Dot Wordsworth

Shakespeare’s pronunciation

The rise of ‘original pronunciation’, and the way it’s worked out

issue 07 May 2016

Sir John Harington told a story in 1596 about a lady at court asking her gentlewoman to inquire which Mr Wingfield was asking to see her. On being told that it was Mr Jaques Wingfield, the gentlewoman blushed and came back with the genteel answer that it was Mr Privie Wingfield.

GIF Image

Disagree with half of it, enjoy reading all of it

TRY A MONTH FREE
Our magazine articles are for subscribers only. Try a month of Britain’s best writing, absolutely free.

Read next

Trending

Samuel Rubinstein

Why Duolingo isn’t helping you learn a foreign language

Duolingo claims that it is ‘the world’s best way to learn a language’. The app – which has tens of millions of users – boasts a ‘science-backed approach’ that it says ‘delivers measurable results’. I’m not convinced: it seems to me that time wasted on Duolingo would be far better spent doing almost anything else.

More on language

Also by Dot Wordsworth

Latest

Comments

Join the debate, free for a month

Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first month free.

Already a subscriber? Log in