The early Middle English scribe: Sprach er wie er schrieb?
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Margaret Laing
Abstract
Written Middle English is not phonetic transcript. The sound-pattern is not directly known, but has to be reconstructed – from, among other things, written forms interpreted in the light of the particular spelling systems to which they belong. Pronunciation is an object of discovery, not a premiss: assumptions about the way (or ways) in which a written form was pronounced, ought not to be built in to the collection of the primary evidence. It does not follow that phonetic considerations are ruled out for subsequent interpretation. (Benskin 1991: 226)
Abstract
Written Middle English is not phonetic transcript. The sound-pattern is not directly known, but has to be reconstructed – from, among other things, written forms interpreted in the light of the particular spelling systems to which they belong. Pronunciation is an object of discovery, not a premiss: assumptions about the way (or ways) in which a written form was pronounced, ought not to be built in to the collection of the primary evidence. It does not follow that phonetic considerations are ruled out for subsequent interpretation. (Benskin 1991: 226)
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword vii
- Introduction ix
- The early Middle English scribe: Sprach er wie er schrieb? 1
- Essex/Suffolk scribes and their language in fifteenth-century London 45
- Middle English word geography: Methodology and applications illustrated 67
- Northern Middle English: Towards telling the full story 91
- The origins of the Northern Subject Rule 111
- Dynamic dialectology and social networks 131
- The Celtic hypothesis hasn't gone away: New perspectives on old debates 153
- On the trail of "intolerable Scoto-Hibernic jargon": Ulster English, Irish English and dialect hygiene in William Carleton's Traits and stories of the Irish peasantry (First Series, 1830) 171
- Exceptions to sound change and external motivation 185
- Index of subjects 195
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword vii
- Introduction ix
- The early Middle English scribe: Sprach er wie er schrieb? 1
- Essex/Suffolk scribes and their language in fifteenth-century London 45
- Middle English word geography: Methodology and applications illustrated 67
- Northern Middle English: Towards telling the full story 91
- The origins of the Northern Subject Rule 111
- Dynamic dialectology and social networks 131
- The Celtic hypothesis hasn't gone away: New perspectives on old debates 153
- On the trail of "intolerable Scoto-Hibernic jargon": Ulster English, Irish English and dialect hygiene in William Carleton's Traits and stories of the Irish peasantry (First Series, 1830) 171
- Exceptions to sound change and external motivation 185
- Index of subjects 195
