Some early Middle English dialect features in the South East Midlands: An onomastic study. Ela...
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Transcript of Some early Middle English dialect features in the South East Midlands: An onomastic study. Ela...
Some early Middle English dialect features in the South East Midlands:
An onomastic study.
Ela Majocha
Dialectology
Study of variation:
synchronic/diachronic
Expect variation: Weinreich, Labov
& Herzog (1968)
Uniformitarian principles: Lass
(1997)
Orientation
Old English (OE) >1100
Early Middle English (eME) 1100-
1300
Late Middle English (LME) 1300-1500
Dialectology of text
languages Data from written source: manuscripts
Linguistic analysis after data
collection
Respect the data even if looks messy
Stop bashing the scribe!
Data collection for LME
c. 1950- 1985 Edinburgh-Glasgow
Unis: Linguistic Atlas of Late
Mediaeval English (LALME, 4 vols
1986)
Michigan Uni
Data collection for eME c. 1990-2007 Edinburgh Uni:
Linguistic Atlas of Early Middle
English
e-LAEME (1.1)
http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/ihd/laeme1/laeme1.
html
Comparability across text types
Paucity of material
Collect all the data possible
I can help!
Data from place names
Electronic corpus
Digitised: scanned, OCRed
XML markup
Bespoke parsing tools
Database, search results into GIS
software
Easy ...
minster on the hill
monster on the hell
...years later
scripsilibrum
Place name: STANBRIDGE (41: pa Stanbridge SP9624, BED)
Place name: STANBRIDGE (41: pa Stanbridge SP9624, BED)
Period: 1201-1250, spelling: <a>~<au>
Stanbru(g)g(e) 1220 LS, 1242 Fees 867,
Stanbrig(g)e, Stanbrygge 1202, 1227, 1240 Ass,
1247 Ass, Cl, Staunbrig(g) 1227 Ass, 1247 Ass,
Stanburgh 1227 Ass, Stantbrig 1240 Ass; (half-
hundred Stanbridge, SP9624, p. 113): Stanbrigge
1207 P, Stanburgh 1227 Ass
Area investigated
Summary of results Map 1: Attestations for OE
variables brad, ac, stan OE /ɑː/ brycg, rycg, byrig, myll(e)n OE /y/ hæth, mæd, sæ OE /æː/ fen, five, ford, sæte [f-]/[v-] and [s-]/[z-] voicing
of initial fricatives
OE /ɑː/ to /ɔː/
change was in progress by the 12th century, “coming to fruition in the late twelfth to early thirteenth century, ... despite its variable implementation in different texts and different areas” (Lass 1992: 46).
Place names? brad-, ac-, stan- vs. -brad, -ac, -stan
Analysis in 50-year subperiods:
1101-1150
1151-1200
1201-1250
1251-1300
why?
we deal with a continuum in time and space and the
sub-divisions are not to be the focus but an aid to the
analysis.
12th century
<a> exclusively 1150-1200
additionally
<a>~<au> 1150-1200 in stan
stan~staun
1201-1250 vs. 1251-1300
ac~oc(k) 5 names
brad~brod 10
names
stan~ston 24
names
10 names
21 names
38 names
Variation on the maps
Graph 1 oak-
Variation on the maps
Graph 2 broad-
Variation on the maps
Graph 3 stone-
Summary: by 1300
OE ac > eME <o>, <o>~<a> (PDE 100% <oa>,<o-
e>)
OE brad > eME <o>~<a> (PDE 25% <oa>)
OE stan >eME <o>~<a>~<au>~<ai> (PDE 10% <o-
e>)
each word has its own history
ME Dialect Map
Northern
West Midland
East Midland
Southern
South-Eastern
ME dialect maps
“The mistake lies in thinking of dialect as a thing at all... Rather we should think in terms of dialectal continua... If, as a result of investigation, it should appear that the dialect material for some given county is homogeneous and distinctive, ... [this] would be of interest; but there is no ground whatever for building such and assumption into the investigation at its very start.” (Benskin 1994)