Shakespeares Language

1
Shakespeares Language

• A Brief Look

2
English Language History

• Languages naturally change over time. New words
  are always being added (Internet terms).
• Languages can also be dead (Latin)
• English has changed over the centuries, and is
  still changing today.
• A Great Vowel Shift occurred
• A movement in time when vowels began to be said
  differently.
• The angle of the tongue began to push more
  forward.

3
Shakespeares English

• Scholars recognize three historical periods in
  English
• Old English
• Middle English
• Modern English
• Shakespeare speaks Modern English!

4
Shakespeares English Continued

• Shakespeare is credited by the Oxford English
  Dictionary with the introduction of nearly 3,000
  words into the language (example bedroom,
  assassin, blanket, numb, unreal, dawn)
• Shakespeare uses contractions in his writing to
  meet the syllable requirements in a line (iambic
  pentameter)
• Shakespeare uses Malapropisms
• Words purposely used incorrectly for a
  jokeusually done by a lower class citizen.

5
A Tiny Glossary of Shakespeare

• Three ways to say you
• Thou Friends or Family
• You Formal, used with strangers
• Ye Usually plural
• An and And can also mean if
• Hap or Haply means perhaps

• Contractions Shakespeare would omit syllables
  to make things fit and sound better
• t it
• Tis it is
• Oer over
• Eer ever
• Neer never