How is the elizabethan language similiar/different from today?

Answer 1

Actually, you probably have or can get a good source of Elizabethan English very easily--it's the language Shakespeare wrote in!

There are many words that were in common usage then that would not be very familiar to us now, just as we use many words now that would not be familiar to the average person from Elizabethan England. However, because it is just a matter of usage, and the majority of our vocabularies are the same, those problem areas would be easy to smooth over.

For example, imagine you are talking in a pub to a gentleman from Elizabethan England. You tell him that you are to be married. He asks politely, "Have they yet called the Banns?" You don't understand him, and tell him so. He would simply explain to you, "Have they announced in your church yet that you are to be married?" Problem solved. Similarly, you might say that you like to call your beloved from work when you are on break. He would think you mean that you fall regularly at work, say in a field, and holler at your sweetheart to come and help you because you have been hurt. You would simply explain, "No, we have a device called a telephone that allows you to communicate with someone over a great distance. Taking a break at work means a short rest period during your working time. During that rest time, I use the telephone to call my darling." Again, he would understand (although you might find yourself in a spirited discussion about telephones, telegraphs, etc...).

The main differences are in usage of words, as some words have become obsolete, and new ones have been coined since the Elizabethan Period. There are also some usages, mainly syntax, or word order, that have changed over the years, but those, again, can be explained fairly easily. English is not a language that uses cases (basically, suffixes that show how a word is used in a sentence, such as the subject, or object of a sentence), so there might be a bit of confusion, but nothing that cannot be easily explained by rephrasing the statement. Essentially, any differences are pretty minor, as Elizabethan English is Modern English.

Keep in mind that face-to-face communication would also be made easier by the mere fact that it is face-to-face. When we speak directly to a person, much of our communication takes place through body language. You might not understand everything clearly, but you would certainly understand if he was excited or upset about something.

If you want to find English that is quite different from Modern English, you must go back 200 years from the time of Shakespeare, to Chaucer's time. That's when things get a little trickier, for English then was called Middle English, and is quite different from Modern English. However, the differences are not insurmountable, and Middle English is very easy to read with just minimal help. It has much more influence from French, and much of the spelling is very different from that of Modern English, but you find as you read it that if you read it aloud, many words that don't make sense when you look at them make perfect sense when you hear them. I took a class in college on "The Canterbury Tales", and everyone groaned when we found out the text was in Middle English, but it quickly became very easy to read. There are some words in Middle English that did not make it into Modern English, and for those you need a little help, but other than that, it just takes a little practice.

I hope this helps you understand it all a bit better :)

Answer 2

As other answerers have said, reading anything from the 16th century is the best way to find out how the Elizabethans spoke. Letters are also a good way - linguists have been able to determine exactly how Katherine of Aragon (first wife of Henry VIII) spoke, and what her accent sounded like, through her letters - in those days there was no standard spelling and people wrote how the words sounded to them! Obviously, many words have faded out of use and others have emerged as the language has evolved; pronunciation has always been subject to change. Even if you look at old films of the 1920s onwards, you can hear the differences!

Here's a good piece on Elizabethan English:
http://www.renfaire.com/Language/index.html

Answer 3

There isn't a great deal of difference. There were slightly fewer words is use ( unless you count Shakespeare's use of language). Accent and dialect would be the main difference. I seem to remember reading somewhere that the closest to an 'Elizabethan accent' could be found today in the remoter parts of the Appalachians.

Answer 4

The language has evolved over time. New words are added all the time, and old ones fade out (Did you know that fingernails were once known as "flesh spades?") "Thee" and "thou" were used as more familiar forms of "you," but we've gotten more impersonal. Most of it is still recognizable.

Answer 5

Not much.

If you met an elizabethan in your neighbourhood pub, you will be able to get along fine.