Ben Crystal - Pt 5: Shakespeare's accent - Speaking the bright and beautiful English of Shakespeare

The British Council and the English-Speaking Union welcomed Ben Crystal as part of the English Language Council lecture series. This 2014 lecture marked the 450th anniversary of the birth of William Shakespeare.
The guardian of English poetry, the inventor of over 1,000 words still in use today, and one of the greatest players with our language, Shakespeare has given us a treasure trove of English to read - funny how so much of it doesn't make sense until it's spoken out-loud.
Actor and author Ben Crystal explores the accent, the theatrical conventions, and the world of Shakespeare, to reveal a bright and beautiful English. With Jennifer Jackson & Aslam Husain.

[@profoundprocrastinator]

Sounds so much better in the original accent. I'd be so much more engaged watching the play if it was done in the OP.

[@emhu2594]

It would be more engaging if actors actually knew what the words meant.

[@shakespearefreak-upon-Avon]

@@emhu2594 Yes!

[@emmastitch9744]

After he said "It's cool, isn't it?" I realised how much of a geek I truly am :D

[@anakrstic7034]

A lot of rhyme doesn't make sense in modern pronounciation, which it does in OP. It's like unravelling cryptic messages and word play, so exciting 😊😍

[@cjsk45]

What is OP?

[@msjannes75]

@@cjsk45 Original Pronunciation, which is the accent he demonstrated

[@charlieinfinite9434]

Basically, its Geoffrey Rush as Barbosa. Imitate him and you've got it.

[@kramrollin69]

Aye, ye be specken some truth ther matey. Geoffrey Rush is an Aussie btw.

[@lark7655]

The OP feels so... personal? The first accent was so formal, and narrotor-y, but the OP made it seem like you were there, and the actor cared about what he was saying. It feels more like a story you'd hear someone tell you as opposed to a teacher reading at you.

[@GreenLegendRan]

Now, put yourself in a world where you're forced to listen to the formal accent all of the time, because your parents want to raise you that way. I knew a kid in that world, and some people liked hearing it, as he got older, but I wouldn't like living it.

[@thegreatestshenfan933]

Wow... everyone used to sound like they were from Bristol.

[@maishaelonai7921]

Shakespeare's accent (early modern English) sounds very much like the middle English pronunciation I learned, particularly the vowel shift. What a fascinating transition between middle English and modern English!

[@paigejacobsen8014]

That makes sense. I remember learning in some of my college English classes that the Great Vowel Shift didn't complete until after Shakespeare's time. It's amazing to get this window into how the language would have sounded then!

[@l.tabornal5361]

1:44 2:20

[@erivaneverlast1612]

thank you chief

[@joseph6852]

When I hear the Shakespearean OP, I definitely hear more of an Irish-pirate thing going on there. I like the sound of it, especially since it actually seems a bit rustic and comforting. I would love to hear that accent in a modern application (outside of Pirates of the Caribbean/anything to do with pirates).

[@robokill387]

It's most similar an English west country accent.

[@electrictroy2010]

West Virginians still have the original pronunciation (or at least closest to it)

[@electrictroy2010]

Original pronunciation sounds like the original Germanic tongue (pre-1066) overlaid with French words (introduced by the 1066 invasion)

[@Tim3.14]

​ @Robot killer As you may be aware, the "pirate accent" really does come from the West Country accent -- specifically the accent of Robert Newton, the actor who played Long John Silver in the 1950 adaptation of "Treasure Island", and who played the title character in "Blackbeard the Pirate" in 1952. (The historical Blackbeard was from Bristol, so he may have spoken in the 18th century version of that accent -- but it was Newton who made it famous as "pirate speech".)

[@sallyjohnson3371]

He sounds like my Grandfather who was from Devon

[@sheilas1283]

Sally Johnson Yes, definitely like my father-in-law - also from Devon.

[@itsfine5818]

Now what the shit. I'd be so more into Shakespeare if people would do it in this badass pirate accent.

