From Ah! to Little Z

This article investigates the role of (spelled) language sounds in early modern Dutch theatre from 1570 until 1800. Using a self-designed computer tool, patterns of spelled language sounds in 167 theatre texts were analysed to investigate how sound patterns can distinguish plays from each other. The findings show that language sounds can characterise specific early modern plays in terms of period, genre, metre and authors. Next, a small sub study demonstrates that language sounds also have a predictive value. Further research with larger datasets can provide us with more insight into linguistic and cultural developments in the Dutch Republic. Series Digital History This article is part of a series on digital history in the Netherlands and Belgium. Eleven years after the publication of the widely-read BMGN-issue on digital history in 2013, this series aims to provide a new state of the field. It comprises four serially published articles, which collectively emphasise the diversity of researchers, questions, methods and techniques that define digital history in 2024. The articles are published online in a new, HTML-based format that better showcases the methods and visualisations of the research published here. Please scan the QR-code to navigate to the HTML-version of this article.