Standardising English Spelling
The Role of Printing in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-century Graphemic Developments
Published on 30. March 2022
278 pages
978-1-009-10318-3 (ISBN)
Description
The standardisation of English spelling that resulted from the advent of printing is one of the most fascinating aspects of the history of English. This pioneering book explores new avenues of investigation into spelling development by looking at the Early Modern English period, when irregular features across graphemes became standardised. It traces the development of the English spelling system through a number of 'competing' standards, raising questions about the meaning of 'standardisation'. It introduces a new model for the analysis of large-scale graphemic developments from a diachronic perspective, and provides a new empirical method geared specifically to the study of spelling standardisation between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The method is applied to four interconnected case studies, focusing on the standardisation of positional spellings, i and y, etymological spelling and vowel diacritic spelling. This book is essential reading for researchers of writing systems and the history of English.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
File size
4,83 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-009-10318-3 (9781009103183)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Marco Condorelli
Standardising English Spelling
The Role of Printing in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-century Graphemic Developments
Book
04/2022
Cambridge University Press
€140.50
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
Content
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.
