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Using the Eighteenth-Century English Phonology Database (ECEP) as a teaching resource

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2020

CHRISTINE WALLIS Open the ORCID record for CHRISTINE WALLIS [Opens in a new window]
CHRISTINE WALLIS*
Affiliation:
School of English, University of Sheffield, Jessop West, 1 Upper Hanover Street, SheffieldS3 7RA, United Kingdomc.wallis@sheffield.ac.uk
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Abstract

This article reports on the use of the Eighteenth-Century English Phonology Database (ECEP) as a teaching resource in historical sociolinguistics and historical linguistics courses at the University of Sheffield. Pronouncing dictionaries are an invaluable resource for students learning about processes of standardisation and language attitudes during the Late Modern English period (1700–1900), however they are not easy to use in their original format. Each author uses their own notation system to indicate their recommended pronunciation, while the terminology used to describe the quality of the vowels and consonants differs from that used today, and provides an additional obstacle to the student wishing to interrogate such sources. ECEP thus provides a valuable intermediary between the students and the source material, as it includes IPA equivalents for the recommended pronunciations, as well as any metalinguistic commentary offered by the authors about a particular pronunciation. This article demonstrates a teaching approach that not only uses ECEP as a tool in its own right, but also explores how it can be usefully combined with other materials covering language change in the Late Modern English period to enable students to undertake their own investigations in research-led courses.

Keywords

ECEPresearch-led teachingstandardisationLate Modern Englishhistorical sociolinguistics
Type
Research Article
Information
English Language & Linguistics , Volume 24 , Special Issue 3: Studies in Late Modern English historical phonology using the Eighteenth-Century English Phonology Database (ECEP) , September 2020 , pp. 591 - 606
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

