The Shakespearean Hour

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First of all I want to throw out a few disclaimers. One being that because of these disclaimer's, the discussion itself could become quite long. Secondly, the title I chose is somewhat misleading but still fits all the same. Thirdly, It is my "night time" (7:10 AM) and I am about to head to bed so I do apologize if the discussion itself comes off confusing. It would suit better if I didn't start a discussion right before bed (A sleep deprived Amber THINKS that everything sounds clear and concise but the conscious Amber tends to cringe after re-reading the discussion later) Anyway... I was watching 10 Minute Piece on OP or Original Pronounciation of Shakespearean Plays. The first phrase one of the actors / voice coaches said? To my ears sounded very much like an Irish Accent and I understood it quite well. I could not distinguish between Our Modern English and the Original Pronounciation, or Early Modern English that they were talking about. As the documentary went on, it started to get slightly different to understand. I don't want to use difficult here as it wasn't so much difficult but it's as if you have to go from listening to an auctioneer speak to just a normal person. It took a second to sink in. Some of these Early Modern English (O.P.) words popped out and I started to say "hey that sorta sounds like the Northerners (Northern US) pronounciation of that word." This had me thinking that truly we do not speak much different in Shakespearean times than we do now. Sure there are words that are no longer in use, but there are plenty more that still are. Sure we might say a word faster now than they did, or vice versa. However, if you take into consideration early settlers of America whom came from Britain and passed down the accent, wordings, slang, etc through the centuries? We really do not sound much different. Of course other influences (countries) came into play to make our distinct accents, well distinct. We may say a word that we "borrowed" from another language (We being those who live in America) or use an inflection that we "borrowed" from an ancestral line, not necessarily our own. I guess, in layman's terms, we are heavily influenced (in language) by our United Kingdom (which, in this example, includes the Republic of Ireland) ancestors but that also includes German, Dutch, Etc. Non- English influenced countries. I am losing my train of thought here. I just found it very interesting that a way of talking from over 400 years ago can still be spotted in words today. Not so much the word itself but the way it is inflected. I am bit eccentric in my way of thinking and this is heavily heavily influenced in my research. I could spend an entire day listening to things in another language that I don't understand just to pick up things I DO understand or to get a feel for the culture. I guess you could say I am somewhat of a linguist, though I don't like to give myself that title.