Varieties of English in Writing -- Editorial page -- Title page -- LCC data -- Table of contents -- Preface -- List of contributors -- Linguistic evaluation of earlier texts -- 1. The question of 'standard' in previous centuries -- 1.1 Standard and non-standard English in linguistic research -- 2. Identifying and analysing varieties of English -- 2.1 Deciding what belongs to the standard -- 2.2 What was previously 'non-standard' -- 2.3 The yardstick for preferred usage -- 3. Investigating 'non-standard' texts -- 3.1 Fidelity of representation -- 3.2 Classification criteria for non-standard texts -- 3.3 Classification in Schneider (2002) -- 4. Conclusion -- References -- Non-standard language in earlier English -- 1. Aims of the study -- 2. Defining non-standard in the past -- 3. Theory and data: Empirical evidence from early texts -- 3.1 Regional language use -- 3.2 Social and stylistic varieties ("lower class") -- 4. The status of 'standard' vs. 'non-standard' features in Early Modern English: Assessing textual evidence -- 4.1 Them for demonstrative those -- 4.2 Third-person subject-verb concord -- 5. Conclusion -- References -- Appendix -- a. Northern words listed in Ray (1674 and recorded in the CED -- b.Northern words listed in Ray (1674 and recorded in the CED but unclear whether the same sense was intended -- c. Southern/Eastern words listed in Ray (1674 and recorded in the CED -- d.Southern/Eastern word listed in Ray (1674 and recorded in the CED but unclear whether the same sense was intended -- e. Words of potential interest found in the CED but not listed in Ray (1674) -- Assessing non-standard writing in lexicography -- 1. Revising the OED -- 1.1 Historical regional variation in the OED -- 1.2 Scots and English regional variation contrasted -- 1.3 What of the unpublished writings of 'naïve' non-professional writers?.

2. An examination of the spelling forms found in some sample texts -- 2.1 John Clare, prose piece The Farmer and the Vicar -- 2.2 A comparison with a contemporary U.S. source: The journals of Lewis and Clark -- 2.3 How does the evidence of 'naïve' witnesses differ for earlier periods? -- 3. Some conclusions -- References -- Northern English in Writing -- 1. The foundations of Northern English -- 2. Northern English 1500-1900: Weighing the evidence -- 3. Northern English features 1500-1900 -- 3.1 Phonology -- 3.2 Grammar -- 3.3 Lexis -- 3.4 Discourse features -- 4. Conclusion -- References -- Primary sources -- Secondary Sources -- Southern English in writing -- 1. Introduction -- 2. An outline of the area and its demographic history -- 3. The middle and south of England as a linguistic area -- 4. The representation of non-standard dialect in writing: Variation, problems, accuracy -- 5. The significance of genre, motivation and awareness -- 6. Concluding remarks -- References -- The distinctiveness of Scots -- 1. Historical background -- 2. Gavin Douglas' Eneados -- 3. The status of Scots -- 4. The Valiant Scot -- 5. Alexander Hume's Of the Orthographie and Congruitie of the Britan Tongue -- 6. Scots in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries -- 6.1 Allan Ramsay's The Ever Green -- 6.2 James Elphinstone's Propriety Ascertained in her Picture -- 6.3 Alexander Geddes' Dissertation on the Scoto-Saxon Dialect -- 7. Conclusion -- References -- Irish English in early modern drama -- 1. Introduction -- 1.1 The rise of the stage Irishman -- 1.2 The limits of reconstruction via satire -- 2. The late sixteenth century -- 3. The seventeenth century -- 4. The eighteenth century -- 4.1 Drama in the eighteenth century -- 4.2 Summary of features up to 1800 -- 5. The nineteenth century -- 7. Conclusion -- References.