References

Alexander, Caleb. 1800. The Columbian dictionary of the English language: In which many new words, peculiar to the United States, and many words of general use, not found in any other English dictionary, are inserted. Boston: Thomas and Andrews.Google Scholar
Buchanan, James. 1757. Linguae Britannicae vera pronunciatio: or, A new English dictionary. London.Google Scholar
Bunce, Oliver Bell. 1884. Don't: A manual of mistakes and improprieties more or less prevalent in conduct and speech, new edn. London: Ward, Locke.Google Scholar
Burn, John. 1786. A pronouncing dictionary of the English language, 2nd edn. Glasgow.Google Scholar
Elliott, John. 1800. A selected, pronouncing and accented dictionary: Comprising a selection of the choicest words found in the best English authors, 2nd edn. Suffield, CT: Gray.Google Scholar
Grose, Francis. 1785. A classical dictionary of the vulgar tongue. London: Hooper.Google Scholar
Johnston, William. 1764. A pronouncing and spelling dictionary. London.Google Scholar
Jones, Stephen. 1797. Genuine edition. Sheridan improved: A general pronouncing and explanatory dictionary of the English language, 2nd edn. London.Google Scholar
Jones, Stephen. 1798. Sheridan improved: A general pronouncing and explanatory dictionary of the English language, 3rd edn. London.Google Scholar
Kenrick, William. 1773. A new dictionary of the English language. London.Google Scholar
Perry, William. 1775. The royal standard English dictionary. Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Scott, William. 1786. A new spelling, pronouncing, and explanatory dictionary of the English language, 2nd edn. Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Sheridan, Thomas. 1780. A general dictionary of the English language. London.Google Scholar
Spence, Thomas. 1775. The grand repository of the English language. Newcastle.Google Scholar
Walker, John. 1791. A critical pronouncing dictionary and expositor of the English language. London.Google Scholar
Auer, Anita, Laitinen, Mikko, Gordon, Moragh & Fairman, Tony. 2014. An electronic corpus of letters of artisans and the labouring poor (England, c.1750–1835): Compilation principles and coding conventions. In Vandelanotte, Davidse, Gentens & Kimps (eds.), 9–30.Google Scholar
Beal, Joan C. 2004. English in modern times. London: Arnold.Google Scholar
Beal, Joan C. & Sen, Ranjan. 2014. Towards a corpus of eighteenth-century English phonology. In Vandelanotte, Davidse, Gentens & Kimps (eds.), 31–54.Google Scholar
Beal, Joan C., Sen, Ranjan, Yáñez-Bouza, Nuria & Wallis, Christine. 2020. En[dj]uring [ʧ]unes or ma[tj]ure [ʤ]ukes? Yod-coalescence and yod-dropping in the Eighteenth-Century English Phonology Database. English Language and Linguistics 24(3), 493–526.Google Scholar
Bond, Trevor J. & Butler, Todd. 2009. A dialog on teaching an undergraduate seminar in special collections. Library Review 58(4), 310–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buck, R. A. 2003. Why? And how? Teaching the history of the English language in our new millennium. English Today 19(1), 44–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dossena, Marina. 2019. Late Modern English: Teaching language history from below. In Moore, Collette & Palmer, Chris C. (eds.), Teaching the history of the English language, 127–36. New York: Modern Language Association of America.Google Scholar
ECCO = Eighteenth-Century Collections Online. 2008. Detroit: Gale Cengage Learning. www.gale.com/intl/primary-sources/eighteenth-century-collections-online (accessed 15 September 2019).Google Scholar
ECEG = Eighteenth-Century English Grammars Database. 2010. Compiled by Rodríguez-Gil, María E.(University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria) and Nuria Yáñez-Bouza (The University of Manchester). https://eceg.iatext.ulpgc.es/ (accessed 5 September 2019).Google Scholar
ECEP = Eighteenth-Century English Phonology Database. 2015. Compiled by Beal, Joan C., Yáñez-Bouza, Nuria, Sen, Ranjan & Wallis, Christine(The University of Sheffield and Universidade de Vigo). Published by the Digital Humanities Institute, University of Sheffield. www.dhi.ac.uk/projects/ecep/ (accessed 12 September 2019).Google Scholar
Fairman, Tony. 2007. Writing and ‘the Standard’: England, 1795–1834. Multilingua 26(2), 167–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayes, Mary, & Burkette, Allison. 2017. Approaches to the history of the English language: Pedagogy in practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hitchcock, Tim, Shoemaker, Robert, Emsley, Clive, Howard, Sharon & McLaughlin, Jamie. 2012. The Old Bailey Proceedings Online, 1674–1913. www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 7.0 (accessed 5 September 2019).Google Scholar
Jenkins, Alan & Healey, Mick. 2012. Research-led or research-based undergraduate curricula. In Hunt, Lynne & Chalmers, Denise (eds.), University teaching in focus: A learning-centred approach, 128–44. London: Routledge,CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Langer, Nils & Nesse, Agnete. 2014. Linguistic purism. In Hernández-Campoy, Juan M. & Conde-Silvestre, J. Camilo (eds.), The handbook of historical sociolinguistics, 607–26. London: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Moore, Collette & Palmer, Chris C.. 2019. Teaching the history of the English language. New York: Modern Language Association of America.Google Scholar
Mugglestone, Lynda. 2003. Talking proper: The rise of acccent as a social symbol, 2nd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Tyrkkö, Jukka. 2017. Discovering the past for yourself: Corpora, data-driven learning, and the history of English. In Hayes, Mary & Burkette, Allison (eds.), Approaches to teaching the history of the English language, 141–56. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Vandelanotte, Lieven, Davidse, Kristin, Gentens, Caroline, & Kimps, Ditte (eds.). 2014. Recent advances in corpus linguistics: Developing and exploiting corpora. Amsterdam: Brill/Rodopi.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wells, J. C. 1982. Accents of English, 3 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiggins, Alison, Bryson, Alan, Smith, Daniel Starza, Timmermann, Anke & Williams, Graham (eds.). 2013. Bess of Hardwick's Letters: The complete correspondence, c.1550–1608. www.bessofhardwick.org (accessed 5 September 2019).Google Scholar
Yáñez-Bouza, Nuria. 2020. ECEP: historical corpora, historical phonology and historical pronouncing dictionaries. English Language and Linguistics 24(3), 475–92.Google Scholar
Yáñez-Bouza, Nuria, Beal, Joan C., Sen, Ranjan & Wallis, Christine. 2018. ‘Proper’ pro-nun-ſha-ſhun in eighteenth-century English: ECEP as a new tool for the study of historical phonology and dialectology. Digital Scholarship in the Humanities 33(1), 203–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alexander, Caleb. 1800. The Columbian dictionary of the English language: In which many new words, peculiar to the United States, and many words of general use, not found in any other English dictionary, are inserted. Boston: Thomas and Andrews.Google Scholar