[@OKauyon]

I see so many people saying that Shakespeare sounded like a pirate. I think it's more accurate to say the opposite; Pirates spoke like Shakespeare. Consider; the Golden Age of Piracy started around 1650 and continued through to about 1726, that's only 50 years (or so) separating the two periods. During this time those people who joined the pirate ships (or were press ganged into it) would generally be the common people or ex-navy. Now, language wouldn't have changed much in the years between Shakespeares time and that of the pirates. There would have been some changes yes, but not enough for the two accents to sound too dissimilar. Hence pirates (and most other people around that time) were most likely speaking Shakespeares English.

[@rahjeel]

I'm talking to a friend that lives in Bristol and by God does he sound like a Pirate doing Shakespeare lmao

[@th8257]

Depending on where they were from. This is very much a more southern version of English. Those from different regions will have spoken quite differently.

[@fairsaa7975]

@@rahjeel "See yer laterrrr me loverrr"

[@daysimic8029]

A gentle lesson cutting "Received Accent" off at the knees, without insulting the audience for having refuse to pay attention to anything Branagh, the BBC, or random guys on the KZbin have been doing since before millenials were born. This is a great video.

[@globalman]

Ben Crystal is an extraordinary talent and so wonderfully dedicated to sharing his remarkable ability and knowledge. He radiates something so genuine and profound that I find him enchanting and captivating. I love his enthusiasm. The original accent is so much richer and inspiring than RP. Shakespeare has been in my life since puberty which was unusual as I am by birth a New Yorker having lived abroad now most of my life. Shakespeare was not a major part of the curriculum even back when the USA had a high level of education which it no longer does. But there was enough for me to fall in love with Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. Ben has brought it to life for me in a way I had never experienced. I wish I could see him live on stage but am extremely grateful for the videos here.

[@Nerdzombiedisco]

I learned more in 6min here than I did in a year in High School literature.

[@hattorihanzo8385]

Alec Guinness must be a master at Received Pronunciation because I was quickly reminded of him as I heard this.

[@OracleAndi]

Shakespeare sounded like stereotypical pirates?

[@ThinWhiteAxe]

That's what I'm hearing.

[@misadventurousguy3859]

Because white pirates existed back then.

[@silveryfeather208]

@@misadventurousguy3859 i'm not sure if you are being sarcastic but yes? pirates were white back then...?

[@tonyoliver2167]

@@silveryfeather208 What about the Barbary Pirates from the coast of North Africa that enslaved people from as far as the west coast of England? They were not white

[@silveryfeather208]

@@tonyoliver2167 well of course. But there are white pirates no?

[@TatijanaStrange]

Parts of this remind me of certain southern American accents. There are also some isolated communities in the South eastern United States that speak a lot like this. One is off the coast of North Carolina I believe.

[@AmyAndThePup]

Some of the words remind me a bit of the Newfoundland accent. Probably other parts of Canada as well (I'm not overly familiar with its geography and location of cities/towns/etc).

[@MrSimonmcc]

There's a reason for that.

[@MrSimonmcc]

When I moved to Nova Scotia I was pleasantly surprised to hear some of the older folks' accents. Very reminiscent of Devon and the west of England.

[@candy8391]

I was just thinking Newfie accent too!

[@shrill_2165]

Nowhere else in Canada sounds quite like the newfies

[@pjropemakers6919]

He reminded me of the term "received pronunciation" - Ben Crystal gave a wonderful instruction.

[@accelrailgun5065]

Some people should do Shakespeare’s plays in this Early Modern English accent.

[@brookenjonas]

I love when you can hear David laugh in the background

[@DeanH92]

Who’s David?

[@brookenjonas]

@@DeanH92 his father/well known linguist

[@colynfischer2365]

Look up the Hoi Toider accent of ocacroke island, North Carolina, it’s uncannily similar.

[@kota86]

Holy heck, I can see it.

[@MrSimonmcc]

Bingo!

