The onomastic data of the fourteenth-century poll tax returns: A case for further dialectological study of Late Medieval English

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorParkin, D. Harry
dc.date.accessioned2017-08-28T11:21:50Z
dc.date.available2017-08-28T11:21:50Z
dc.date.issued2014
dc.description.abstractAn important source of localisable Middle English dialectological data has recently become widely accessible, thanks to the published transcription of the 1377, 1379 and 1381 poll tax re-turns by Carolyn C. Fenwick (1998, 2001, 2005). As the only collection of onomastic data from the late fourteenth century with national coverage, the name forms in the records can be analysed to further our understanding of Middle English dialect distribution and change. As with many historical records, the poll tax returns are not without damage and so do not cover the country in its entirety, but provided their investigation is carried out with suitable methodological caution, they are of considerable dialectological value. Using the poll tax data, the distributions of two dialect features particular to the West Midlands (specifically rounding of /a/ to /o/ before nasals and /u/ in unstressed positions) are presented and compared with the patterns given for the same features in Kristensson’s (1987) dialect survey of data from 1290-1350. By identifying apparent discrepancies in dialect distribution from these datasets, which represent periods of no more than 100 years apart, it seems that the spread of certain Middle English dialect features may have changed considerably over a short space of time. Other possible reasons for these distribution differences are also suggested, highlighting the difficulties in comparing dialect data from differ-ent sets of records. Through this paper a case for further dialectological study, using the poll tax returns, is made, to add to the literature on Middle English dialect distribution and to improve our knowledge of ME dialect phonologies at the end of the fourteenth century.pl_PL
dc.identifier.citationStudia Anglica Posnaniensia, vol. 49.2 (2014), pp. 33-61pl_PL
dc.identifier.issn0081-6272
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10593/19204
dc.language.isoengpl_PL
dc.publisherAdam Mickiewicz Universitypl_PL
dc.rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesspl_PL
dc.subjectMiddle Englishpl_PL
dc.subjectdialectpl_PL
dc.subjectdialectologypl_PL
dc.subjectonomasticspl_PL
dc.subjectpoll taxpl_PL
dc.titleThe onomastic data of the fourteenth-century poll tax returns: A case for further dialectological study of Late Medieval Englishpl_PL
dc.typeArtykułpl_PL

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
[Studia Anglica Posnaniensia] The Onomastic Data of the Fourteenth-Century Poll Tax Returns A Case for Further Dialectological Study of Late Medieval English.pdf
Size:
544.8 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.47 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download

Collections

Studia Anglica Posnaniensia, 2014 vol. 49.2