Blame the Snobs

2021 ◽  
pp. 147-180
Author(s):  
Arika Okrent ◽  
Sean O’Neill
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
English Language ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Language Usage ◽  
Social Rules ◽  
Advice Books ◽  
The 19Th Century

This chapter highlights the role of the “snobs” in complicating the English language. The whole idea that there was a “correctness” to aim for in English developed slowly, but really took off in the 18th century. It was the age of etiquette and the codification of social rules. Pretty soon there were books on good language too. The first major dictionary of English, Samuel Johnson's dictionary of 1755, was published during this time, and it became a source of authority for spelling. But the advice books and newspaper columns on language usage that followed in the 19th century were more extreme in their pronouncements. In this environment of very public, and intentionally humiliating, language monitoring, a cloud of insecurity developed and perpetuated itself. It is important to note that the Standard English—the “correct,” authorized version—is unsystematic and illogical enough on its own. Some of that is the result of the natural accumulation of historical forces, but some of it comes from intentional meddling.

Predicting the past

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 235-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Trudgill ◽  
Elizabeth Gordon
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Southern Hemisphere ◽  
English Language ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
American English ◽  
Canadian English ◽  
The Past ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
English Canadian

The division of the world’s Englishes into rhotic and non-rhotic types is clearly due to the fact that the former are conservative in not having undergone loss of non-prevocalic /r/, whereas the latter have. The beginnings of the loss of non-prevocalic /r/ in English have generally been dated by historians of the language to the 18th century. It is therefore obvious, and has been widely accepted, that Irish English, Canadian English, and American English are predominantly rhotic because the English language was exported to these colonial areas before the loss of rhoticity in England began; and that the Southern Hemisphere Englishes are non-rhotic because English was exported to these areas in the 19th century after the loss of rhoticity. Analysing newly-discovered data from Australia, we present some surprising evidence that shows that this obvious conclusion is incorrect.

scholarly journals From the British Isles to Ceylon, or English in Sri Lanka

2018 ◽  
pp. 159-172
Author(s):  
Olga Laskowska
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
English Language ◽  
Indigenous Population ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
British Isles ◽  
Early 19Th Century ◽  
A Site ◽  
The 19Th Century

Although Sri Lanka was a site of colonization of the Portuguese, Dutch and (under the treaty of Amiens in 1802) British, it was the English language that had the strongest infl uence on the indigenous population of the island as the earlier colonizers were less interested in disseminating their culture. Taking into consideration the fact that English was established in Sri Lanka by missionaries and British officers, it can be assumed that the language brought to the island of Ceylon was the Standard English of the turn of the 19th century. Exploiting data from International Corpus of English – Sri Lanka and articles on Sri Lankan English, the present study contains a comparison of contemporary Sri Lankan English and the English of the period when the language was brought to the Island (early 19th century). Thus, an effort is made to show the conservative features of the language of the first British settlers, which survive in English spoken in contemporary Sri Lanka.

William Perry’s The Royal Standard English Dictionary (1775)

2006 ◽  
Vol 33 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 139-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimo Sturiale
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Rational Method ◽  
The Other ◽  
Standard English ◽  
James Buchanan ◽  
Correct Pronunciation ◽  
William Perry ◽  
The Way

Summary This paper examines the role of William Perry (1747–post 1805), an active Scottish schoolteacher and lexicographer, in the prescription of norms for a ‘correct’ pronunciation of standard English, being perfectly in line with the language guardians of the time. Although Perry shares a few characteristics with Thomas Sheridan (1719–1788) and James Buchanan (fl. 1753–1773), as he himself maintains in the Preface to his The Royal Standard English Dictionary, first published in Edinburgh in 1775, he also reveals a certain dissatisfaction with the way ‘the sounds of words are expressed’ by the other two 18th-century scholars. Therefore, the paper examines the ‘more rational method’ proposed in his attempt to better represent the sounds of the English language.

