East Anglian English forms part of the series Dialects of English, which has so far included volumes on varieties including New York City English, Kenyan English, East Midlands English and Australian Aboriginal English. As such, this volume follows the general format of the series which covers the linguistic history and geography of the region, followed by chapters on phonology, grammar, lexis and discourse features as well as a survey of East Anglian texts, the dynamics of the past, present and future of East Anglian English and an extensive bibliography. There is also a chapter on East Anglian English where speakers from this region have migrated around the world, such as developments in Bermuda and the Caribbean, North America and Australasia. This contribution to the series therefore allows clear comparison between other varieties of English to be investigated.
The first chapter, ‘East Anglia: a linguistic history’ (pp. 1–26), starts with a linguistic history of the area, opening with the declaration that the term ‘East Anglia’ has no clear boundaries and lacks official status (p. 1). Trudgill explains that the linguistic area has changed size and shape significantly over the centuries and we are told that this volume will be considering Norfolk, Suffolk as well as northeastern Essex and eastern Cambridgeshire. This chapter gives an overview of the different languages spoken in the region before English, starting with Brittonic, a Celtic language. There is very little remaining evidence of this language and the chapter mainly discusses river and settlement names. Following the Celts, invaders were Romans, although less evidence remains in place names. There are also some marks of West Germanic peoples in village names and the name East Anglia suggests that the peoples who came to settle in the region were mainly Angles (rather than Saxons).
This is followed by information about the first independent kingdom of East Anglia, from the mid 500s onwards until the invasions of the Danes, who arrived around 865, which led to years of bidialectalism between the different groups. The next group of invaders were the Normans in 1066; as well as Norman French speakers, there was an influx of other languages, such as Flemish and Breton. Many more such speakers fled to England following persecution by the Spanish and by 1579 around 37 per cent of the population of Norwich were non-native speakers of English. These communities gradually merged with the home population and, by the 1700s, the use of French and Dutch had died out. The final linguistic group discussed in this chapter are the Romani-speaking gypsies, who arrived during the sixteenth century, and Trudgill argues that there is some evidence of lexical input from Romani into East Anglian English (pp. 25–6).
In chapter 2 (pp. 27–58), East Anglia is discussed as a linguistic area, ranging from the Old English dialect area, ‘East Anglian’, which mainly included Norfolk and Suffolk. The author deals with differences between Northern and Southern East Anglia, specifically the northern area as it was relatively cut off from the rest of England (and therefore had more contact with the North Sea world), while the southern area looked more to the southeast of England. Also in the Middle English dialect period, East Anglian remained a distinct dialect area and Trudgill comments that it was regarded as relatively incomprehensible by writers from other areas (p. 31); it is argued that this area cannot just be subsumed into an ‘East Midland’ region, which some scholars have tried to do, as there are linguistic features which distinguish East Anglian English. Trudgill includes evidence from specific linguistic features, such as the occurrence of Old English hw-, third-person singular -t and the early loss of the /x/ before t. The second half of the chapter focuses on East Anglian English in the Early Modern English period and as a modern dialect area. These sections include examination of typical phonological features, as well as some morphology and lexis, which are discussed in more detail in later chapters. Much of the newer data from the 1950s uses the Survey of English Dialects (SED; see Orton et al. Reference Orton, Dieth, Halliday, Barry, Tilling and Wakelin1962–71) and fieldwork notes taken by researchers to investigate which linguistic features make the area distinctive from other surrounding regions. This section of the chapter includes many maps with isoglosses which evidence variation within the region and show how it varies in relation to surrounding varieties, focusing on seven diagnostic features which show core and transition areas in the region (other research, such as Britain Reference Britain and Hickey2015, has also included the examination of East Anglia as a transition area and variation within the region).
Chapters 3–5 analyse the linguistic features of East Anglian English. In chapter 3 (pp. 59–89), the focus is on East Anglian phonology. Trudgill (p. 59) states that the information from these chapters comes from knowledge gained from personal observations made over a period of more than fifty years, examining local dialect speakers as well as using local dialect literature. This data is compared to three major linguistic surveys: Ellis (Reference Ellis1889), which was the first large-scale systematic attempt to establish modern English dialect areas in Britain; Kurath & Lowman's (Reference Kurath and Lowman1961) research, supplemented by Lowman's field records for Norfolk and the Survey of English Dialects (SED). There are also cross-references to other work carried out in the region. The chapter focuses on stress and rhythm, which Trudgill states is characterised in East Anglia by extreme stress-timedness, including the great duration differences between stressed and unstressed vowels (p. 60). The second section of this chapter focuses on the segmental phonology of the region and takes the reader through the different vowels (short and long monophthongs as well as upgliding diphthongs) and consonants using Wells’ (Reference Wells1982) lexical sets. Each set and the subsequent sections on other consonants contain a detailed discussion of the phonology, including links to the dialect literature, other research as well as any modern developments. One of the most salient features of the northern zone of East Anglia is total yod-dropping, a feature which outsiders tend to associate with the region (pp. 87–9).
