Robert McColl Millar is Reader in Linguistics in the School of Language & Literature at the University of Aberdeen. His books include Northern and Insular Scots (2007), Authority and Identity. A Sociolinguistic History of Europe before the Modern Age (2010) and English Historical Sociolinguistics (2012).

• List of figures viiList of tables ixAcknowledgements xiForeword: Towards a sociolinguistic history of the English language xiii1 Sociolinguistics: an overview 11.1 Historical linguistics and sociolinguistics 1.2 Sociolinguistics 1.3 Conclusions Further reading Some issues to consider 2 Language change and sociolinguistic processes in the past 2.1 Sociolinguistic change in the recent past: /r/ in New York City 2.2 Sociolinguistic change in the more distant past 2.3 Discussion Further reading Some issues to consider 3 Standardisation 3.1 Theories of linguistic dominance, subordination and standardisation 3.2 The standardisation of early Modern English 3.3 The development of an English standard 3.4 The dialectalisation of Scots 3.5 Conclusions Further reading Some issues to consider 4 Codification and ideology 4.1 Modern ideologies of language 4.2 The codification of English 4.3 Towards a middle class culture 4.5 Lower middle class language ideologies in modern Britain and beyond 4.6 Discussion Further reading Some issues to consider 5 Contact and shift as agents of change 5.1 Typological change from Old English to Middle English 5.2 Language contact as catalyst 5.3 Language contact from a theoretical viewpoint 5.4 Weighing up the evidence: contact and linguistic change 5.5 Discussion Further reading Some issues to consider 6 Linguistic contact and new dialect formation 6.1 Colonial dialects: an introduction 6.2 Theoretical models 6.3 Case studies 6.4 Conclusion Further reading Some issues to consider 7 Some final thoughts Further reading References Index

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