Nonstandard Language in Early Varieties of English

Author / Editor
Blake, N. F.

Title
Nonstandard Language in Early Varieties of English

Published
Irma Taavitsainen, Gunnel Melchers, and Päivi Pahta, eds. Writing in Nonstandard English (Amsterdam and Philadelphia: J. Benjamins, 1999), pp. 123-50.

Description
Assesses the northernisms in RvT and the speech of the bastard in Shakespeare's King John as examples of "nonstandard" language in a time when a standard was only developing. In both pronunciation and lexicon, the northernisms of RvT "should perhaps be considered as nothing more than a different style," not "the exploitation of linguistic prejudices."

Alternative Title
Writing in Nonstandard English.

Chaucer Subjects
Reeve and His Tale.
Language and Word Studies.