Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

3 results

  • 6 - Spelling Practices and Emergent Standard Writing

  • from Part II - Tracking Change in the History of English
  • Edited by Joan C. Beal, University of Sheffield
  • Book:
    The New Cambridge History of the English Language
    Published online:
    23 October 2025
    Print publication:
    23 October 2025, pp 169-197

  • Summary

    The standardisation of English spelling is a complex process which started in late Middle English and extended throughout the early modern period. This chapter focuses on the initial stages in the fifteenth century. After an overview of the linguistic and socio-historical contexts, the models and approaches prevailing from the mid twentieth century are examined. Special attention is given to the adoption of key sociolinguistic conceps in recent research projects ―focusing, levelling, koineisation and supralocalisation― and to the application of the historical sociolinguistic methodology as a clear way forward in the analysis and interpretation of this issue.