"This is the first extensive study of Old English to utilise the insights and methodologies of sociolinguistics. Building on previous philological and historical work, it takes into account the sociology and social dialectology of Old English and offers a description of its speech communities informed by the theory of social networks and communities of practice. Specifically, this book uses data from historical narratives and legal documents and examines the interplay of linguistic innovation, variation, and change with such sociolinguistic parameters as region, scribal office, gender, and social status. Special attention is given to the processes of supralocalisation and their correlation with periods of political centralisation in the history of Anglo-Saxon England"--.

• Sociolinguistic Variation in Old English
• Editorial page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication page
• Table of contents
• Acknowledgements
• List of tables
• List of figures
• Chapter 1. Sociolinguistic approaches to the study of Old English
  • 1.1 A typology of approaches and earlier work
    • 1.1.1 Sociology of Old English
    • 1.1.2 Social dialectology
      • 1.1.2.1 Correlational sociolinguistics
      • 1.1.2.2 Interactional sociolinguistics
  • 1.2 Old English text categories and their suitability for sociolinguistic research
    • 1.2.1 Text categories and genres
    • 1.2.2 Runic and non-runic inscriptions
    • 1.2.3 Glosses
    • 1.2.4 Glossaries
    • 1.2.5 Verse
    • 1.2.6 Prose
  • 1.3 Concepts and definitions
    • 1.3.1 Texts and textual categories
    • 1.3.2 Texts and social networks
• Chapter 2. Social networks at the court of King Alfred
  • 2.1 Towards a definition of the Alfredian network in sociolinguistic terms
    • 2.1.1 Individual actors
    • 2.1.2 Proto-chancery as actor
    • 2.1.3 King Alfred’s network and its ties
  • 2.2 Case studies
    • 2.2.1 Angelcynn
    • 2.2.2 here
  • 2.3 Conclusions
• Chapter 3. Legal Old English and its communities
  • 3.1 Legal documents as acts of identity
  • 3.2 Anglo-Saxon legal documents
  • 3.3 Legal documents as proxy genres in the study of social ties and sociolinguistic variables
    • 3.3.1 PASE database
      • 3.3.1.1 Names in PASE
      • 3.3.1.2 Occupational terms in PASE
      • 3.3.1.3 Women in PASE
      • 3.3.1.4 Individuals in PASE
    • 3.3.2 Other databases
  • 3.4 Charter forms
  • 3.5 Summary and outlook
• Chapter 4. Diplomas: Members of the assemblies and variation by archive
  • 4.1 The protocol of diplomas
  • 4.2 The diffusion of the practice
  • 4.3 Case study: Witness lists
  • 4.4 Case study: Dispositive verbs
  • 4.5 Conclusions
• Chapter 6. Wills: Variation by archive and gender
  • 6.1 The corpus of wills
  • 6.2 Function and orality of wills
  • 6.3 Types of wills
  • 6.4 The protocol of wills
  • 6.5 Case study: Variation by subperiod and archive
    • 6.5.1 Dispositive verbs
    • 6.5.2 (ge)unnan + land objects
    • 6.5.3 ‘after my death’ adverbials
  • 6.6 Case study: Variation by gender
    • 6.6.1 Soliciting patronage
    • 6.6.2 Cursing
      • 6.6.2.1 The curse of Cnut and emma
  • 6.7 Case study: Sociolinguistic outliers
    • 6.7.1 The will of Leofgifu
    • 6.7.2 The will of Mantat
  • 6.8 Conclusions
• Chapter 7. Mixed-language practices of William I’s chancery: Contact and innovation
  • 7.1 Introduction
  • 7.2 Data
  • 7.3 Case study: English terms in Latin acta of William I
    • 7.3.1 Anglo-Latin data as evidence for low-frequency Old English lexis
    • 7.3.2 English-source items in lists of franchises
    • 7.3.3 English-source items in broader contexts
    • 7.3.4 Necessity criterion: Direct loans vs. cultural equivalents
  • 7.4 Case study: French (and Gallo-Latin) terms in Latin acta of William I
    • 7.4.1 Anglo-Latin data as early evidence for (Anglo-)Norman
    • 7.4.2 Norman-source items in lists of addressees and witnesses
    • 7.4.3 Other Norman-source items
    • 7.4.4 Norman verbs
  • 7.5 Chancery, chancellors, scribes, and bishops of William I
  • 7.6 Conclusions
  • Appendix 1
    • Abbreviations
    • A catalogue of English terms in Latin acta of William I
    • A catalogue of French terms in Latin acta of William I
• Chapter 8. Epilogue
• References
• Index of names
• Index of subjects