Wright Laura (ed.) The Multilingual Origins of Standard English

De Gruyter Mouton, 2020. — 547 p. — (Topics in English Linguistics 107). — ISBN 3110687518, 9783110687514.Textbooks inform readers that the precursor of Standard English was supposedly an East or Central Midlands variety which became adopted in London; that monolingual fifteenth century English manuscripts fall into internally-cohesive Types; and that the fourth Type, dating after 1435 and labelled 'Chancery Standard', provided the mechanism by which this supposedly Midlands variety spread out from London. This set of explanations is challenged by taking a multilingual perspective, examining Anglo-Norman French, Medieval Latin and mixed-language contexts as well as monolingual English ones. By analysing local and legal documents, mercantile accounts, personal letters and journals, medical and religious prose, multiply-copied works, and the output of individual scribes, standardisation is shown to have been preceded by supralocalisation rather than imposed top-down as a single entity by governmental authority. Linguistic features examined include syntax, morphology, vocabulary, spelling, letter-graphs, abbreviations and suspensions, social context and discourse norms, pragmatics, registers, text-types, communities of practice social networks, and the multilingual backdrop, which was influenced by shifting socioeconomic trends.The orthodox version
Introduction. Laura Wright
A critical look at previous accounts of the standardisation of English. Laura Wright
The ‘vernacularisation’ and ‘standardisation’ of local administrative writing in late and post-medieval England. Merja Stenroos
The linguistic character of manuscripts attributed to the Beryn Scribe: A comparative study. María José Carrillo-Linares and Keith Williamson
Spelling practices in late middle English medical prose: A quantitative analysis. David Moreno Olalla
Standardisation, exemplars, and the Auchinleck manuscript. Jacob Thaisen
Bristol , and : The North-South divide revisited, 1400–17• Moragh Gordon
versus : Latin-based influences and social awareness in the Paston letters. Juan M. Hernández-Campoy
Early mass communication as a standardizing influence? The case of the Book of Common Prayer. Terttu Nevalainen
The revised version
Abbreviations and standardisation in the Polychronicon: Latin to English and manuscript to print. Alpo Honkapohja and Aino Liira
William Worcester’s Itineraria: mixed-language notes of a medieval traveller. Herbert Schendl
The relationship of borrowing from French and Latin in the Middle English period with the development of the lexicon of Standard English: Some observations and a lot of questions. Philip Durkin
The role of multilingualism in the emergence of a technical register in the Middle English period. Louise Sylvester
More sugar and spice: Revisiting medieval Italian influence on the mercantile lexis of England. Megan Tiddeman
-mannus makyth man(n)? Latin as an indirect source for English lexical history. Richard Ashdowne
Communities of practice, proto-standardisation and spelling focusing in the Stonor letters. J. Camilo Conde-Silvestre
A comparison of some French and English nominal suffixes in early English correspondence (1420–1681). Jesús Romero-Barranco
Textual standardisation of legal Scots vis a vis Latin. Joanna Kopaczyk
Rising living standards, the demise of Anglo-Norman and mixed-language writing, and Standard English. Laura Wright