Table of Contents

Part I. Introduction: 1. The metaphysics of medieval English Tim William Machan; Part II. Organizing Ideas: 2. What was medieval English? Seth Lerer; 3. The evolution of Old and Middle English texts: linguistic form and practices of literacy Jeremy Smith; 4. Snakes, ladders, and standard language Tim William Machan; Part III. The Continuities of Language: 5. 'þæt is on englisc': performing multilingualism in Anglo-Saxon England Christopher M. Cain; 6. Regional language and culture: the geography of Middle English linguistic variation Merja Stenroos; 7. The linguistic repertoire of medieval England, 1100–1500 Ad Putter; Part IV. The Discontinuities of English: 8. The nature of material evidence Simon Horobin; 9. Sifting through the evidence: principles and pitfalls Cynthia L. Allen; 10. Everyday English in late medieval England Colette Moore; 11. Imagining the literary in medieval English Andrew Galloway; Part V. Retrospection: 12. 'The most excellent creatures are not ever born perfect': early modern attitudes to Middle English Helen Cooper; 13. Ideas of medieval English in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries David Matthews; Bibliography.

Promotional Information

A wide-ranging study of medieval English from 500 to 1500, exploring forms and ideas about language in a literary and cultural context.

About the Author

Tim William Machan is Professor of English at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. He has published extensively on historical linguistics, medieval English, and Old Norse, with a particular focus on language contact and change. His most recent books include What Is English? And Why Should We Care? (2013) and Language Anxiety: Conflict and Change in the History of English (2009).