Reassessing orthoepic evidence for ‘nonstandard’ speech in Early Modern Britain

Campbell, Molly (2026) Reassessing orthoepic evidence for ‘nonstandard’ speech in Early Modern Britain. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

For well over a century, early forms of English vernacular linguistic scholarship—or orthoepy—have been used by historical linguists to explore the pronunciation of Early Modern English (e.g. Ellis 1871; Dobson 1968; Ekwall 1975). However, these texts have almost exclusively been used as evidence for the London-based, so-called ‘standard’ accent.

These texts are part of the very early stages of a standardising ideology in English, so their use for that purpose makes sense, but these authors also provide evidence for Scots and for varieties of English besides that used by educated London speakers. These non-London varieties are under-researched for the early modern period, and the focus is usually on theatre, poetry, and letters. By examining how orthoepic texts can be used as evidence for ‘non-standard’ accents, this study will reveal how alternative histories of English and Scots can be found in supposedly standardising texts, and will contribute to the decentring of English historical linguistics.

In this study, orthoepic authors are divided into ‘first-hand’ and ‘second-hand’ witnesses. The former group are authors who are themselves speakers of ‘non-standard’ accents, and the latter are usually speakers of the ‘standard’ accent. The first-hand witnesses’ works are analysed for various evidence types which may provide clues as to features of ‘nonstandard’ accents, such as their spelling choices, evidence uncovered through multilingual comparison, and direct commentary on variation. These texts include the work of Welshman William Salesbury (A Briefe and Playne Introduction and A Dictionary in Welsh and English), Scot Alexander Hume’s Of the Orthographie and Congruitie of the Britan Tongue, and Lincolnshire-born Alexander Gil’s Logonomia Anglica, amongst others. The commentary on variation found in the works of the second-hand witnesses is likewise interrogated, including the works of John Hart (The opening of the unreasonable writing of our Inglish toung, An Orthographie, and A methode of comefortable beginning for all unlearned), John Wallis’ Grammatica Linguae Anglicanae and Tractatus de Loquela, and Sir Thomas Smith’s De recta et emendate linguae anglicae scriptione, dialogus. Within these texts, numerous features of a variety of accents have been found, particularly relating to Scots and Northern English. Welsh English features are found in a smaller number of texts (particularly in the work of William Salesbury), and features of Southern, Eastern, and Western English are only rarely found in the texts examined. This evidence is then drawn together to demonstrate which ‘non-standard’ features are observed most often by these authors, such as L-vocalisation, /x/-retention, and the Northern and Scots retention of ME ā. Finally, the attitudes of these orthoepists towards ‘non-standard’ speech are discussed, particularly with regards to how they differ between varieties. While traditionally orthoepy has been seen to regard ‘non-standard’ variants in a generally negative sense, in this study orthoepists’ attitudes towards these accents are found to vary, with Welsh English generally being neutrally received, while Northern English and Scots are treated neutrally or even positively.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Subjects: P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies
• Funder's Name: Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
• Supervisor's Name: Kopaczyk-McPherson, Professor Joanna and Smith, Professor Jeremy
• Date of Award: 2026
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2026-86015
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 16 Jun 2026 13:21
• Last Modified: 16 Jun 2026 13:29
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.86015
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/86015