Perceived and Real Differences between Men's and Women's Spellings of the Early to mid-Seventeenth-century
in: The History of English in a Social Context, Dieter Kastovsky and Arthur Mettinger, Editor, Mouton de Gruyter , Berlin, pp.405-439, 2000
- Publication Type: Book Chapter / Chapter Research Book
- Publication Date: 2000
- Publisher: Mouton de Gruyter
- City: Berlin
- Page Numbers: pp.405-439
- Editors: Dieter Kastovsky and Arthur Mettinger, Editor
- Middle East Technical University Affiliated: Yes
Abstract
In the Early Modern process of standardization of written English, some variations in spellings were marked, while others were not. Marking of non-standard spellings was thus a by-product of standardization. This chapter looks at what 'bad' spelling meant in linguistic terms, comparing the stigmatized spellings of a female writer with the accepted and normative spellings of a male writer, both sets of texts being from the first half of the seventeenth century.