Is Early Middle English a Koiné language?
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: This essay reviews the oft-understudied Early Middle English Koiné Hypothesis and reviews the historical context and criteria to judge whether it could qualify as a koiné language. Koiné Greek, Taiwanese Hokkien, Middle Mandarin, and Modern Hebrew are used as historical examples. Linguistic evidence from the Yorkshire dialect, similarities in alliterative verse in Beowulf and Hervararkviða, and commentary from the First Grammatical Treatise and Gunnlaugs saga ormstungu, are referenced, leading to the assessment that Early Middle English could very well be a stabilised regional koiné language under Siegel’s (1985) criteria.
Source: University of Essex
DOI: 10.5526/esj.373
Author: Llinos Evans
Institution: University of Essex
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6969580123
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