Early Modern English

Evidence

How do you know?

Whenever people encounter OP for the first time, the question that immediately comes into their minds is ‘How do you know?’ The links on this page provide some answers for Early Modern English. The most up-to-date account is in the Introduction to the Oxford dictionary.

Articles on my website can be found in the Published Works section. Click on the filter ‘Shakespeare’ and scroll down to the required item.

Saying it as it was

Listening most precisely on the event

Performing the tongue that Shakespeare spoke

Were you on your auditory mettle?

Sounding the sonnets

Pronouncing Shakespeare

Early interest in Shakespearean Original Pronunciation

The Oxford dictionary of original Shakespearean pronunciation

Background scholarship

Helge Kökeritz, Shakespeare’s Pronunciation, Yale University Press, 1953.

E J Dobson, English Pronunciation, 1500-1700, Oxford University Press, 1957.

Charles Barber, Early Modern English, Andre Deutsch, 1976.

Fausto Cercignani, Shakespeare’s Works and Elizabethan Pronunciation, Clarendon Press, 1981.