In chapter 4 (pp. 90–115), the focus is on East Anglian grammar and this chapter has a wide focus, ranging from verbs to multiple negation, plurals, definite articles, pronouns, adjectives, adverbials, intensifiers, prepositions, conjunctions and time. The chapter begins with a detailed discussion of a feature which is probably one of the best-known morphological features of the East Anglian dialect area – the third-person present-tense singular zero. It seems there is no trace of the third-person singular -t, but these dialects have zero-marking for all persons of the verb in the present tense, so that he go, she come, that say are all possible (pp. 90–1). Trudgill adds that although this linguistic feature is a social dialect feature, it is never involved in hypercorrection, meaning speakers never add -s to forms other than the third-person singular. Further discussion focuses on why this feature is only found to occur in this way in East Anglia and it is proposed that this is because of the large influx or Dutch/Flemish speakers (as well as from other countries) in the sixteenth century who may have had difficulties with the irregularity of the third-person singular -s of Standard English and were therefore possibly omitting it. The other grammatical features are discussed in turn, with support from dialect literature and comparison between archaic and modern forms and quotations. Some of these grammatical features can also link to phonological developments. For example, the East Anglian conjunction-formation of the originally verbal form do used as a conjunction where Standard English would use ‘or, otherwise’ (You lot must have moved it, do I wouldn't have fell in where Standard English would use You lot must have moved it, or I wouldn't have fallen in). Trudgill hypothesises that in examples where do is functioning as a non-verbal form with no semantic content connected to ‘doing’ anything this is due to phonological developments involving the loss of phonetic material in this strongly stress-timed dialect, suggesting that the do is a truncated form of ‘if you do’. This is fully explained with different stages of the grammaticalisation process supported by examples to illustrate the changing usage (pp. 111–14).
Lexis and discourse features are the focus of chapter 5 (pp. 116–39). It starts with an explanation that East Anglian lexis can be problematic as it is not easy to find lexical items which are found in the entirety of the region and in no other region. Furthermore, there is much variation within the region itself; for example, splinters are called shivers in Norfolk and slivers in Suffolk (p. 116). Another difficulty is one which also affects other regions – certain local dialect words listed by enthusiasts may not actually be dialectal but linked to specific industries, in this region, agriculture, and are therefore unknown to many younger speakers and those living in urban areas. The chapter then considers words that reflect the different invaders of the region (and therefore reflect some of the origins discussed in chapter 1 – Brittonic, Old English, Old Danish, French and Dutch). The last section on vocabulary considers lexis from fishing and agriculture. The second half of this chapter considers discourse features, such as terms of address, answer particles and intensifiers. Conversational style is also included and Trudgill comments that slower speech styles and sardonic wit are appreciated in the region.
Chapter 6 (pp. 140–9) considers the role and position of East Anglian English in the wider world. During the 1600s, when the English language first started leaving the British Isles and travelled across the Atlantic, Norwich was the second largest city in England; other important cities in the region included Ipswich, Yarmouth, Cambridge and Colchester. As such, East Anglian English played a relatively important role in the formation of new Colonial Englishes which started developing in North America and the southern hemisphere. The chapter goes on to examine the different areas where East Anglian English spread and which features of this variety are reflected in these new varieties of English, considering phonology, morphosyntax and prosody. Trudgill concludes that there is some evidence of an East Anglian contribution to the formation of Southern Hemisphere English but that it is indirect and less conclusive than data from North America (p. 149). This could be related to the diminishing demographic significance of East Anglia between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries and therefore the smaller role played by East Anglians in the settlement of Australia.
Twelve annotated texts illustrate dialectal East Anglian English in chapter 7, ‘East Anglian texts’ (pp. 150–92). This includes texts from Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire. Some of these texts are available on the British Library Sounds website (and links are provided) and there is also a text from a series of letters written by Margaret Paston from Norfolk. These texts are all provided with background information on authors and texts, translation where needed, reflection on different varieties of English found, such as Middle English or East Anglian English, and discussion of particular features of interest – including phonology, grammar and particular spellings of interest.
The final chapter summarises the past, present and future of East Anglian English: ‘The dynamics of East Anglian English: past, present and future’ (pp. 193–214). It considers the boundaries and borders of the region and the fluidity of the region. Historically, although borders could be fluid, much of the Fenland boundary was impassable, creating a serious barrier to communication and this, added to the fact that some regions were sparsely inhabited, resulted in a substantial dialect boundary in the English-speaking world with a large bundle of isoglosses between East Anglia and the East Midlands, which survives to this day. However, with its population increasing and more outsiders moving into the region, local speech variants are becoming less frequent in younger speakers. Trudgill comments that some people in the region are wondering how much longer their distinctive variety can continue to exist. The chapter finishes by examining some exogenous innovations which have spread from other regions, including an examination of the v–w merger, h-dropping, strut fronting, l-vocalisation and changing diphthongs as well as endogenous innovations, where ‘typical’ East Anglian features are diffusing into surrounding areas, such as yod-dropping and t-glottalling.
The author has been writing about areas within East Anglia for about fifty years (Trudgill Reference Trudgill1974) and this volume is an excellent addition to the work which has been carried out by him and others on language spoken in this region. It will be of interest to variationists and dialectologists at most levels. Because of the extensive series which it forms part of, it is very useful for allowing comparisons to be made between different varieties of English spoken around the world. Trudgill ends by stating that although the region may have changed shape over the centuries and language always changes, East Anglia forms a distinctive dialect area and this is likely to continue well into the foreseeable future.