William Perry’sThe Royal Standard English Dictionary(1775): A provincial’s attempt to ascertain and fix a standard to the pronunciation of the English tongue

2006 ◽  
Vol 33 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 139-168
Author(s):  
Massimo Sturiale
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Rational Method ◽  
The Other ◽  
Standard English ◽  
James Buchanan ◽  
Correct Pronunciation ◽  
William Perry ◽  
The Way

This paper examines the role of William Perry (1747–post 1805), an active Scottish schoolteacher and lexicographer, in the prescription of norms for a ‘correct’ pronunciation of standard English, being perfectly in line with the language guardians of the time. Although Perry shares a few characteristics with Thomas Sheridan (1719–1788) and James Buchanan (fl. 1753–1773), as he himself maintains in the Preface to hisThe Royal Standard English Dictionary, first published in Edinburgh in 1775, he also reveals a certain dissatisfaction with the way ‘the sounds of words are expressed’ by the other two 18th-century scholars. Therefore, the paper examines the ‘more rational method’ proposed in his attempt to better represent the sounds of the English language.

scholarly journals Sources and methods of reconstruction of postal roads in the second half of the 18th century on the example of the former Lublin Voivodeship

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 233-242
Author(s):  
Mateusz Zawadzki
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Communication System ◽  
Research Method ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Gis Tools ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Methods Of Reconstruction

Abstract The subject of the article is reconstructing the routes of postal roads within the borders of the Lublin Voivodeship in the second half of the 18th century. The author has attempted to reconstruct the routes of postal roads, using the retrogression method and a cartographic research method with the use of GIS tools. For this purpose, manuscript cartographic and descriptive sources from the late 18th and 19th centuries were used. Cartographic material from the end of the 18th century in connection with descriptive sources constituted the basis for determining the existence of a postal connection. However, maps from the beginning of the 19th century constituted the basis for the reconstruction of the routes of postal roads. The obtained results allowed for the determination of the role of the Lublin Voivodeship in the old Polish communication system. The research has made us aware of the need for further in-depth work on communication in the pre--partition era (before 1795).

The Question of the Assimilation of Jews in the Polish Kingdom (1864-1897): An Interpretive Essay

2004 ◽  
pp. 130-150
Author(s):  
Alina Cała
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Caste System ◽  
Political Status ◽  
The 19Th Century

This chapter explores the question of the assimilation of Jews in the Kingdom of Poland. What had in fact occurred to 19th-century Polish Jewry? Firstly, the idea developed that its social structure was abnormal. The demand to reform this, understood as calling for changes in economic and political status, had been aired already in the 18th century. Such ideas were strengthened in the 19th century, both in the minds of Poles and some Jews, so that in the wake of the January rising this problem was raised together with the necessity for the Polish caste system to be destroyed. By the end of the century, the specific features of Jewish assimilation in the Polish Kingdom took on quite different forms from those the assimilationist programme itself had assumed. In the 19th century, Jewish assimilation occurred on a widespread scale throughout Europe. The movement generated its own ideology and a large body of literature. In the Congress Kingdom, this ideology was promoted primarily by publicists. In post-insurrectionary conditions in Poland, it was forced to adopt too the role of a quasi-political current.

scholarly journals “GOD HAS CALLED ME TO BE FREE”: ALEPPAN NUNS AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF CATHOLICISM IN 18TH-CENTURY BILAD AL-SHAM

2008 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 443a-443a
Author(s):  
Akram Khater
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Catholic Women ◽  
The 19Th Century

This article tells the story of ten Catholic women from Aleppo who, in the early part of the 18th century, sought to establish their own convent in the district of Kisrawan, Lebanon. Their project became the center of a conflict that entangled the devotees, their Jesuit confessors and supporters, the Melkite Church, and the Vatican. Thus, their story is a prism through which to refract the relationships among gender, class, and religion in the Levant. In particular it sheds light on the role of gender in the construction of a “modern” Catholicism. I contend that modernization predates the 19th century in the Middle East and question the opposition of secularism and history versus religion and faith as an artifact of modernity

