This is what Victorian people sounded like

Kings and Things ^ | 30/10/24

[Eleutheria5]

In a previous video I introduced the oldest voices that can still be heard through recordings made on Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville’s phonautograph and Thomas Edison’s early tinfoil phonograph. This time, we look at how efforts to promote Edison’s new “perfected” phonograph in Britain led to the preservation of the voices of many famous Victorians - from poets and composers like Robert Browning and Arthur Sullivan, to major political figures like William Gladstone. We will also see how his rivals finally succeeded in recording the voice of Queen Victoria.

[Albion Wilde]

bump for later

[dfwgator]

Long ago life was clean
Sex was bad, called obscene
And the rich were so mean
Stately homes for the Lords
Croquet lawns, village greens
Victoria was my queen

[Sirius Lee]

Speak slowly,

With pregnant pauses,

But clearly,

And with greatly,

Exaggerated rrrrolling of,

The R's.

[Paal Gulli]

"And the upper crust were faking a German accent so as to make their German Monarchs feel more at home,..."

Old Queen Vic was the 4th successive Hanoverian monarch to be born in England. I doubt she needed being made to feel at home.

[Fred Nerks]

They spoke English.

[Candor7]

They spoke English.>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Input into: https://anythingtranslate.com/translators/snoop-dog-translator/

Becomes

“They be choppin’ it up in English, ya dig?”

**************************************8

The Rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain

Becomes:

“Yo, the drizzle in that Spain be drippin’ on the flat, ya feel me?
***************************************

Da’s so kool, I feel ya dawg !

And my Victorian father would be very perplexed.

[Eleutheria5]

Sure, but by then it was indelibly an upper crust shtick, just like the Spanish courtiers’ lisp. Russian aristocracy used to speak French better than Russian.

[Albion Wilde]

That was fascinating! It’s so hard for us to put ourselves back in imagination to the times when technological communication had not existed. We watch movies today where outlaws in the 1890s hold some cowboy captive, or people are lost, and you wish they could just send a text to get help. I can easily believe that the Victorians who heard these early recordings were blown away!

[Albion Wilde]

They did roll their Rs more than expected. You very rarely hear that anymore.

It was a holdover in the English language from the days when the French-speaking Normans had conquered Britain in the 11th century. In many ways, the English language still shows the influence of the French.

Influence of French on English

Great post, eleutheria5; thanks!