[@jasonhalstead2056]

Sounds like true Stratford Oxfordshire to me. In its original form you can still hear it today. It sounds so much more comfortable and it has flow to it. The received version sounds forced.

[@CMOT101]

Fascinating especially as Stratford is in Warwickshire.

[@NessieAndrew]

This is great.

[@rhondabowling]

ōf what īs þy man tō nōt drēam, and fōr a sōul nōt tō unītē wīth þysēlf? and fōr a man tō nēglēct ōf þē sōul's plēas; fōr nōt īs a man ōf hīs wōrd. (He is not a true man if he doesn't dream, and doesn't do what he wants to do. And if man continues to follow others instead of himself, he is certainly not a man of his words.)

[@KoPT01]

"What accent does it remind you of?" A pirate?

[@mountainman8775]

Very engaging presenting

[@autumnmoon4460]

I like it better in OP! I even like the change in posture and the lowering of the voice...it’s kinda funny...trying to speak like that...I don’t know if the change in posture and the lowering of the voice are done on purpose, or if it’s a subconscious thing...but it makes the whole thing sound so much cooler!

[@mattyicicles1608]

what is OP

[@autumnmoon4460]

m77yice killem Original Pronunciation.

[@MaartenVHelden]

Magnificently interesting!

[@roowyrm9576]

A cross between cockney and somerset

[@EnglishTeacherBerlin]

So cool have a glimpse of the real Shakespeare speech, and especially to see how massively it influences the acting itself - wow! Insightful!

[@kevingutierrez9273]

I believe knowing OP should be a requirement for playing Shakespeare.

[@ewloffredo23]

Love it! Thanks for sharing. =)

[@marielarrison101]

It does sound like Pirates of the Caribbean. Or what I would think of as a "waterfront" accent from downriver from the City of London.

[@santoven]

It's weird that I found the speech more understandable in OP. Something about the flatness of received pronunciation threw me off. The OP sounds much more real and alive.

[@sloth_e]

Sounds like farmers and cider brewers haha. Very cool.

[@jefftrout3319]

When I was vacationing in the Caribbean - Grand Cayman - the locals spoke in something similar to OP

[@rachelsolomons3228]

It’s so earthy there are so many accents I can hear brummie West Country Irish Welsh so many it shows the growth of regional accents

[@MisyeDiVre]

Sounds very much like the Ottawa valley

[@taehyunkim5709]

Pirate country? You mean Cornwall?

[@ivanhodes]

Penzance.

[@robertagardner5461]

I would love to hear you do a Hull accent!

[@thehamsterarmy2380]

Does anyone know where I can find instructions on doing the movie and play version of the accent? I want to learn that version

[@Newfoundmike]

Amazing, I'm thinking it Sounds really fast because I'm American and am trying to decipher it. Kinda of like when someone is Rambling in Spanish and all of a sudden you understand 2 words in a row and everything seems to Slow way down,

[@catherinec9331]

Reminds me of Dwarvish! Also Scottish, but it really reminds me of Gimli or of Thorin & company :D perhaps I've just had Lord of the Rings on the brain lately

[@android01978]

Not the 3 3/4 hours that many productions have GROAN to? Nice pun there.

[@eduardodezotti859]

Could I speak op as beautifully as Ben can, wouldn't I be as happy as LARRY?

[@GracePurdie870]

they all looks so serious lol

[@llyngibson4160]

So do you think the Royalty eg. Henry V111, Elizabeth etc sounded OP as well.

[@Χριζαϊων_Ζηνόβῐος]

Sounds like an Irishman that lived in Alabama for a few years

[@symon3304]

How would of the Court spoke? A historian said Elizabeth 1st and her family spoke " polished London vowels". I'm genuinely curious as to the difference in speech.

[@aglioeolio7730]

I saw this very video quite a while ago. How come it was taken down and reposted?

[@shakespeareontoast]

There was a problem with the British Council's Channel, which originally hosted the film of the lecture...

