Is Early Middle English a Koiné language?

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.

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Publication Details

Journal
University of Essex
Published
2024-11-27
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5526/esj.373
Primary Topic
Linguistic Variation and Morphology
Type
article
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Is Early Middle English a Koiné language?

University of Essex
Linguistic Variation and Morphology
article

Is Early Middle English a Koiné language?

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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.

University of Essex
University of Essex (GB), Pathways Behavioral Services (US)
Quality Education
Openalex Percentile: Top 32%
Linguistic Variation and Morphology
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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Is Early Middle English a Koiné language? · University of Essex (2024) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS