Letter Writing and Language Change

This book draws on a range of informal letter corpora and outlines the historical sociolinguistic value of letter analysis.

List of contents

1. Setting the scene, letters, standards and historical sociolinguistics Richard J. Watts; 2. Assessing variability and change in early English letters Juan Manuel Hernández-Campoy and Juan Camilo Conde-Silvestre; 3. Private letters as a source for an alternative history of Middle New High German Stephan Elspaß; 4. Language in print and handwriting Tony Fairman; 5. Heterogeneity vs homogeneity Marianne Hundt; 6. Emerging standards in the colonies, variation and the Canadian letter writer Stefan Dollinger; 7. Linguistic fingerprints of authors and scribes Alexander Bergs; 8. Stylistic variation Anita Auer; 9. English aristocratic letters Susan Fitzmaurice; 10. Early nineteenth-century pauper letters Mikko Laitinen; 11. A non-standard standard? Exploring the evidence from nineteenth-century vernacular letters and diaries Barbara Allen; 12. Archaism and dialect in Irish emigrant letters Lukas Pietsch; 13. Assessing heterogeneity Lucia Siebers; 14. Hypercorrection and the persistence of local dialect features in writing Daniel Schreier; 15. Epilogue: where next? Anita Auer, Daniel Schreier and Richard J. Watts; References; Index.

About the author

Anita Auer is Full Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Lausanne.Daniel Schreier is Full Professor of English Linguistics at Universität Zürich.Richard J. Watts is a former Full Professor of English Linguistics at Universität Bern, Switzerland, now retired.

Product details

• Authors: Anita (Universiteit Utrecht Auer, Anita Schreier Auer, EDITED BY ANITA AUER
• Assisted by: Anita Auer (Editor), Auer Anita (Editor), Daniel Schreier (Editor), Schreier Daniel (Editor), Richard J. Watts (Editor), Watts Richard J. (Editor)
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.03.2019
• EAN: 9781108713160
• ISBN: 978-1-108-71316-0
• No. of pages: 350
• Series: Studies in English Language
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > Other languages / Other literatures; Historical & comparative linguistics, Historical and comparative linguistics