Letters of Artisans and the Labouring Poor (England, c . 1750–1835)
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Mikko Laitinen
Abstract
Histories of linguistic variability and language standardization in Late Modern England have predominantly focused on the well-educated layers of society. This paper aims at providing a more complete overview of language use during that period by focusing on the lower social ranks. The discussion will be based on the corpus Letters of Artisans and the Labouring Poor (LALP), which contains more than 2,000 letters of application for poor relief from the period c.1750−1835. The first part of the paper describes the corpus in some detail. The second part discusses new research questions that the lower-class material raises; this will be illustrated by two case studies. In the first study, the material will be viewed from the point of view of spelling acquisition and fossilization. The second case study focuses on providing diachronic time depth to some of the current issues discussed in the sociolinguistics of globalization (Blommaert 2010), such as mobility and developing literacies.
Abstract
Histories of linguistic variability and language standardization in Late Modern England have predominantly focused on the well-educated layers of society. This paper aims at providing a more complete overview of language use during that period by focusing on the lower social ranks. The discussion will be based on the corpus Letters of Artisans and the Labouring Poor (LALP), which contains more than 2,000 letters of application for poor relief from the period c.1750−1835. The first part of the paper describes the corpus in some detail. The second part discusses new research questions that the lower-class material raises; this will be illustrated by two case studies. In the first study, the material will be viewed from the point of view of spelling acquisition and fossilization. The second case study focuses on providing diachronic time depth to some of the current issues discussed in the sociolinguistics of globalization (Blommaert 2010), such as mobility and developing literacies.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- At the crossroads of language change, variation, and contact 1
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PART I: Language change
- Knitting and splitting information 11
- The order of adverbials of time and place in Old English 39
- The demise of a preterite-present verb 61
- Gradience in an abrupt change 83
- Vowels before /r/ in the history of English 95
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PART II: Language variation
- “Pained the eye and stunned the ear” 113
- Watching as -clauses in Late Modern English 137
- Colloquialization and “decolloquialization” 163
- Letters of Artisans and the Labouring Poor (England, c . 1750–1835) 187
- New-dialect formation in medieval Ireland 213
- Tracing uses of will and would in Late Modern British and Irish English 239
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PART III: Variation and change in contact situations
- The subjunctive mood in Philippine English 259
- Revisiting a millennium of migrations 281
- <U> or <o>: A dilemma of the Middle English scribal practice 305
- Index 325
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- At the crossroads of language change, variation, and contact 1
-
PART I: Language change
- Knitting and splitting information 11
- The order of adverbials of time and place in Old English 39
- The demise of a preterite-present verb 61
- Gradience in an abrupt change 83
- Vowels before /r/ in the history of English 95
-
PART II: Language variation
- “Pained the eye and stunned the ear” 113
- Watching as -clauses in Late Modern English 137
- Colloquialization and “decolloquialization” 163
- Letters of Artisans and the Labouring Poor (England, c . 1750–1835) 187
- New-dialect formation in medieval Ireland 213
- Tracing uses of will and would in Late Modern British and Irish English 239
-
PART III: Variation and change in contact situations
- The subjunctive mood in Philippine English 259
- Revisiting a millennium of migrations 281
- <U> or <o>: A dilemma of the Middle English scribal practice 305
- Index 325