[@aglioeolio7730]

Cheers

[@lisaal-shaater5433]

Very similar to Oxfordian Engish, but not Oxonion. Windsor English (as with late Queen Liz 2nd King Chrales) partly from which RP arose, was originally a form of slang from noble family at Chatsworth. This trend of speaking went to Parliment and became "fashionable" centries ago.

[@mikeladouceur4464]

So Shakespeare sounded like he's from modern-day Avalon Peninsula in the province of Newfoundland-Labrador in Canada?

[@cheeveka3]

Shame that rhotic pronunciation was not more preserved in the U.K. The rhotic accents of the U.K. seems to be more engaging compared to RP pronunciation. That’s just me.😬

[@kevingutierrez9273]

Not more preserved??? Mate, rhoticism is well preserved in Scotland & Northern Ireland which are part of the UK. Gosh! England is not the only kingdom in the United Kingdom! Being British is not only being English!

[@cheeveka3]

@@kevingutierrez9273 😅 Well what is happening it seems like the U.K. is going to break up. Bruh that was two years ago I’m more aware rhotic pronunciation still exists defiantly in the north.

[@user-ro4yv8os8t]

it reminds me of a North Carolina Outer banks accent- we call it a hi tider accent.

[@MAMorelli]

This guy is wildly attractive. And then he starts talking like a pirate. 🥵

[@RaffyART1995]

He is

[@jrcrawford4]

This and his show in Lexington, VA is a compelling case for PIRATES!

[@soundknight]

I think the Shakespeare trust has Alexander Technique to thank for this quest for knowledge on pronunciation, that shift from upper postie to lower grounding is exactly what A technique was created in response to.

[@MrWxerby]

Original sounds a bit like the accent of Newfoundland, Canada

[@makhayatalbot-hogg7761]

The OP Romeo and Juliet is at 2:20

[@ExLibris-Alys]

West Country meets Irish via Yorkshire!

[@Roberte9834]

Sounds a lot like a Newfoundland accent lol, mixed with pirates.

[@erickseed6350]

Maybe Shakespeare was a cool dude after all. Thought he'd have some super high-end ultra-mega-posh so RP that it makes you sick kind of accent, but instead he sounds like an Irish guy from the middle of nowhere. Kinda sounds like he's English on some words, Irish on some others, and maybe even Texan or something like that on a few other words.

[@MySerpentine]

It's seriously easier to understand in OP

[@UNOwen-yc3es]

Ay, frend.

[@radioguy75]

Why does Shakespeare sound like he is from Somerset..

[@TurtleDudeProd]

I kinda hear a bit of like Swedish or Norwegian mixed in there.

[@cssnderporngle5838]

2:20

[@colleenm4031]

How do we know what Shakespeare’s accent would have been? I do like that the pace is faster. 😂

[@FreddyBarbarossa]

You can listen to Ben and David discuss how they discovered what Shakespeare sounded like here kzbin.info/www/bejne/nYHPoaOeiZyhb9U Another breakdown here kzbin.info/www/bejne/jZa6YpiMbLSWa6M&ab_channel=NativLang

[@tFighterPilot]

Basically you can see which words he rhymed

[@spokiechris7685]

6:00 No we can't high five, sounds a lot like the current situation lol

[@tylerkeen6412]

That's what people sound like in the Outer Banks

[@jasonpalacios2705]

Also it sounds English Caribbean accents as well as like Jamaican.

[@lisaal-shaater5433]

It is like the ordinary Oxford accent (Not the "accademic one")

[@bluudlung]

sounds like Fable hahaha

[@JJJulesToo]

Sounds like a Pirate!

[@Kira384]

Ben says OP is spoken faster but doesn’t explain why or how he knows. Any suggestions?

