To all high school English teachers and Shakespeare fans, a wonderful—-albeit delightfully esoteric—-publication earlier this year may have slipped under your radar. David Crystal, the Anglo-Welsh linguist, has produced the first Oxford Dictionary on Original Shakespearean Pronunciation. While on the surface this may seem like Academic pedantry at best, and utter hogwash at worst, I couldn’t recommend exploring it more. Looking into the original pronunciation of Shakespeare allows us to feel closer to Shakespeare’s world; help us understand rhymes and puns that no longer seem to work (which reminds us of how rude and bawdy original Shakespeare really was); and have a lot of fun just examining how English has shifted. Forty dollars does seem like a frivolous investment just to be able to comprehend pronunciation of the Bard’s player. However, Crystal offers free material and information on how pronunciation works. You can also compare how the sonnets have shifted over time. For instance, you can compare one of my favorite sonnets, Sonnet 130, to the Original Pronunciation. Or see how A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream would have sounded to its first audience.
Here is a video of David Crystal and his son Ben explaining more OP and doing a demonstration of some of accent as they compare parts of the Henry V and Romeo and Juliet.