Purchase this article
USD $22.00
Early Modern Terminology for Dialect
Denigration, Purism, and the Language-Dialect Dichotomy
in Contributions to the History of Concepts
Author:
and
Raf Van Rooy
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3739-8465
Raf Van Rooy
Assistant Professor, Katholieke Universiteit, Belgium raf.vanrooy@kuleuven.be
Search for other papers by Raf Van Rooy in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Raf Van Rooy in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Alexander Maxwell
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5332-5795
Alexander Maxwell
Associate Professor, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand alexander.maxwell@vuw.ac.nz
Search for other papers by Alexander Maxwell in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Alexander Maxwell in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
USD $0.01
All currencies in US Dollar
Abstract
When the language-dialect dichotomy first emerged in the early modern period, several scholars devised terminological alternatives, particularly for the subordinate lower half of the dichotomy. This article examines a series of terminological alternatives in their social and linguistic contexts, considering terms from the Romance, Germanic, and Slavic linguistic zones. Our case studies suggest that there were two main reasons for coining neologisms, or for devising new meanings for existing words. Some scholars sought terms with stronger pejorative connotations, others acted from language purism. Pejorative neologisms generally proved unsuccessful, but several purist neologisms endured.
Contributor Notes
Raf Van Rooy is Assistant Professor of Latin Literature at KU Leuven. ORCID:
Alexander Maxwell is Associate Professor of History at Victoria University of Wellington. ORCID: