Well said all, accents are learned in youth. But actors can sometimes do them well. Yet there is one group who can do them perfectly. I'm sure I mentioned that I came to instruments in recent years when my main instrument got too old (at 68 my voice ain't what it used to be). Singers can make any sound (I mean real singers, not people shouting into a mike). I've sung in Russian and Finnish, Irish and Midlands, Texas and French (but I can't sing in "Brooklyn", but can do a pretty good job speaking it as a New Yorker). I've had people address me in their own language after a perfomance that included that language, didn't understand a word. It is easier to do an accent when imitating a sound than to do it when trying to convey meaning in conversation.
And speaking of the change in sound, it is likely that Queen Elizabeth would have had difficulty understanding the speech of Queen Elizabeth II, even though they use the same words. And my lady friend who is French has laughed (as the French do) at the Quebecois visiting Paris for their claim to speak French - but the French of the Quebecois is probably a lot closer to Louis' language than hers. But this list has to do with the lute, and the music of the lute (and it seems to a particular era of that ancient instrument). And the original question was on the Elizabethan pronounciation (and I assume to sing the songs of the era with the lute). So, coming back to base, the early notations (and pitches) weren't as clear as our own as to timing, rhythm, pitch and whatever. The poems of Homer date back to @800 BC, but weren't written down for about 400 years. They were "sung", as were many of the tunes on the lute "sung" (one learns from another "by ear", then it changes as the "singer" moves on). We have it on the harp - O'Carolan, the great blind harpist of the 1700's, his works were transcriptions by others from memory later. The best we can do with the music of the troubadours (and trouveres) is to get the sense of it and try to replicate it, we can never duplicate it without a time machine. Best, Jon
