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Introduction to Word Englishes
In the world there are: 36 ENL (English as a Native Language) countries, with 400 million speakers 57 ESL (English as a Second Language) countries, with 430 million speakers 139 EFL (English as a Foreign Language) countries, with 750 million speakers So, we can say that 1,5/2 billion people speaks English, which is around 1/3 of the world’s population. The ratio of native and non-native speakers is 1:4.
English can be considered as a Global Language because: It’s used on all continents Has a use in internal function in many countries Is perceived as a gateway to better opportunities Is indigenized in many countries It’s a Lingua Franca It’s common to think that numbers, aesthetic qualities, clarity of expression, literature, religion and ease of learning make a language a global language, but it’s just a misleading belief. “A language does not become a global language because of its intrinsic structural properties, or because of the size of its vocabulary, or because it was once associated with a great culture or religion. […] A language has traditionally become an international language for one chief reason: the power of its people, especially their political and military power. […] The history of a global language can be traced through the successful expeditions of its soldier/sailor speakers.” Language as Greek (Alexander the Great), Latin (legions of the Roman Empire), Arabic (Moorish armies), French, Spanish, Portuguese (colonial armies and navies) and English (British Empire in 19th^ century). “But international language dominance is not solely the result of military might. It may take a military powerful nation to establish a language, but it takes an economically powerful one to maintain and expand it.” It’s the case of US, leading economic, military and scientific power of the 20th century. “The British Empire spread and established Englis has a global language, but in the 20th^ century this role was secured and expanded by the rise of Britain’s former colony, the United States of America, to the status of a global superpower”. Which had a decisive role in WW1, WW2 and Cold War. The definition of a Global Language is: “A language achieves a genuinely global status when it develops a special role that is recognized in every country”. Which can be: First language status (UK, USA, Canada, Irland, Australia, New Zealand) Official (second) language status (India, Ghana, Singapore, Vanuatu) Priority status in a country’s foreign-language teaching policy (China, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Egypt)
English Language had an Evolution during the centuries: In the 5 th^ century English was considered “a local language, spoken by one section of the population of an island off the western coast of continental Europe”. In the 16th^ century “our English tung […] is of small reatch, it stretcheth no further then this Iland of ours, naie not there ouer all.” In the 21 st^ century English is “the international language of the present time”. The Explanation of this evolution are Geographical-Historical : English has always been on the move o Within the British Isles: Wales, Cornwall, Cumbria, southern Scotland, Irland (5th-12th^ centuries)
o Across the world with colonial enterprise: North America, Caribbean, Australia, Africa, Singapore, New Zealand, Hong Kong (17th-20th^ centuries) And Socio-Cultural : English as a guarantor and a symbol of political unity, even after the crumbling of the empire English as a Lingua Franca : o International relations (the League of Nations, the United Nations, scientific organizations, sporting organizations, European Union, protests) o Education (access to knowledge) o Media (major news agencies, radio, television, music, cinema) o Tourism o Safety (Air speak, Sea speak)
But it’s not accurate to talk of a single “English”, instead there are many different English language around the word today: New Englishes: recent and emerging nature; even though some New Englishes are actually older than those that are not considered new. Postcolonial Englishes: historical process; too much emphasis on British imperialism. Globalized form of English: global language rooted in local context Word English: Lingua Franca Word Englishes: international character and plural nature; because “English no longer has one single base of authority, prestige and normativity, English has become a pluricentric language”.
Dialect : language from associated to a specific group of people and in which aspects of a vocabulary and grammar indicate regional or social background; there are two types of dialects: regional dialects and social dialects. Accent : typical of a dialect and it focus on pronunciation. Variety : any distinct form of a language, which is most neutral and general. Standard Language : specific variety of a language. Register : stylistically-defined language form; it can be associated to a specific channel (spoken register or written register) or can be associated to a situational context (letter writing, texting, academic writing). Speech community : a group of people who share norms and expectations with regard to language use. Social Network : people who are in contact with each other. Community of Practice : smaller kind of networks in which people work together for a specific purpose.
