In my presentation, I intend to correlate aspects of the social history of late Anglo-Saxon and early Norman England (c. 900–c. 1200) with the spatial distribution of linguistic innovations in early Middle English, as reconstructed by historical dialectologists (Kristensson 1967, 1995; Laing 2024). Of special interest in this respect are so-called transitional areas that tended to receive features from neighbouring focal zones and, accordingly, yield evidence for a deeper understanding of variabililty in the period (Chambers and Trudgill 1998: 142). Medieval Lincolnshire is a case in point in so far as linguistic features could have diffused into it from the south, the west and the north. Attention will be given to the following socio-historical aspects (Darby 1977; Sawyer 1998; Dyer 2003; Crick and van Houts 2011): (a) the characteristics of the medieval landscape which, by hindering or favouring communication, may have conditioned the distribution of language variants; (b) aspects of early political history and their possible linguistic sequels, such as patterns of Danish settlement and contacts between OE and ON (Samuels 1989; Townend 2002); and, finally, (c) the specific socio-economic and demographic characteristics of the area which could have favoured the spread of linguistic features by promoting the concentration of people in urban settlements as well as the mobility of speakers and, in general, the loosening of some close-knit networks of interpersonal relations and the establishment of weaker ties between individuals (Milroy and Milroy 1985).

References
Chambers, Jack K. and Peter Trudgill. 1998. Dialectology. 2nd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Crick, Julia and Elisabeth van Houts (eds.). 2011. A Social History of England, 900–1200. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Darby, H. C. 1977. Domesday England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Dyer, Chistopher. 2003. Making a Living in the Middle Ages. The People of Britain, 850-1520. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Kristensson, Gillis. 1967. A Survey of Middle English Dialects, 1290–1350: The Six Northern Counties and Lincolnshire. Lund: C.W.K. Gleerup.

Kristensson, Gillis. 1995. A Survey of Middle English Dialects, 1290–1350: The East Midland Counties. Lund: C.W.K. Gleerup.

Laing, Margaret. 2024 A Linguistic Atlas of Early Middle English, 1150-1325 (Version 4.0, redesigned by Vasilis Karaiskos). Edinburgh: The Angus McIntosh Centre for Historical Linguistics. Available at http://amc.ppls.ed.ac.uk/laeme/.

Milroy, James and Lesley Milroy. 1985. «Linguistic Change, Social Network and Speaker Innovation». Journal of Linguistics 21: 339–384.

Samuels, Michael. 1989. «The Great Scandinavian Belt». In Margaret Laing (ed.), Middle English Dialectology. Essays on Some Principles and Problems. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, pp. 106-115.

Sawyer, Peter. 1998. Anglo-Saxon Lincolnshire. Lincoln: Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaelogy.

Townend, Matthew. 2002. Language and History in Viking Age England. Turnhout. Brepols.

The editing of Old English poetry has long been marked by a cautionary approach to textual authority, particularly when it comes to using metre as a guide for emendation. The prevailing view has been that we lack sufficient understanding of vernacular Anglo-Saxon versification to trust it as a reliable basis for textual correction. In this lecture, I revisit this assumption, arguing that recent developments in metrical theory—especially the refinement of Sievers’s system—enable us to use metre more confidently as a tool for textual criticism. I will demonstrate how this method can lead to clearer, more coherent readings, offering new emendations for Beowulf and other poems. Finally, I will explore how this metrical approach to textual authority can be extended to the editing of alliterative verse beyond Old English, with particular focus on Old Norse and Middle English, where similar editorial challenges arise.

My talk situates the standardisation of English along with the standardisation of other things. So far, the discussion, which began in the late 19th century, has treated the standardisation of English as though it were unique. But lots of things have standardised, and I’m going to be characterising Standard English not as an extraordinary mix of dialectal parts, because there’s nothing particularly extraordinary about it, but as a slowing down of language flux (flux being the natural state of language) and an amplification in function and distribution. That’s the bit that needs explanation: how and why did the English of the late 14th century start off on its long journey along the path of standardisation. My argument is that the standardisation of English was triggered by an increase in people travelling and writing for purposes of business, which in turn resulted in the disruption of use of Anglo-Norman French, as more and more people did business with each other through the medium of English. As English absorbed more and more Anglo-Norman vocabulary the system amplified, resulting in a slowing-down traffic-jam effect. I will present various theoretical approaches, and allude to dragons for a comparandum of something else that standardised round about the same time.