'[H]ushed and lulled full chimes for pushed and pulled' -- 1. Writing Ulster English -- 2. Research on Ulster English -- 3. Approaching text types -- 4. Studies of written Ulster English -- 4.1 Ulster English recorded -- 4.2 Northern Irish English observed -- 4.3 Ulster English imagined -- 4.4 Ulster English invented -- 4.4.1 Documenting the vernacular -- 4.4.2 Extending the vernacular -- 4.4.3 (Re)shaping the vernacular -- 4.5 ICE-Ireland - a corpus of present-day Irish English -- 4.6 CORIECOR - Corpus of Irish English Correspondence -- 5. Prospect -- References -- Dialect literature and English in the USA -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Methodological considerations and assumptions -- 3. The early American context -- 4. Literary dialect, a new national identity, and standardization in American English -- 5. Standard American English, literary dialect, and African American as other -- 6. Conclusion -- References -- Written sources for Canadian English -- 1. Written sources and sociolinguistic reconstruction -- 1.1 Approaching written sources: Methodology and supporting evidence -- 1.2 Types of complementary evidence -- 1.3 Literary dialect -- 1.4 Non-literary sources -- 2. Literary sources East to West: Points of departure -- 3. Tracing the low-back vowel merger in Canadian English -- 3.1 Contemporary evidence -- 3.2 Diachronic evidence -- 3.2.1 Literary sources: Haliburton's literary eye and ear -- 3.2.2 Literary dialect and authentic data -- 4. Conclusions -- Acknowledgements -- References -- Earlier Caribbean English and Creole in writing -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The writing context in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Caribbean -- 2.1 The authors -- 2.2 The nature of the texts -- 2.3 Technical issues -- 3. Linguistic analysis of early texts -- 3.1 Research aims and methodological approaches.

3.2 Overview of grammatically oriented studies of historical Creole documents -- 3.3 The findings from research on historical documents written in a Creole -- 4. Sociolinguistic research on early texts -- 4.1 Aims and Methods -- 4.2 Overview of research in this area -- 4.3 Sample analysis -- 4.4 Problems -- 5. Conclusions and outlook -- References -- Earliest St Helenian English in writing -- 1. Introduction -- 2. A brief social history of St Helena -- 3. Earlier evidence of St Helenian English -- 4. Assessing the sociolinguistic significance of earlier evidence -- 5. Conclusion -- References -- 'An abundant harvest to the philologer'? -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Early South African English -- 3. Sources for South African English -- 4. Methodology -- 5. Jeremiah Goldswain and Thomas Shone -- 6. Phonological features -- 6.1 h-dropping -- 6.2 h-insertion -- 6.3 /w/ merger -- 7. Grammatical features -- 7.1 Past tense done -- 7.2 Past tense be -- 7.3 Verbal concord -- 8. Conclusions -- References -- 'A peculiar language' -- 1. Introduction -- 1.1 Background - early Australian English (AusE) -- 1.2 Written texts as evidence for early Australian English -- 2. Sydney's lawbreakers and lawmakers of the 1850s -- 2.1 Irish background speakers -- 2.2 One speaker of Scottish origin -- 2.3 Speakers of London origin -- 2.4 Speakers of unknown background -- 3. Whence Australian English? What Corbyn's texts reveal -- 3.1 The Cockney clout -- 3.1.1 W(h)ither the Irish features? -- 4. In conclusion -- References -- Appendix - Corbyn's extracts -- Irish background -- Scottish background -- London background -- Unknown background -- Describing and complaining -- 1. Samuel McBurney: The describer -- 1.1 Vowels -- 2. The school inspectors and The Triad: The complainers -- 2.1 Vowels -- 2.1.1 The closing diphthongs -- 2.1.2 The short unstressed vowel -- 2.1.3 H-dropping.

3. Methodological issues -- 4. Comparing written records with spoken evidence -- 4.1 Variability in early New Zealand English spoken data -- 4.2 H-dropping in the spoken data -- 4.3 Closing diphthongs in the spoken data -- 4.4 The unstressed vowel - the spoken evidence -- 5. Conclusions -- References -- Feature index -- Name index -- Subject index -- The series Varieties of English Around the World.