Word Englishes was born from Contact , but every contact situation is characterized by certain conditions that make up the general setting of the contact, as: codes, cultures, history and duration of contact, mode of contact, medium of contact, textual and contextual embedding of the contact. “The history of English has been a history of geographic expansion caused by massive demographic movements, all of which have resulted in cases of language contact – which have been decisive in the shaping of modern English”. There have been three diasporas: 1 st^ diaspora on the British Isles (Wales, Ireland, Scotland): which brought contact with Celtic languages. 2 nd^ diaspora overseas (North America Australia, New Zealand) which brought contact with local languages and other immigrant languages. 3 rd^ diaspora with colonies in Asia and Africa, which brought contact with local languages. Since there have been different colonization types it follows that there have been different types of language contacts and different linguistic outcomes.
Expanding Circle: countries where English is learned as a foreign language and used for international contacts (Italy, China, Japan). Dynamic Model of Englishes : It is considered as a uniform process of development of postcolonial Englishes; it studies how the variety develops, nut just where. There are five stages:
- Foundation: English language is brought to a new territory by the settlers, in contrast with the indigenous community. So, we can say that there are two distinct groups: the owners of the territory and the representatives, and because of that we have limited language contact.
- Exonormative stabilization: English is regularly spoken in the new territory, but there is no distinct identity yet, all is based on home country model.
- Structural nativization: earlier cultural and political allegiances are no longer relevant and so a new identity is created and this results in the development of a new variety.
- Endonormative stabilization: the local variety of English is accepted as legitimate, and the result is the promotion of local norms.
- Differentiation: the new language starts to differentiate in to internal linguistic variations (dialects). Extra- and Intra-territorial forces Model : It’s a development of the Dynamic Model of Englishes which integrates non- postcolonial Englishes. “Colonization is not the only decisive factor in the development of ESL varieties, but that a whole set of extra- and intra-territorial forces are at work in the development of any type of English at all times.”
Introduction to the History of The English
Language
Chronological History of the English Language : Old English: which can be divided in: o Pre OE: dating back to prehistory, we have no linguistic evidence; it goes from 450 to 700 (449 beginning of the Anglo-Saxon invasions). o Early OE: it goes from 700 to 900 (899 death of King Alfred and Viking invasions start again). o Late OE: it goes from 900 to 1100 (1066 Battle of Hastings and introduction of Norman French). Middle English: which can be divided in: o Early ME: it goes from 1100 to 1300 (introduction of Norman French, English was the language of everyday life). o Late ME: it goes from 1300 to 1500 (reintroduction of English as the national language, emergence of a standard,1476 introduction of printing, 1485 beginning of Tudor dynasty). Modern English: which can be divided in: o Early ModE: it goes from 1500 to 1700 (1611 King James’s Bible, 1649 Civil War). o Late ModE: it goes from 1700 to 1950 (period after WW2, crumbling of the Empire). o Present-day: it goes from 1950 to today Studying a language that is not spoken anymore is difficult because we can study only on written text; in the case of English is more difficult because there are no recordings until the end of the 19th^ century. The studies are based on manuscripts, where we can find erratic spelling, rhymes, puns (primary data) and metalinguistic comments (secondary data). But at least we have non-textual evidence, as place names and inscriptions.
Variation and Change
Variation is defined as a competition between different forms used at the same time; Change is the process that an older form undergoes when it’s replaced by a newer form, in fact we can talk about innovation. Variation and change live together, because without variation there can’t be change. It is important to say that languages don’t change, instead language users change the language because people change, and change also their way to use the language: Innovator: person that introduces language change. Early adopter: person who accepts language change early on. Mid-range user: person who knows about the new form, but keeps using the older one. Lagger: person not ready to accept change, late adopter. Scholars have developed four theories about why languages change: Minimal effort theory: languages change because of religion, politics, economy. Imperfect language learning theory: people of a community learn grammar. Analogy theory: languages become regularized. Language contact theory: languages get in contact with other environments and other languages. The factors that determine the change of languages are both external, like politics, economic and religion, and internal, because languages work as a system. The change can be from above, that is a conscious change that starts from the upper layers of society and is associated with prestige, or from below, that is a subconscious change that starts from the lower layers of society and is not associated with prestige. Types of Variation : Diachronic variation: variation across time. Diatopic variation: variation across space. Diastratic variation: variation across social groups (lower-class speech, higher- class speech). Diaphasic variation: variation across genres (legal English, colloquial English). Diamesic variation: variation across medium of communication (written language, spoken language). Sociolinguistic Factors Influencing Variation are mainly two: Different people: gender, age, ethnicity, place, social status (education and occupation), language acquisition, physiology, sexual orientation. Different context: register communities of practice, topic, attitude, accommodation.
