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"Due to its crucial role in the history of English, scholars from different linguistic strands have explored a wide variety of areas in the study of EModE orthography, for example theoretical issues, levels of orthographic change and standardisation, as well as the linguistic and extra-linguistic contexts which shaped and defined the writing system(s) of English. The diverse range of interests in the study of EModE orthography is not surprising, if one considers the outstanding differences in terms of research into the topic, and the number of linguists with divergent fundamental assumptions and methodologies who share an interest in the possibilities, tendencies and reasons for change in the EModE language. Among the most notable remarks, a number of writers have commented on the process of development as a gradual and somehow logical fixing of English spelling. Various contributions to aspects of historical English have also weaved a narrative about EModE spelling as a systemic, well-defined entity. Some of the most relevant publications include those by Foster (1953), Dobson (1955), Hinman (1963), Whalley (1969), Barber (1976), McLeod (1979), Devitt (1989), Gèorlach (1991; 2001), Salmon (1999), Blake (2000), Smith (2005; 2012), Nevalainen (2006), Moessner (2012) and Rutkowska & Rèossler (2012). All of these resources provide a compendium of information about developments and structures in EModE orthography and cover areas like spelling, punctuation and capitalisation"--
List of contents
1. Introduction; Part I. Context: 2. Theoretical framework; 3. Pragmatic framework; Part II. Empirical method: 4. Corpus material; 5. Rationale; 6. Foundational explorations; Part III. Case Studies: 7. The standardisation of positional spellings; 8. The standardisation of i and y; 9. The standardisation of etymological spelling; 10. The standardisation of vowel diacritic spelling; 11. Conclusion.
About the author
Marco Condorelli completed his Ph.D. in English Language at the University of Central Lancashire. His previous publications include Advances in Historical Orthography, c. 1500–1800 (editor, Cambridge 2020), and a number of articles which have appeared in, for example, English Language and Linguistics, English Studies and The Journal of Historical Sociolinguistics.
Summary
This book provides both fresh insights into sixteenth and seventeenth-century spelling standardisation in England, and an exploration of the history of the printed book and its development in the socio-cultural history of the time. It is essential reading for those interested in writing systems and the history of the English.
Foreword
With a particular focus on the Early Modern English period, this book explores the standardisation of English spelling.