Buchanan, James. 1757. Linguae Britannicae vera pronunciatio: or, A new English dictionary. London.Google Scholar
Bunce, Oliver Bell. 1884. Don't: A manual of mistakes and improprieties more or less prevalent in conduct and speech, new edn. London: Ward, Locke.Google Scholar
Burn, John. 1786. A pronouncing dictionary of the English language, 2nd edn. Glasgow.Google Scholar
Elliott, John. 1800. A selected, pronouncing and accented dictionary: Comprising a selection of the choicest words found in the best English authors, 2nd edn. Suffield, CT: Gray.Google Scholar
Grose, Francis. 1785. A classical dictionary of the vulgar tongue. London: Hooper.Google Scholar
Johnston, William. 1764. A pronouncing and spelling dictionary. London.Google Scholar
Jones, Stephen. 1797. Genuine edition. Sheridan improved: A general pronouncing and explanatory dictionary of the English language, 2nd edn. London.Google Scholar
Jones, Stephen. 1798. Sheridan improved: A general pronouncing and explanatory dictionary of the English language, 3rd edn. London.Google Scholar
Kenrick, William. 1773. A new dictionary of the English language. London.Google Scholar
Perry, William. 1775. The royal standard English dictionary. Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Scott, William. 1786. A new spelling, pronouncing, and explanatory dictionary of the English language, 2nd edn. Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Sheridan, Thomas. 1780. A general dictionary of the English language. London.Google Scholar
Spence, Thomas. 1775. The grand repository of the English language. Newcastle.Google Scholar
Walker, John. 1791. A critical pronouncing dictionary and expositor of the English language. London.Google Scholar
Auer, Anita, Laitinen, Mikko, Gordon, Moragh & Fairman, Tony. 2014. An electronic corpus of letters of artisans and the labouring poor (England, c.1750–1835): Compilation principles and coding conventions. In Vandelanotte, Davidse, Gentens & Kimps (eds.), 9–30.Google Scholar
Beal, Joan C. 2004. English in modern times. London: Arnold.Google Scholar
Beal, Joan C. & Sen, Ranjan. 2014. Towards a corpus of eighteenth-century English phonology. In Vandelanotte, Davidse, Gentens & Kimps (eds.), 31–54.Google Scholar
Beal, Joan C., Sen, Ranjan, Yáñez-Bouza, Nuria & Wallis, Christine. 2020. En[dj]uring [ʧ]unes or ma[tj]ure [ʤ]ukes? Yod-coalescence and yod-dropping in the Eighteenth-Century English Phonology Database. English Language and Linguistics 24(3), 493–526.Google Scholar
Bond, Trevor J. & Butler, Todd. 2009. A dialog on teaching an undergraduate seminar in special collections. Library Review 58(4), 310–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buck, R. A. 2003. Why? And how? Teaching the history of the English language in our new millennium. English Today 19(1), 44–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dossena, Marina. 2019. Late Modern English: Teaching language history from below. In Moore, Collette & Palmer, Chris C. (eds.), Teaching the history of the English language, 127–36. New York: Modern Language Association of America.Google Scholar
ECCO = Eighteenth-Century Collections Online. 2008. Detroit: Gale Cengage Learning. www.gale.com/intl/primary-sources/eighteenth-century-collections-online (accessed 15 September 2019).Google Scholar
ECEG = Eighteenth-Century English Grammars Database. 2010. Compiled by Rodríguez-Gil, María E.(University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria) and Nuria Yáñez-Bouza (The University of Manchester). https://eceg.iatext.ulpgc.es/ (accessed 5 September 2019).Google Scholar
ECEP = Eighteenth-Century English Phonology Database. 2015. Compiled by Beal, Joan C., Yáñez-Bouza, Nuria, Sen, Ranjan & Wallis, Christine(The University of Sheffield and Universidade de Vigo). Published by the Digital Humanities Institute, University of Sheffield. www.dhi.ac.uk/projects/ecep/ (accessed 12 September 2019).Google Scholar
Fairman, Tony. 2007. Writing and ‘the Standard’: England, 1795–1834. Multilingua 26(2), 167–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayes, Mary, & Burkette, Allison. 2017. Approaches to the history of the English language: Pedagogy in practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hitchcock, Tim, Shoemaker, Robert, Emsley, Clive, Howard, Sharon & McLaughlin, Jamie. 2012. The Old Bailey Proceedings Online, 1674–1913. www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 7.0 (accessed 5 September 2019).Google Scholar
Jenkins, Alan & Healey, Mick. 2012. Research-led or research-based undergraduate curricula. In Hunt, Lynne & Chalmers, Denise (eds.), University teaching in focus: A learning-centred approach, 128–44. London: Routledge,CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Langer, Nils & Nesse, Agnete. 2014. Linguistic purism. In Hernández-Campoy, Juan M. & Conde-Silvestre, J. Camilo (eds.), The handbook of historical sociolinguistics, 607–26. London: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Moore, Collette & Palmer, Chris C.. 2019. Teaching the history of the English language. New York: Modern Language Association of America.Google Scholar
Mugglestone, Lynda. 2003. Talking proper: The rise of acccent as a social symbol, 2nd edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Tyrkkö, Jukka. 2017. Discovering the past for yourself: Corpora, data-driven learning, and the history of English. In Hayes, Mary & Burkette, Allison (eds.), Approaches to teaching the history of the English language, 141–56. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Vandelanotte, Lieven, Davidse, Kristin, Gentens, Caroline, & Kimps, Ditte (eds.). 2014. Recent advances in corpus linguistics: Developing and exploiting corpora. Amsterdam: Brill/Rodopi.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wells, J. C. 1982. Accents of English, 3 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiggins, Alison, Bryson, Alan, Smith, Daniel Starza, Timmermann, Anke & Williams, Graham (eds.). 2013. Bess of Hardwick's Letters: The complete correspondence, c.1550–1608. www.bessofhardwick.org (accessed 5 September 2019).Google Scholar
Yáñez-Bouza, Nuria. 2020. ECEP: historical corpora, historical phonology and historical pronouncing dictionaries. English Language and Linguistics 24(3), 475–92.Google Scholar
Yáñez-Bouza, Nuria, Beal, Joan C., Sen, Ranjan & Wallis, Christine. 2018. ‘Proper’ pro-nun-ſha-ſhun in eighteenth-century English: ECEP as a new tool for the study of historical phonology and dialectology. Digital Scholarship in the Humanities 33(1), 203–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar