An excursion into the lost history of historical sociolinguistics
An origin story has emerged and solidified around the relatively new research area called historical
sociolinguistics – a story based primarily on the field’s relatively brief history as a “named” field (reaching back
only a few decades) and repeated regularly and largely uniformly in summary, overview, encyclopedic, and introductory
presentations of historical sociolinguistics. We argue that the defining characteristics of the modern field are
deeply connected to and clearly rooted in the key traditions of historical and sociolinguistics and allied areas going
back to the nineteenth century. We highlight select instances of sociolinguistic thinking in early historical
linguistic work and historical considerations in early sociolinguistic research, as well as key notions, including
uniformitarianism from historical-comparative linguistics and ego-documents from social history. Better understanding
of the history of historical sociolinguistics, we argue, helps us anchor our future work better in the full relevant
context.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.The sociolinguistic in early historical linguistics
- 3.The historical in early sociolinguistics
- 4.More direct precursors
- 5.Conclusion
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Acknowledgements
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Notes
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References
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Appendix