Review of Blank, Paula, 'Broken English: Dialects and the Politics of Language in Renaissance Writings' (The Politics of Language), London and New York, Routledge, 1996: cloth; pp. viii, 211; RRP. £50.00, US $69.95.

John S Ryan

doi:10.1353/pgn.1997.0106

Review of Blank, Paula, 'Broken English: Dialects and the Politics of Language in Renaissance Writings' (The Politics of Language), London and New York, Routledge, 1996: cloth; pp. viii, 211; RRP. £50.00, US $69.95.

John S Ryan

Research output: Contribution to specialist publication › Book/Film/Article review

Abstract

The central concern of Broken English, one made very clear by the subtitle, is to show how several European languages - English amongst them - were concerned to centralise one particular version of their language, which thereby became the national language. In the case of English, Paula Bank admits to having been indebted to the 1991 text, Richard W. Bailey's Images of English: A Cultural History of the Language, which explored the 'ways in which linguistic communities are formed' and the emergence of standard languages. Bailey'S scepticism about English's 'triumphalism' at the Renaissance, and about the conviction of superiority of a certain variety/varieties within the language, led him to predict that many 'orthodox' assumptions about English would need further examination at length. This is exactly what the present study is concerned to do.

Original language	English
Pages	181-186
Volume	15
No.	1
Specialist publication	Parergon
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1353/pgn.1997.0106
Publication status	Published - 1997

Keywords

Language in Culture and Society (Sociolinguistics)
Cultural Studies
Language in Time and Space (incl Historical Linguistics, Dialectology)

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10.1353/pgn.1997.0106

https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/18057

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title = "Review of Blank, Paula, 'Broken English: Dialects and the Politics of Language in Renaissance Writings' (The Politics of Language), London and New York, Routledge, 1996: cloth; pp. viii, 211; RRP. £50.00, US \$69.95.",

abstract = "The central concern of Broken English, one made very clear by the subtitle, is to show how several European languages - English amongst them - were concerned to centralise one particular version of their language, which thereby became the national language. In the case of English, Paula Bank admits to having been indebted to the 1991 text, Richard W. Bailey's Images of English: A Cultural History of the Language, which explored the 'ways in which linguistic communities are formed' and the emergence of standard languages. Bailey'S scepticism about English's 'triumphalism' at the Renaissance, and about the conviction of superiority of a certain variety/varieties within the language, led him to predict that many 'orthodox' assumptions about English would need further examination at length. This is exactly what the present study is concerned to do.",

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AB - The central concern of Broken English, one made very clear by the subtitle, is to show how several European languages - English amongst them - were concerned to centralise one particular version of their language, which thereby became the national language. In the case of English, Paula Bank admits to having been indebted to the 1991 text, Richard W. Bailey's Images of English: A Cultural History of the Language, which explored the 'ways in which linguistic communities are formed' and the emergence of standard languages. Bailey'S scepticism about English's 'triumphalism' at the Renaissance, and about the conviction of superiority of a certain variety/varieties within the language, led him to predict that many 'orthodox' assumptions about English would need further examination at length. This is exactly what the present study is concerned to do.

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