Introduction

Chapters in this book

1. Prelim pages i
2. Table of contents v
3. Acknowledgements vii
4. Introduction ix
5. Chancery Standard 1
6. Cant and slang dictionaries 41
7. DOST 49
8. Image schemata and light 65
9. Loanword etymologies in the third edition of the OED 79
10. “Non olet” 91
11. Intrusive [h] in present-day English accents and <h>-insertion in medieval manuscripts 109
12. Mergers, near-mergers and phonological interpretation 125
13. New light on the verb “understand” 139
14. Homophones and the stabilization of orthography in nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century English 151
15. Kailyard, conservatism and Scots in the Statistical Accounts of Scotland 163
16. A sociolinguistic approach to the Norse-derived words in the glosses to the Lindisfarne and Rushworth Gospels 177
17. Haplology in English adverb-formation 193
18. Uses of Scottish place-names as evidence in historical dictionaries 213
19. On the stressing of French loanwords in English 225
20. Like like love 235
21. Spirantisation and despirantisation 251
22. Subject index 267