Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-gq7q9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-20T10:18:23.047Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
This chapter is part of a book that is no longer available to purchase from Cambridge Core

9 - Orthography and Language Change

from Part IV - Understanding Orthography

Marco Condorelli
Affiliation:
University of Central Lancashire, Preston
Get access

Summary

Chapter 9 discusses the relationship between transmission, diffusion and orthography. While diffusion can be seen as a more dominant driver of orthographic change, changes induced by transmission are also possible in some historical scenarios, for example through formal instruction or via closely knit social networks. Drawing on a number of examples from previous studies, the chapter also engages with supralocalisation, intended as an antecedent to standardisation, as local and regional orthographic conventions in the pre-standardisation era give way to more supraregional writing traditions. Thus, instances of geographical diffusion across communities frequently provide essential groundwork for later standardisation initiatives. The chapter ends with a reference to the importance of including pluricentricity in our understanding of standardisation. It is by studying regional writing traditions that one can trace the formation of a standard not as an exclusive national form, but rather as a pluricentric scenario. In the development of many European pluricentric orthographies, not least German and French, some writing traditions eventually became part of the overall profile of the regional influence through diffusion, while still not becoming a uniform fixed set of shibboleths for the whole geographical area.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Further Reading

Jaffe, A., Androutsopoulos, J., Sebba, M. & Johnson, S. (eds.). 2012. Orthography as Social Action: Scripts, Spelling, Identity and Power. Berlin: Walter De Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labov, W. 2007. ‘Transmission and diffusion’. Language, 83, pp. 344–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rutkowska, H. & Rössler, P.. 2012. ‘Orthographic variables’. In Hernández-Campoy, J. M. & C. Conde-Silvestre, J. (eds.), The Handbook of Historical Sociolinguistics. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, pp. 213–36.Google Scholar
Sebba, M. 2007. Spelling and Society: The Culture and Politics of Orthography around the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Villa, L. & Vosters, R. (eds.). 2015. The Historical Sociolinguistics of Spelling (Special issue of Written Language & Literacy 18, 2). Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×