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There are clues to pronunciation in the text such as words that should rhyme, or that should be homophones so that puns work. You can also get clues from forks
by robotresearcher 8y ago
There are clues to pronunciation in the text such as words that should rhyme, or that should be homophones so that puns work.
You can also get clues from forks of the population, such as the Boston accent that forked from mainly British emigrants around Shakespeare's time, and have evolved somewhat independently since. The distinctive things modern British and Bostonian have in common could date back from the time of the fork, for example.
Also we have a rough changelog of incoming pronunciation changes as communication with e.g. France increased. Back out those changes and the accent sounds more like the rural/remote parts of the UK still does, but they would have been mixed up in a metropolis like London.
Also a healthy dose of imagination and artistic license :)
- stan_rogers 8y agoThere are also contemporaneous or nearly-contemporaneous pronunciation guides. Like poetry of the era, they work with rhyming words, so they're just another part of the puzzle. It's not often that the word being "pronounced" (a new coinage or import, or something uncommon or technical) is of any interest, but it's often the only clue that the example words given as rhymes should rhyme.