Chancery and the Emergence of Standard Written English in the Fifteenth Century

There has been some discussion of late among descriptive linguists and socio-linguists as to the nature of “standard” English, the one tending to deny the existence of a standard, because of variations in the spoken language, and the other arguing that the standard language is an elitist shibboleth...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Speculum 1977-10, Vol.52 (4), p.870-899
Main Author: Fisher, John H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chancellors
Chancery courts
Idioms
Language
Official languages
Parliaments
Public records
Regional dialects
Scribes
Statutory law
Citations: Items that cite this one
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Summary:There has been some discussion of late among descriptive linguists and socio-linguists as to the nature of “standard” English, the one tending to deny the existence of a standard, because of variations in the spoken language, and the other arguing that the standard language is an elitist shibboleth erected to perpetuate the authority of the dominant culture. Neither of these positions recognizes the historical fact that in every society there is a formal, official language in which business is carried on, which is different from the various casual dialects of familiar exchange. The more stable and enduring a society becomes, the more regular become its administrative procedures. Part of the process of regularizing the procedures is the standardizing of the official language in which they are transacted and recorded. The official language thus very early achieves a regular written form.
ISSN:0038-7134
2040-8072
DOI:10.2307/2855378