, and fuller pronunciations of suffixes like -ING and -SION than in Modern English.

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41 views2 pages

Summary Shakepear Pronunciation

This document summarizes key phonetic features of Early Modern English (EME) pronunciation as described by David Crystal in his book on Shakespeare's English. It outlines EME's rhotic dialect, with /r/ sounds present even in post-vocalic positions. It also describes the pronunciation of various lexical sets such as TRAP and LOT as more open vowels. Diphthongs like FACE were more monophthongal. Additional features included abundant elision, dropping of initial /h/, and fuller pronunciations of suffixes like -ING and -SION than in Modern English.

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Anh Vân
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A.

Signature sounds
I. Intro Shakepear is rhotic dialect

Use of /r/. What surprises many is that Early Modern English (EME) was a
rhotic dialect, with heavy r-coloration of vowels that are followed by /r/. The
silent /r/ of today's Received Pronunciation (Standard British English) is a more
recent development.

Ex:…

II. Monophthongs
1. The happY lexical set. Crystal tells us that this unstressed syllable also had a
neutral onset, like price, choice, and mouth. The result: [əɪ]
2. The trap lexical set. Crystal suggests a more open, front vowel than today’s
[æ], similar to the [a] vowel we hear in the dialects of Northern England. He
includes any and many in this, although they fall into the RP dress set today.
Any and many are still pronounced today in much Irish English as they were
in OP.
3. Since the lot and thought lexical sets were pronounced without the lip-
rounding of today's RP, Crystal directs us to the less rounded version spoken
in mainstream American English. [ɑ] is the vowel he suggests.
4. /u:/ become /ʊ/
5. Crystal addresses the bath and start sets together, telling us that [a] is the
target (though r-colored [a˞] in the case of start words, of course).
Interestingly, words like warm, war, quarter, and warn – today members of
the north/force set – were pronounced in EME identically to start words,
which are all spelled with the letter /a/. He also lists daughter (now a
thought-set word, and suggests [dɑːtə˞].
6. Crystal additionally asks for a slightly different vowel shape for the nurse set
– slightly more open. [ɐ˞] is his suggested target.
7. The fleece lexical set (whose spelling nearly always involves the letter /e/)
calls for the slightly more open vowel [e] or one even closer [e̝ ].
III. Diphthongs
1. The mouth lexical set. This diphthong had a centered onset and started with
the schwa, or neutral vowel,[ə], resulting in [əʊ].
2. The price and choice lexical sets. This diphthong, too, had a centered onset
and started with the schwa, or neutral vowel,[ə], resulting in [əɪ].
3. The goat, near, square, face, and cure sets. These vowels, diphthongs (two-
stage vowels) in RP and GenAm, were more monophthongal in EME. We
would have heard [goːt, fɪː˞, skʍɛː˞, fɛːs, kçuː˞].

B. Addition feature (8)


1. Using lots of elision, weak form, etc. For examples, : and [ən], as [əz], being
[bɪn, bən], for [fə˞], he [ə], I [a], my [mɪ], mine [mɪn], thine [ðɪn], must [məs], of
[ə], or [ə], them [əm], thou [ðə], thee [ðɪ], thy [ðɪ], to [tə]. The speech is
generally rapid – “trippingly upon the tongue,” as Hamlet counsels.
2. Initial /h/ on he, he’s, him, his, him, her, her’s, in unstressed positions will
be dropped. Hence: what’s his name [wɑts ɪz neːm], who’s her best friend [huz
ə˞ bɛs fɹɛn].
3. Medial /v/ and voiced /th/ [ð] consonants in some common words will be
elided. Hence: heaven [hɛə̆n], even [iə̆n], seven [sɛə̆m], eleven [əlɛə̆m], devil
[diːə̆ɫ], hither [hɪə˞], thither [ðɪə˞].
4. Abundant elision of vowels. Crystal cites the following examples: the
unworthiest [ðʌnwɜ˞ðjəst], delivery [dəlɪvɹəi], leavening [lɛvnɪn], venomous
[vɛnməs], everybody [ɛvɹibdi]. Often scansion of the verse line will alert you to
a likely elision.
5. -ing suffixes should be reduced to [ɪn]. No connotation of reduced social
status attaches to this, as is often the case today. Hence: calling [kɑlɪn], singing
[sɪŋɪn], praying [pɹɛːɪn].
6. /wh/ should be aspirated in words like which [ʍɪt͡ʃ], when [ʍɛn], why [ʍəɪ],
whither [ʍɪðə˞], whence [ʍɛns], etc., where today’s dominant pronunciation is
[w]. (Who [hu], whom [hum], whole [hoɫ], etc., today pronounced with [h] do
not get this treatment, of course.)
7. Fuller soundings of -sion and -tion spellings [sɪən] instead of [ʃən].

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