Historical Dialectology: Regional and Social

✍ Scribed by Jacek Fisiak (editor)

• Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
• Year: 1988
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 712
• Series: Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs [TiLSM]; 37
• Edition: Reprint 2011
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

In this volume of 29 papers, readers interested in language variation and historical linguistics will find interesting theoretical proposals as well as suggestions concerning ways of approaching previously unsolved empirical problems in the field. The papers deal with various aspects of historical regional dialectology, and some border on the issue of dialectology and linguistic change. Although many deal with English, a number discuss Romance languages in general as well as Norwegian, German, relic languages of the eastern Alpine region, Coptic, and Fox. Some are devoted to more general issues. The language specific contributions also often cover areas of a more general nature. The results indicate new vistas for further productive research in the area of historical dialectology.

✦ Table of Contents

Preface
List of conference participants
The dangers of dialect parochialism: the Scottish vowel length rule
Remarks on the question of dialects in Old Irish
Center and periphery: adoption, diffusion, and spread
Syntactic change in Finnish dialects
What is in a name?
Propositions for the study of Old French and its dialects
Dialects wanting homes: a numerical approach to the early varieties of Coptic
Stylistic dialects in Fox linguistic change
The study of early Modern English variation – the Cinderella of English historical linguistics
The unnaturalness of naturalness
A lost Middle English dialect
The phonological incorporation of Spanish into Mexicano (Nahuatl)
Historical implications of a dialectological approach to convergence
Social dialect influence in language change: the halting of a sound change in Oslo Norwegian
The importance of dialectology for a new look at Romance linguistic history
Bartoli’s second “norm”
Ladin and other relic language forms in the eastern Alpine region
The actuation problem for gender change in Wessex versus Newfoundland
On the state and possible aims of Middle English word geography
Dialectology in historical grammar
The relative WHAT: two kinds of evidence
Change in the perception of language varieties
Formation and evolution of the feminine and masculine nominative singular nouns in Old French la maison(s) and li charbons
On the role of dialect contact and interdialect in linguistic change
The history of voicing of initial fricatives in Southern England: a case of conflict between regional and social dialect
Old English glossaries and dialectology
The phonology of South-Western English 1500–1700
Die Vokalentwicklungen des Neiderländisch-Schlesischen in strukturgeographisch-strukturhistorischer Sicht
Metaphors in dialectological diction. A critical note
Index of Names