Some early Middle English dialect features in the south-east Midlands : an onomastic study
Uniformitarian principles suggest that the spoken English of 1100-1300 would have displayed regional variation. The written reflections of spoken regional diversity evident in Late Middle English (1300-1500) support this assumption, but the paucity of literary texts from the earlier period has made it difficult to test. This thesis uses the more plentiful place-name evidence to show the extent of areal linguistic variation in the written English of this period in six East Midland counties: Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire with Ely, Essex, Hertfordshire, Huntingdonshire and Middlesex. Chapter one introduces the period, geographic area and the aims of the project. It also gives an overview of the previous research into early Middle English. Chapter two reviews the use of onomastic data in Middle English dialectology. It discusses important contributions by Wyld, Ekwall, Bohman, Sundby, Kristensson and Ek and addresses some issues of methodology and ideology that arise from the study of place names for dialectal research. Chapter three discusses the tools and research methods used in this analysis. The data from five English Place-name Society volumes, covering six counties was scanned, parsed and entered into a
Majocha, ElzÌbieta
Some early Middle English dialect features in the south-east Midlands : an onomastic study. Uniformitarian principles suggest that the spoken English of 1100-1300 would have displayed regional variation. The written reflections of spoken regional diversity evident in Late Middle English (1300-1500) support this assumption, but the paucity of literary texts from the earlier period has made it difficult to test. This thesis uses the more plentiful place-name evidence to show the extent of areal linguistic variation in the written English of this period in six East Midland counties: Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire with Ely, Essex, Hertfordshire, Huntingdonshire and Middlesex. Chapter one introduces the period, geographic area and the aims of the project. It also gives an overview of the previous research into early Middle English. Chapter two reviews the use of onomastic data in Middle English dialectology. It discusses important contributions by Wyld, Ekwall, Bohman, Sundby, Kristensson and Ek and addresses some issues of methodology and ideology that arise from the study of place names for dialectal research. Chapter three discusses the tools and research methods used in this analysis. The data from five English Place-name Society volumes, covering six counties was scanned, parsed and entered into a
early middle_english dialect feature south_east midlands study principle suggest spoken_english would display regional_variation write reflection speak regional diversity evident late middle_english support assumption paucity literary_text earlier_period make_difficult test plentiful place_name evidence show extent areal linguistic_variation write_english period east midland county cambridgeshire essex hertfordshire one_introduce period geographic_area aim_project also_give overview previous early middle_english review use data middle_english dialectology discus important_contribution address_issue ideology arise study place_name dialectal research three_discus tool method_use analysis data english place society volume cover county scan parse enter