Studies of the very earliest form of language which can be called English, and its later influence. East Anglia - the easternmost area of England - was probably home to the first-ever form of language which can be called English. East Anglian English has had a very considerable input into the formation of Standard English, and contributed importantly to the development of American English and (to a lesser extent) Southern Hemisphere Englishes; it has also experienced multilingualism on a remarkable scale. However, it has received little attention from linguistic scholars over the years, and this volume provides an overdue assessment. The articles, by leading scholars in the field, cover all aspects of the English of East Anglia from its beginnings to the present day; topics include place names, non-standard grammar, dialect phonology, dialect contact, language contact, and a host of other issues of descriptive, theoretical, historical and sociolinguistic interest and importance. Professor JACEK FISIAKteaches in the Department of English at the Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland; Professor PETER TRUDGILL is Chair of English Linguistics at the University of Fribourg. Contributors: PETER TRUDGILL, JACEK FISIAK, KARL INGE SANDRED, GILLIS KRISTENSSON, LAURA WRIGHT, CLAIRE JONES, TERTU NEVALAINEN, HELENA RAUMOLIN-BRUNBERG, KEN LODGE, DAVID BRITAIN, PATRICIA POUSSA

Historical Sociolinguistics: Language Change in Tudor and Stuart England is the seminal text in the field of historical sociolinguistics. Demonstrating the real-world application of sociolinguistic research methodologies, this book examines the social factors which promoted linguistic changes in English, laying the foundation for Modern Standard English. This revised edition of Nevalainen and Raumolin-Brunberg's ground-breaking work: discusses the grammatical developments that shaped English in the early modern period; presents the sociolinguistic factors affecting linguistic change in Tudor and Stuart English, including gender, social status, and regional variation; showcases the authors' research into personal letters from the people who were the driving force behind these changes; and demonstrates how historical linguists can make use of social and demographic history to analyse linguistic variation over an extended period of time. With brand new chapters on language change and the individual, and on newly developed sociolinguistic research methods, Historical Sociolinguistics is essential reading for all students and researchers in this area.

Historical Sociolinguistics: Language Change in Tudor and Stuart England is the seminal text in the field of historical sociolinguistics. Demonstrating the real-world application of sociolinguistic research methodologies, this book examines the social factors which promoted linguistic changes in English, laying the foundation for Modern Standard English. This revised edition of Nevalainen and Raumolin-Brunberg's ground-breaking work: discusses the grammatical developments that shaped English in the early modern period; presents the sociolinguistic factors affecting linguistic change in Tudor and Stuart English, including gender, social status, and regional variation; showcases the authors' research into personal letters from the people who were the driving force behind these changes; and demonstrates how historical linguists can make use of social and demographic history to analyse linguistic variation over an extended period of time. With brand new chapters on language change and the individual, and on newly developed sociolinguistic research methods, Historical Sociolinguistics is essential reading for all students and researchers in this area.