You may have found it on the internet, but I don't think it is
correct. English had several major linguistic divisions that would
have persisted strongly into Elizabethan times. For example the
English of the south east which became standard English was much more
influenced by Norman French than the English of the Northern and
North Midland counties of England which showed strong influence from
Scandinavian languages.
Eric Crouch
On 13 Jan 2006, at 03:31, Peter Oljelund wrote:
> Hello Everyone
>
> Interesting subject!
>
> I found this text on the internet:
>
> "Elizabethian English did exist in England and the original form is
> still
> spoken in parts of the United States--particularly in the more
> isolated
> parts---which is more and more these days becoming almost none
> extant. It
> was the common language which everyone understood over regionalist
> speech.
> Just as today we in the United States all speak a common form of
> English
> which everyone or nearly everyone understands but regional English
> such as
> Valley Girl Speech ("He was just so gorgeous"--note the 'just
> so'--everything is 'just so' in Valley Girl Speech') with such
> expressions
> that are not quiet slang but not quiet acceptable standard English
> predominate. Likewise we have Cajun English (a combination of
> French and
> English), Gullah (a language and culture of Black South
> Carolinians) which
> is basically the African Language of Sierra Leone with a little
> English
> thrown in and Spanglish which is a combination of English and
> Spanish. We
> also have dialects that can tell one instantly where one is from---
> parts of
> North Carolina still sound as if they were from Scotland or
> Elizabethian
> England or England (the Rev. Billy Graham sounds like this), Parts of
> Charleston, South Carolina have an Upper Class English that sounds
> like they
> are from London,England; people from Brooklyn, New York and Ohio as
> well as
> parts of Southern California (the way they say "you do" is an instant
> giveaway) Mississippians have a dialect of the Old South of very
> slow speech
> often imitated poorly by Hollywood actors (Example is in Gone With
> the Wind)
> that I call "Under the Mag-NOL-yâhs" . People who speak this way
> often give
> the false impression that they are retarded and severly deficit in
> intelligence because often it takes them forever and a day to say
> what they
> are going to say since they mull over what they say before they say
> it.
> Aside from foreign influences; American English has been heavily
> influenced
> by the languages of American Native peoples from Micronesia
> (Chomorro tribe
> of Guam and the Mariannas) and Polynesia (Hawaiians) to the
> Continental
> aboriginal Tribes and
> the Inuit (Eskimo) of Alaska and Canada. The language has been much
> enriched
> by these peoples for instance the Inuit have more than 20 words for
> snow and
> ice ---with each word meaning a different type of snow or ice
> type---words
> which English did not have until enriched by theses peoples.
>
> However, Radio and Television as well as modern speaking machines have
> rapidly put to an end most regionalism as well as modern
> transportation.
> American Africans of color no longer speak as they did in the 1950s
> and
> earlier as in George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess--original version
> although
> they often can be identified sight unseen over the telephone just
> as some
> Orientals can be. One hears less easily identifiable speech because
> Television, Radio and the Movies have removed much of the isolationist
> qualities that created and preserved regionalist speech.
>
> In England this is also true. It was once possible to easily
> identify the
> village, town or city one was from. No longer. The Anglican
> Archbishop of
> Ireland came to speak at my Parish bringing with him some English
> friends
> who sat beside me. When they heard me speak they tried to identify the
> Village I was from, settled on Oxfordshire and finally asked me if
> I was
> from Oxford and if I was related to this peer or that peer of the
> realm as
> they though I looked like them. I told them "No I am not from
> Oxford and
> have lived in the United States since birth (except for travel) and
> as for
> as peerage is concerned that died on the the fields of Flanders during
> Elizabeth I reign when the Duke was killed in battle as he was
> single and
> had no direct heir." They were amazed as was another friend from
> Wales who
> had been away so long that she had become throughly American. When
> she went
> back for a family reunion in Wales--when met people who sounded
> like they
> were from a Northumberland Village to her but were really from
> Rutland.
> "
>
> No new solo Terzi or solo Bachelar CD plans from anyone?
>
> (Except for David´s, hopefully this year, much awaited forthcoming
> Terzi-CD.)
>
>
> All the best
>
> Peter
>
>
>
>
>
> * * * *
> http://www.peteroljelund.se
>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> Mobile +46 (0) 70-403 41 48
>
>
>
>
>
>
>> From: "guy_and_liz Smith" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> To: <[email protected]>, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> Subject: [LUTE] Re: Surviving in Eliz. England.
>> Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2006 19:17:21 -0800
>>
>> I'm sure Elizabethan England had many local dialects, just as it does
>> today.
>> But most countries have something that's considered the nominal
>> standard
>> dialect. IIRC, she was referring specifically to the accent that
>> would have
>> been used by by the "sophisticated" levels of society (the court,
>> the upper
>> end of the merchant class, etc.), something like BBC English is
>> the nominal
>> standard today.
>>
>> Guy
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> To: <[email protected]>
>> Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2006 5:24 PM
>> Subject: [LUTE] Re: Surviving in Eliz. England.
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Given the multiplicity of 'English' accents in modern england, is
>>> there
>>> any reason to suppose Elizabethan England would have had but one
>> dialect?
>>> London had a significant immigrant population as well as
>>> itinerants from
>>> wales, scotland, ireland, various areas of france, islands off
>>> scotland
>>> more norse than scots, frisia - not to mention the midlands,
>>> northumberland, cornwall etc.
>>> --
>>> Dana Emery
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> To get on or off this list see list information at
>>> http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
