Sources of London English: Medieval Thames Vocabulary

by Laura Wright

The macaronic (mixed-language) business texts of London for the period 1275 to 1500 present a rich source of evidence for the medieval dialect of London English. Hitherto they have been ignored because of mistaken ideas about their value, but Laura Wright offers a reassessment of their importance in the development of the English language. The book focuses on terminology surrounding the River Thames to present a study of the medieval dialect of London. The vocabulary survey lists many words which had previously been lost to us, and the illustrative extracts from the texts present a fascinating picture of life in medieval times on the River Thames. The author's analysis covers the orthography, phonology, and morphology of the dialect as revealed in these texts.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Historical sociolinguist