Sixteenth-Century London Dialect: How Londoners Spoke in Sir Thomas Gresham’s Time

Sir Thomas Gresham (1519-1579) was born in London, and would have spoken what is now known as Early Modern English. Early Modern English was variable, partly because the old Anglo-Norman/Medieval Latin/Middle English system had become abandoned and monolingual English was beginning to standardise; and partly because an increase in trade meant an increase in mobility, resulting in more linguistic influences.

This lecture traces the history of some now-obsolete features of sixteenth-century London speech which can be heard in some overseas variants of English, such as in traditional blues lyrics.