Phonetics : the study of the physical characteristics of speech sounds, called phones. It studies how sounds are produced, how are receipted, how are used and how are represented (by IPA=International Phonetic Alphabet). Phonology : the study of the systems of sounds in a language. It studies speech sounds in relation to meaning, but doesn’t study actual sounds, but their representative, abstract, form, called phonemes. An important concept are allophones: variants of the same sound, phoneme is the same, as so the meaning, but phone is different. Morphology : the study of word structure and of word formation. It’s composed of small units, called morpheme, that can be of four types: Free morphemes: morphemes that can occur in isolation. Bound morphemes: morphemes that cannot occur in isolation. Lexical morphemes: content words. Functional morphemes: function words. An important concept are allomorphs, that are morphs variant in a specific context.
o Place names
Dialects : “Old English evolved in a land which was full of migrants, raiders, mercenaries, temporary settlers, long-established families, people of mixed ethnic origins, and rapidly changing power bases. The society was not very numerous but it was highly scattered, with people living in small communities, and groups continually on the move. These are ideal conditions for a proliferation of dialects.” There were four major dialect areas: Kentish, West Saxon, Mercian and Northumbrian, sometimes grouped together as Anglian; but there’s scant evidence about these dialects, the only one well represented is West Saxon after the 9th^ century.
Genres : Poetry: 30,000 lines of poetry preserved in four manuscripts (Beowulf Codex, Junius Codex, Exter Book, Vercelli Book). Poetry can be divided in: o Religious poetry: a retelling of the major Bible stories in a heroic Germanic context. o Secular poetry: heroic poems, elegies, metrical charms, maxims, riddles. Prose: composed of many translations or adaption from Latin. Prose can be divided in: o Religious prose: homilies, sermons, saints’ lives, Bible translations, rules, penitential. o Secular prose: chronicles, romance, travelogues, wisdom literature, scientific texts, medical recipes, administrative documents, charters, wills, laws.
Middle English
The Middle Period starts with a dynastic conflict because there were no heirs to the throne, however a period of peace starts with Edward the Confessor (1042-1066) who provided the restoration of the Saxon line, but since he grew up in Normandy when he came to the throne, he brought his French advisors at court. In 1066 Edward died and because he didn’t have any heirs another dynastic crisis starts. So, Harold Godwinson, son of one of the most powerful earls, proclaimed himself king, claiming that Edward had promised him the throne on his deathbed, and William of Normandy, second cousin of Edward, claimed that Edward had promised him the throne and that Harold promised to support his claim, fought for the throne in the Battle of Hastings. During this battle Harold get killed and William of Normandy became William the Conqueror crowned King William I of England. Two important events took place in this period: The Black Death, or Great Plague: from 1346 (1348 in England) to 1353; a disease that killed between 1/3 and ½ of the population. This resulted in: o Reduction of the workforce o Demand outstripped supply o Rising wages o Greater social mobility and prosperity o Destruction of the feudal system o Rise of the middle classes The Wars of the Roses: from 1455 to 1485; it was a dynastic struggle between the House of York and House of Lancaster. The conflict resulted in the weakening of the feudal system and in the strengthening of the merchant classes, which resulted in favoring social mobility and the rise of the middle/upper-classes. The conflict was settled by Henry VII who started the Tudor dynasty.
Languages : In 11 th^ century French started to be spoken at court when Edward brought his French advisors there. It was not pure French, but Anglo-Norman, a variety of French, that was used at court, in administration and in literature; English remained the language of the common people. But the presence of French started to be more important in 1066 with the Norman Conquest: large estates and most important positions were given to Normans with a substitution of the ruling class. In 13 th^ century there was a gradual re-establishment of English; the events that favored it were: in 1204 King John lost Normandy to the French King and the nobility had to choose between England and France, so England started to be perceived as a separate kingdom, but it also resulted in national identity. Henry III was accused of favoring the Normans. Decreasing knowledge of French because it was less used. Rise of Parisian French to prestige, so Norman French increasingly perceived as a low-prestige provincial dialect. In 14 th^ century English become the national language: In 1362 the Statute of Pleading declare that English is the language of law courts. In 1363 took place the first opening speech of the parliament in English. From 1337 to 1453 took place the Hundred Years’ War and English was used by Henry V to write dispatches: “French was the language of the enemy”. We can say that during Middle English were used mainly three languages: French : language of officialdom (administration and ruling class). Latin : language of the church and education. English : everyday language spoken by the majority of the county’s population.
