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The role of merchants in language standardisation

  • Joshua Brown und Anita Auer EMAIL logo
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 23. Oktober 2024

Abstract

This issue of the Journal of Historical Sociolinguistics aims to contribute to our understanding of the role of merchants in language standardisation by focussing on how merchants can be seen as agents of linguistic change across various European vernaculars at various points in time. By analysing data from a varied set of languages, including Italian, Norwegian, Spanish, and Dutch, the authors provide insight into merchant writing in relation to language standardisation from different perspectives and at different times. The extant material available from merchants, their role as intermediaries in the commercial world, their functional and variable literacy, and their social and geographical mobility, all mean that merchant writing is able to offer unique insights into the vicissitudes of language history.


Corresponding author: Anita Auer, Université de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, E-mail:

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Received: 2024-08-21
Accepted: 2024-08-22
Published Online: 2024-10-23

© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Heruntergeladen am 26.12.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/jhsl-2024-0049/pdf
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