[@shakespeareontoast]

hi there - we have to guess at the prosody, the little we can gain are from the elisions in the Folio, which sometimes are metrical, and other times are to indicate alacrity; and from Hamlet's advice to the Players, to speak the speech 'trippingly', and to 'not mouth it'

[@Jeffhowardmeade]

In Romeo and Juliet, the Prologue refers to the play as "...the two hours' traffic of our stage." If one plays the complete play at modern speeds, it runs nearly three hours.

[@colynfischer2365]

Sounds like the Hoi Toider accent in the outer banks in America.

[@jasonrandall5148]

It sounds more welsh then Irish welsh is closer to the west country accent im welsh and can easily copy the Shakespeare accent

[@andytheR]

Sounds like Hagrid, or Samwise Gamgee

[@nardo218]

Some of it sounds American. Is that the accent or the presenter? As in, is an American accent still using pronunciations from when we were British colonists in 1500?

[@kenna176]

American and English accents have evolved from their original point of origin to take on regional differences over the last centuries.

[@ModernEphemera]

Accents evolve more quickly in more heavily populated regions. There’s good reason to believe that some American accents are closer to Shakespearean English than the modern English Received Pronunciation you would hear in London, due to America’s relative isolation in its early history

[@seanfernyhough9342]

West country accent. Which is probably the pirate link.

[@maymadison3620]

This is what Shakespeare sounded like : kzbin.info/www/bejne/hpbMmZacjsunb9k

[@DEFSeattle]

Shocked no one said cockney

[@godowskygodowsky1155]

I don't think this OP is quite right. The stress in bury was on the wrong syllable, and the y had the wrong vowel quality. His OP seems more accurate in more recent recordings.

[@selkarogers7662]

Sounds a bit like a Newfoundland accent

[@asparadog]

Wouldn't he have a Brummy twang?

[@CodeShay7]

I came here after uwing minecraft's shakespear foroned kingdom languag3

[@edwardteach6560]

Sounds like a pirate to me haha

[@voivodvlad1]

I like the OP better.

[@kathrynspencer5653]

Ar! Jim lad..

[@volimNestea]

Sounds like Davos Seaworth.

[@allrequiredfields]

So Dick Van Dyke had it right this whole time. Huh. 🤣

[@diegoaespitia]

Fable

[@kenhay6967]

I was going to say the accent sounds like Cockney. I see this thread is relatively young; I hope someone might respond to this query. Why are modern productions of Shakespeare (at least in Canada) so, what shall I say, monotone, devoid of any inflection? First, that might be just my 'hearing' but I can't avoid thinking these modern productions are accent neutral to the point of not being too lively or alive. I guess I should try to find out how a modern actor might say 'smote the circumsiz'd dog thus.' I am very puzzled. Anyway, answers are always and all appreciated!

[@Shamanized]

I think it is genuinely a lack of accepting and owning the words that they are saying. Many actors will do the work to understand *what* they are saying, but to then wear it as their own and let their emotion and personality run free in this foreign tongue is the next level that many do not strive for. I think if you look at professional seasoned actors like Catherine Tate and David Tenant perform Shakespeare (maybe check out videos of them in Much Ado About Nothing), they approach the roles not too differently from contemporary roles, and so I think you will find they are a lot more musical and colorful in their performance than others who perform Shakespeare. But I'd be interested if you watched them and still felt they were monotonous performances! In short---it's hard. I think it's easy for actors to get scared of the words and focus more on getting the lines/role right instead of relaxing and playing the character truthfully. This leads to rather phoned-in performances.

[@mattnewcomb4147]

Sounds like Amish people!

[@guidepost42]

Sounds mlik Klingonese

[@cigh7445]

Sounds Irish. No coincidence I suppose considering that Shakespeares era was the era when the switch from Irish to English took off in Ireland

[@cleoshh]

Yeh but what about the bright and beautiful language of sir francis bacon

[@grantheywood6269]

cleoshh omg 😵 this line of enquiry must be followed

[@leafyplayz6379]

POV:Your teacher made you watch this...

[@haraldisdead]

They were so unimpressed. He just did a welsh accent.