Orthography : there were huge diversity in spelling because scribes continue copying OE texts following OE writing conventions and simultaneously Norman-French spelling conventions were applied to English, plus the absence of a standard language made an idiosyncratic spelling reproducing local pronunciation. Phonology : new diphthongs were created from the vocalization of OE or from French, vowels were shortening before consonant cluster, lengthening in stressed open syllables and in unstressed syllables reduced to /ә/, plus there was a rounding of OE /aː/ to ME /oː/. Morphology : transformation of English from a Synthetic Language (relying on inflectional endings to signal syntactic relations) to an Analytic Language (relying on word order and periphrastic construction to signal synthetic relations), unaccented syllables, loss of final nasal consonants in inflections endings and loss of /ә/, brought serious consequences for the grammatical system: Reduction of case forms Loss of grammatical gender Simplification of the indefinite article No distinction of person and mood in many verbs and increase of weak verbs Reduction of the pronoun system and the introduction of Scandinavian forms Syntax : the transformation of English from a Synthetic Language to an Analytic Language and the decay of inflection endings resulted in fixed word order because syntactic functions were indicated by the positions of the word in the clause; and was adopted and SVO order in both main and subordinate clauses. Lexis : French (language of the upper classes): few words were borrowed from Norman French and they were reflecting the languages of the upper classes; more words were borrowed from Parisian French and they were elaborate, refined words in the domains of administration, law, the church, the army, fashion and
Dublin; in mid-16th^ century we have a second wave of English and Scottish settlers.
Early Modern English
Early Modern English is a period that goes from 1500 to 1700, however it’s better subdivide this in period in two periods: The Tudor Era (1500s): was opened by Henry VII in 1485 who brought new strength and authority to the monarchy and also an era of great social mobility, which resulted in social awareness. When Henry VII died in 1509, he was succeeded by his son Henry VIII; two important events took place during is reign: the reformation and the renaissance. When Henry VIII died in 1457, he was succeeded by his only male heir Edward VI, who was only nine years old when he came to the throne. When Edward VI died in 1553, he didn’t have any heirs, so he was succeeded by Mary I, the second daughter of Henry VIII, and later know as Bloody Mary because she was catholic and persecuted protestants. When Mary I died in 1558, she didn’t have any heirs, so she was succeeded by Elizabeth I, her half-sister, the second daughter of Henry VIII, born from the second wife of Henry VIII; she was protestant and settled the conflicts in England; her reign was a period of peace and wealth, and because of that we call her reign Golden Age. The Stuart Era (1600s): when Elizabeth I died in 1603, she didn’t have any heirs, so James VI of Scotland, her closest relative came to the throne, who became James I of England and Scotland. When James I died in 1625, he was succeeded by his son Charles I, who caused many conflicts which resulted in the English Civil War (1642-1651), which saw the Royalists, the aristocracy, opposed to the Parliamentarians, the middle classes; the Civil War ended with Royalist defeat and the kind took in custody in 1649. Charles I was succeeded by Oliver Commonwealth, who became the North protector of Commonwealth, a kind of Republic, which is described as a failure of a Republican experiment in England, because it lasted only from 1649 to 1660. When Oliver Commonwealth died, he was succeeded by his son Charles II, who implemented a restoration of monarchy in 1660. When Charles II died in 1685, he was succeeded by his son James II, who was Catholic and started another Catholic dynasty; but this resulted in the Glorious Revolution in 1688: William of Orange, the husband of James II’s protestant daughter Mary II, was brought to the throne.
The invention of Printing : Printing was invented in China in 1455 and brought in England by William Caxton, a merchant, in 1476. William Caxton set his first printing press in Westminster, and he published more than 100 books, some of them were translation and some of them were original works. When he died his assistants worked on cheap books, so that the most part of population could buy them, and his activity passed to these assistants: Wynkyn de Worde and John Lattou. The invention of printing is important because: The increase in the number of printed books resulted in the increase in the number of people who could read; we have evidence of that in the act of regulating the reading of the Bible, in the growing number of printed text and in the growing number of schools. Influenced Reformation: reformation was based on the translation of the Bible, and other religious texts, in English, and the invention of printing helped Christianity to spread across England. Helped secularization of education (grammar schools and petty schools). New genres are born: newspapers, pamphlets, advertisements. Helped spelling standardization.
