Forthcoming: Exploring supralocalisation processes: Linguistic variation in Early Modern urban and regional spaces

Anita Auer   Moragh S. Gordon   Tino Oudesluijs  

Synopsis

The current volume focuses on supralocalisation processes in a variety of European languages during the Early Modern period. Supralocalisation may be described as a process whereby local linguistic variants become less geographically bound and take on superregional functions. An investigation of this process during the Early Modern period is particularly fruitful as many European languages were undergoing standardisation processes in their written form at the time, seeing a reduction of linguistic variation and the emergence of supralocal forms on different linguistic levels. At the same time, an increase in literacy levels, as well as social and textual mobility, can be observed. Through case studies of supralocalisation processes from various languages that are characterised by different socio-political histories, and a comparative analysis of the factors involved, the current volume aims to contribute to a better understanding of supralocalisation processes during a key period of language standardisation.

Biographies

Anita Auer

Anita Auer is Professor of English Linguistics at the Université de Lausanne. She works in the fields of historical sociolinguistics and heritage linguistics, and she has a special interest in diachronic and synchronic aspects of language variation and change, as well as corpus linguistics. Her current research focuses on (a) alternative histories of the English language, i.e. the role of historical urban vernaculars in standardisation processes; the language of the labouring poor in Late Modern England; and (b) language maintenance and shift amongst Swiss heritage speakers past and present in North America.

Moragh S. Gordon

Moragh Gordon is a historical sociolinguist whose research interests lie in various aspects of language variation and change in different varieties of English from the Late Middle English period to the Late Modern English period. She is particularly interested in supralocalisation and standardisation processes from a diachronic point of view, as well as historical dialect and language contact. Her current research centres on the role of historical urban vernaculars in standardisation processes (see also the Emerging Standards project); and on the role of the lower classes in the development of Standard English in Scotland around the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Moragh Gordon is an assistant professor at Leiden University, where she teaches English philology and studies nineteenth-century Scottish pauper letters to shed light on the role of contact between Scots and English amongst the lower classes. Previously, she worked at the University College Roosevelt (NL), the University of Lausanne (CH), and Utrecht University (NL), where she defended her PhD in 2017.

Tino Oudesluijs

Tino Oudesluijs is a historical sociolinguist with an interest in diachronic aspects of language variation and change in English. He has previously worked on variation and change in Late Middle and Early Modern English, as well as on supralocalisation and standardisation processes. He is particularly interested in how linguistic behaviour changes over time in specific socio-historical contexts, both on a micro and macro level, and in a variety of registers. His current research focuses on (a) the role of historical urban vernaculars in standardisation processes (see also the Emerging Standards project); (b) the effects of copying practices on written English, and (c) language use in Late Modern English ego-documents. He is also part of a team constructing an online Late Modern English letter & diary edition and linguistic corpus. Tino Oudesluijs is currently an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Manchester (UK), where he continues to work on the AHRC-funded project Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers (2019–2022). Prior to this position, he has held posts at the University of Lausanne (CH), where he completed his PhD in 2019, and the University of Amsterdam (NL).

book cover

Published

May 4, 2023
LaTeX source on GitHub
Cite as
Auer, Anita, Gordon, Moragh S. & Oudesluijs, Tino (eds.). Forthcoming. Exploring supralocalisation processes: Linguistic variation in Early Modern urban and regional spaces. (Advances in Historical Linguistics). Berlin: Language Science Press.

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