How the London Accent Changed and Evolved from the 14th Century Through to the 21st Century

Simon Roper, a polyglot who enjoys exploring the history of the English language, performed a compiled demonstration showing how the London accent changed and evolved during certain points of the 14th century all the way through to the 21st century. The text of each recitation was appropriate to the era of the accent. Each man reading the words was grandson to the previous recitation and grandfather to the following one.

So the premise of this is that there are 12 recordings, all of men with suspiciously similar voices, and each one is set 60 years after the last one, and each one is the grandson of the previous one so there’s that kind of familial connection thing because I thought that would be cool. And it shows the progression of south-eastern English from about 1340 to 2006.

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.