Epilogue: Where next?

Auer, Anita; Schreier, Daniel; Watts, Richard J.

doi:10.1017/cbo9781139088275.016

Cited by 2 publications

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“…Paupers applying for out-relief had usually received only limited schooling, as mentioned sections 1 and 2, and this could significantly impact their spelling. As Allen (2015: 211) notes: Some non-standard spellings suggest that the writers had only ever heard the word spoken and had not seen, or did not remember seeing it written or printed, so their spelling was a representation of the sound of the word as they pronounced it, based on their understanding of the orthographic system of the language.…”

Section: Identifying Regional Variation In Pauper Lettersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Speech reflections in Late Modern English pauper letters from Dorset

Gardner¹

2023

English Language and Linguistics

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The overall aim of this article is to show that pauper letters are a valuable, but as yet largely untapped resource for historical dialectological research. Offering a case study based on 31 poor-relief applications sent by 10 individuals to parishes in Dorset between 1742 and 1834, the article aims to identify regional variation, especially as associated with Dorset and/or the Southwest of England more generally, by comparing variant spellings and morphosyntactic usages contained in the letters with features listed in modern dialect surveys (mainly Wakelin 1986; Altendorf & Watt 2008; Wagner 2008), as well as in Dorset poet William Barnes’ Dissertation and the reconstruction of his idiolect by Burton (2013). It is possible to isolate 297 occurrences of 52 different phonological and morphosyntactic features in the pauper letters; 11 of these features are salient across the letter selection (i.e. represented by at least three paupers) and are suggestive of the provenance of the letters. The article also offers surprising findings such as the absence of the prototypically Southwestern fricative voicing, features unrecorded by modern synopses (e.g. unmarked possessive), and the presence of a feature (-ind for -ing) which had fallen out of common use in the fifteenth century.

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Section: Identifying Regional Variation In Pauper Lettersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Speech reflections in Late Modern English pauper letters from Dorset

Gardner¹

2023

English Language and Linguistics

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Civil War writings of the Pennsylvania Dutch

Brown

2019

Journal of Historical Sociolinguistics

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For eighteenth and nineteenth century Pennsylvania Dutch speakers, a variety of German was the language of their books, their newspapers, and their schools. Being far from the European homeland created a hegemonic shift in the linguistic lives of these early German Americans; they were adopting an American regional identity. Along with their shift in identities and in linguistic hegemony, structural aspects of the languages they used also changed: their written German was in contact with English and with their spoken Pennsylvania Dutch. In addition, the limitations of formal education in German at rural schools meant that the emphasis among most Pennsylvania Dutch was on the receptive knowledge of German and not on productive control of the language. In time, a variety of German called Pennsylvania High German emerged in the publications, writings, and schools of Pennsylvania. This article shares recent findings of a large corpus of written attempts at Pennsylvania High German by Civil War soldiers. It discusses both the structural aspects of their written language as well as the negotiation of their American regional identities through a multilingual lens at the first major moment of increased contact with outsiders.

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Epilogue: Where next?

Cited by 2 publications

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Speech reflections in Late Modern English pauper letters from Dorset

Speech reflections in Late Modern English pauper letters from Dorset

Civil War writings of the Pennsylvania Dutch

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