Tag Archives: language of letters

Seminar on Jane Austen

Posted on February 20, 2025 by Ingrid Tieken

2025 is an important year, 250 years after Jane Austen’s date of birth. Various activities will commemorate that year, and one of them is a seminar that will be held at the Complutense University of Madrid. One paper will be … Continue reading →

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On Late Modern English spelling: an appendix to Marco Condorelli, Introducing Historical Orthography (2022)

Posted on June 7, 2024 by Ingrid Tieken

The book is a plea for paying more attention in linguistics curricula to historical orthography, and I couldn’t agree more. The book is well written, and in my view very accessible. Focusing on spelling systems worldwide, it also deals with … Continue reading →

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Cassandra’s last wishes

Posted on February 4, 2024 by Ingrid Tieken

Cassandra Elizabeth, Jane Austen’s sister (1773–1845), not only left a Will but also a private document in the form of a letter to her brother Charles, in which she specified who were to inherit her most prized personal possessions. The contents … Continue reading →

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Special issue on Third-Wave Historical Sociolinguistics

Posted on December 28, 2023 by Ingrid Tieken

If you’re looking for anything to read during the Christmas recess period, here is something you’ll find interesting: a special issue of the International Journal of English Studies (23/2) entirely devoted to studies within the fairly new and burgeoning field … Continue reading →

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Bilingual letter-writers

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Ariënne

Recently, I stumbled upon a family photo album. While browsing through it, I found several letters from the early twentieth and late nineteenth century, all written in Dutch. Despite this, I noticed that the use of language, even the use … Continue reading →

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Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Cynthia Lange

During the last few weeks of the course Letters as Sociohistorical-Linguistic Documents, I’ve been reminded of the many special linguistic insights which letters are able to provide. We’ve read,* for example, about how letters may provide evidence for reconstructing social … Continue reading →

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Letters exhibition at Leiden

Posted on August 3, 2012 by Ingrid Tieken

Last year, an exhibition was held at the Leiden University Library of letters from the late modern period, Dutch as well as English ones. It was called Ach schrijf mij toch!, which expresses the need for letters from far-away loved … Continue reading →

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