Cataloguing the First Histories of the English Language Written from the Late 16th to the End of the 18th Century

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 99-132
Author(s):  
Alicia Rodríguez-Álvarez
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
English Language ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Valuable Insight ◽  
Common Pattern ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Accounts ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Insight Into

Summary Most studies on the first histories of the English language go as far back as the 19th century, and dismiss earlier historical accounts of the language. However, 17th- and 18th-century short histories of the English language provide valuable insight into information layout, periodisation criteria, ideological tenets and other material which have left an imprint on the formation of the discipline called History of the English Language. This paper attempts to remedy this lack of attention by providing a catalogue of the first historical accounts of the English language (16th–18th century) with useful bibliographic details which will help future researchers of early accounts of the English language to locate them. The catalogue is accompanied by a description of these accounts which reveals a common pattern regarding contents and organisation.

The Institutionalization of Philosophy: Victor Cousin and Hegel’s Legacy in France

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 145-172
Keyword(s):  
Educational Policy ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Institutional Arrangement ◽  
Philosophical Education ◽  
Meta Position ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 19Th Century

The article points out patterns in the institutionalization of philosophy during the first half of 19th century when French education was revamped by Victor Cousin and the school of eclecticism as part of the educational policy of the doctrinaire political faction. Cousin’s public statements and correspondence stating his views about how to properly conduct education in philosophy and what obligations that education had toward the political forces of the 1830s and 1840s are interpreted in the context of the structure of the French educational system, changes in the socio-political situation, the lingering influence of Jesuit colleges after they had been banned in the 18th century, the continuity of the administrative and personnel structure of secondary and higher schools, and the Napoleonic reforms. The main focus of the article is on how institutionalization influenced the spread of Hegelian studies and Hegelianism in France and on the inertia in the system that was introduced to maintain the canon of works and figures selected for France’s philosophers to study. The features of the French system of philosophical education that Cousin devised are analyzed, the role of the competitive agrégation in philosophy from the 19th to the 21st century is examined, and the advantages and problematic aspects of institutionalized philosophy are explained. The immediate conclusion reached is that Cousin’s educational policy had a direct and long-lasting impact on the development of Hegel studies and Hegelianism in France from the middle of the 19th century through the first third of the 20th century. That impact came in the form of a wide-ranging abandonment of translating, studying and teaching certain material, and the German idealist’s legacy was the most affected by it. The author also argues that this example reveals more than the role played by a person who pursued well-intentioned goals under particular circumstances with considerable success, although that success came at a cost for the study of the history of philosophy. The example illustrates how the outcome of philosophical studies depends on the institutional arrangement for training and selecting qualified consumers and producers of philosophical knowledge, and this brings up the question of the meta-position of philosophy.

Sasak People’s Resistance Against Mataram-Karangasem and Dutch Colonial Rulers: The Role of Tuan Guru Umar Kelayu

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-90
Author(s):  
Ahmad Tohri ◽  
H. Habibuddin ◽  
Abdul Rasyad
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Economic Factors ◽  
Historical Method ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Historical Methods ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Dutch Colonial ◽  
Dutch Colonialism

This article discusses the Sasak people’s resistance against MataramKarangasem and Dutch colonial rulers in the 19th century in Lombok, Indonesia. It particularly focuses on Tuan Guru Umar Kelayu and his central role in the emergence of Sasak people’s resistance which transformed into Sasak physical revolution local and global imperialismcolonialism. Using the historical method, this article collected data through observation, in-depth interviews, and documentation. The data analysis involved the historical methods of heuristics, verification or criticism, interpretation, and historiography. The findings show that Sasak people’s resistance was not only caused by economic factors but also related to other factors such as social, cultural, and religious ones. Tuan Guru Umar Kelayu played a key role in the Sasak people’s resistance in that it was under his leadership and influence that the resistance transformed into a physical struggle against MataramKarangasem and Dutch colonialism as seen in Sakra War and Praya War which were led by his students and friends.

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