The Standardization of Spelling : In Caxton’s works there’s a lot of variation in terms of spelling, causes of this are: a foreign printing staff and the influence of a manuscript’s language of origin. However, several features helped English standardizes: instead of <ʒ> | instead of <þ> and <ð>, Chancery spelling preferences Discontinuous grapheme (final mute -e) In 16th^ century different printing houses started using similar conventions and printing became a means of consolidating a standard spelling; now they all use: discontinuous grapheme (final mute -e), long s <ſ> and ligatures. Phonology : the most important change in phonology is the Great Vowel Shift (GVS) in Mid-15th-17th^ century; it is defined as the moment in the history of English in which the pronunciation of English became “modern”, it affected long stressed vowels. “a general raising of all long vowels”. “a systemic change: a change in an entire sound system, in the course of which each element of that system had an effect on, or was the result of, the change in any other element of that system”. In The Great Vowel Shift we talk of chain shift: any movement of one link in this chain affected all the other links (there are two types of movements: pull chain movement and push chain movement). Some consonant clusters also changed, becoming simpler. French started to disappear as the prestige language, and some form of English started to emerge as the new social standard. A prestige dialect started to emerge too, not linked to region, but to social class, education and wealth. Morphology : during Early Modern English the completion of the change from a synthetic to an analytic language occurred, and this resulted in the increase in use of analytic constructions, as present perfect and progressive construction. There were also developments in the pronoun system: myne and thyne retained as independent possessive, not used anymore in front of vowels; gradual replacement of thou by you, that was used for every classes so that there were no longer problems in addressing to other people. There was competition between 3 rd^ person regular verb ending (-eth was formal and conservative, while –(e)s was the new standard), but also between strong and weak past tense forms. Syntax : since English was used in more areas this resulted in a stylistic differentiation, meaning that the form changed depending on what needed to be written. Auxiliary do was added, that helped signaling tense and clause type, but also to make verbal forms and sentences, more complex (based on Latin influence), that was also done to increase emphasis. Lexis : Early Modern English is the period of massive lexical expansion thanks to Renaissance, Reformation, William Shakespeare and Scientific Revolution. Renaissance : During Renaissance there is a rediscovery and reappreciation of classical language and culture. Important in this context is Latin, the language of the church, never changing (because no one speak Latin anymore), considered elegant and copious. We talk about Metalinguistic Awareness, because English started to be compared to Latin which resulted in perceiving English as an inferior language: it was mis-spelt in orthography, unruled in grammar, rude in lexis and barbarous in rhetoric and style. But English language could be refined by adopting qualities, vocabulary, sentence construction, rhetorical structures, from other refined languages, such as Latin and French; we have three schools of thought: so Henry VIII in 1533 with the Act of Supremacy declared himself Supreme Head of the Church of England. Under Henry VIII religious doctrine didn’t change, the only thing that change was that the Supreme Head of the Church was not the Pope anymore, but the monarch. Things started to change under Edward VI with the redefinition of the doctrine of the Church of England in Protestant terms, which led, in 1549, to writing the Book of Common Prayer, a text that everyone had to read, and that everyone could read, because this text was written in English, not in Latin. King James Bible : written in 1611 is The Authorized Version of the Bible, because it was “appointed to be read in Churches”. King James Bible was a very influent text because the language was considered prestigious, that could contribute to the development of a standard language: the language derived from Chancery English, was influenced by Tyndale’s translation, and because of that it was a very conservative language. In King James Bible we can found lots of idiomatic and proverbial expressions, that had a Christianity connotation but we still use them ( an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, o ye of little faith, seek and ye shall find, the signs of the times ). William Shakespeare : The most important impact that William Shakespeare left on the language was creativity: rumor has it that he coined around 2000 words, although it’s highly unlikely, half of which are still used today; he also had a lot of linguistic originality, because he used familiar words in a new way, creating lots of idiomatic expressions ( be as it may, it was Greek to me, in the end, truth will out, love is blind, green-eyed jealousy, ‘tis fair play ) and conversion too ( grace me no grace, and uncle me no uncle ). The Language of Science : Scientific books