What Did English Sound Like Then?

24 April 2026

Rory CRITTEN

Prof. Rory Critten, UNIL

Dr. Ranjan Sen, University of Sheffield

This CUSO day has as its audience PhD students who are interested in the history of English pronunciation, including students in medieval and early modern literary studies and historical linguistics. It comprises 1) a lecture in the morning, from our invited speaker, who will give an overview of how historical pronunciations are calculated, running from the beginnings of historical phonology in the eighteenth century to the present day; 2) a series of workshops in which attendees will work through the pronunciation of texts from a variety of dates and dialect areas, including extracts from Chaucer, Shakespeare, and eighteenth-century poetry: one of Dr. Sen’s specialties is the pronunciation of Late Modern English; 3) presentations of work in progress by doctoral students in medieval and early modern literary studies and in historical linguistics. It is hoped that students will come away with an enhanced sense of the performance potential of the pre-modern texts that they study as well as a renewed appreciation of the possible connections between historical linguistics and literary history. Some questions that may come up for discussion during the day include: what are the connections between phonology and form (e.g. rhyme, alliteration)? How do premodern writers respond to language change? What is the role of deliberate uses of language (e.g. poetry) in language history

UNIL

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