containing scientific discoveries were written in Latin, because Latin was the international Lingua Franca of scholarship and of learning, it could reach continental audience and spread theoretical and technical innovations among the European scientific elite; however, it was a tool that those with vested interests could use to keep laity in ignorance: “The Liberty of our Common-Wealth (if I may call it so without a Solecisme) is most infringed by three sorts of men, Priests, Physitians, Lawyers […] The one deceives men in matters belonging to their Souls, the other in matters belonging to their Bodies, the Third in matters belonging to their Estates.” “Hostility to de-Latinization was fiercest in groups whose professional status rested on their learning, like physicians”. English started to be use to in scientific areas, such as humbler domestic readership and practically-oriented topics (medical recipes, surgical texts). In 17 th^ century the growing levels of literacy resulted in a greater demand for vernacular books. Due to the desire to enhance the prestige of the English language, Latin started to gradually get replaced by English in science areas thanks to: New genres (scientific report) New register (English used for scientific purpose) Lexical expansion The First Monolingual English Dictionary : Dictionaries are considered the first metalinguistic product of a speech/linguistic community. Going from OE to ME we can find several types of “dictionaries”: Interlinear glosses in Latin and French text; which consisted in sentences written in English over Latin and French ones. Latin-English vocabularies Nominales for schoolboys, used to learn Latin. During Renaissance we have The First Bilingual Dictionaries of Modern Languages, made by putting together interlinear glosses in Latin manuscripts in a more or less alphabetical order and by substituting context-specific definitions with general ones; these Bilingual Dictionaries are proofs that the importance of nation-states was growing. The increase in the number of loanwords was perceived as hard because of their foreign origin, so Hard-Words Dictionaries had been created; they have been influenced by the glossary tradition and by the bilingual dictionary tradition. Many factors had influenced the emergence of the English dictionary, some of them are: the growth of interest in the vernacular, the development of the English vocabulary and the concern and desire to improve knowledge and raise the cultural level. Robert Cawdrey’s A Table Alphabeticall (1604) : it’s considered the First Monolingual English Dictionary, even if it’s not recognized as such because on the titlepage the word “dictionary” is not present, also the author is not recognized because their name is not written on the titlepage. Its aim was teaching the true writing and understanding of hard and borrowed words from Greek, Latin, French and Hebrew; the target audience of this dictionary were literate, but not educated, such as women. It was used for reception and production. The definitions are not real definitions, but synonyms of Germanic origin. John Bullokar’s An English Expositor (1616) Henry Cockeram’s The English Dictionarie (1623) : it’s the first Monolingual English Dictionary to be defined as such, because on the titlepage the word “dictionary” is present. The name author is written on the title page and is H.C. Grent. probably a member of the upper class. The target audience of this dictionary were women, young scholars, merchants, in short whoever wanted to learn English language. Its aim was understanding and attaining elegant perfection, so it’s a suggestion of a correct usage; the contents of the dictionary are hard words. The dictionary is divided in three parts: o 1 st^ part: hard-word dictionary (hard-words were followed by simpler words) o 2 nd^ part: reverse hard-word dictionary (simpler words followed by hard- words) o 3 rd^ part: encyclopedia Thomas Blount’s Glossographia (1656) : included sources and etymologies and scholars were included among target audience. Edward Phillips’s The New Words of English Words (1658) : it’s defined as the first supposedly “general dictionary”; its aim is interpretating the hard words. The target audience of this dictionary is everyone, whoever wanted to know how to use correctly the words. The First English Newspaper : A series of quarto newsbooks was started by Nicholas Bourne and Thomas Archer at London in May 1622, consisting in new only. They were not called “newspaper” because the word itself was coined in 1667, but referred to as coranto , from French; they mostly contained foreign news and were modeled on new-periodicals of Germany and the Netherlands. Initially they used a word-for-word translation, but later some editorial inventions were invented, such as order (according to topic), and interpretation. Dialects : During Early Modern English there was a dialect fallout because of a growth of negative attitudes towards dialects: the dialect speech was considered of lower prestige. This was also caused by a growing awareness of a standard variety of the language, namely London speech; London had a special position during that time, because it was the place were Court, Parliament, major port, national center of jurisdiction, business, trade and print industry settled. |
