Languages of Nation

Carol Percy is Associate Professor of English at the University of Toronto, Canada. Her work on eighteenth-century normative linguistics began with Captain Cook and his editors, and women grammarians. Recent articles provide literary and cultural contexts for popular grammars, and consider prescriptive attitudes in the popular press – book reviews and classified advertisements.Mary Catherine Davidson is Associate Professor of English at Glendon College, York University, Canada. Her book Medievalism, Multilingualism, and Chaucer (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010) examined multilingual identity in the writing of Gower, Langland, and Chaucer. Her current book project charts the changing status of American English in the representation and reception of dialects and second languages in Hollywood film in the 1940s and 50s.

A fascinating and significant collection of essays which offers both historical range and geographic scope. Taken as a whole this is a text which provides the latest thinking in relation to the most important questions related to language and the creation of nationhood. Students and researchers of all levels will find much to discuss and reflect upon in this invaluable collection.

• 1. Introduction: Multidisciplinary and Multilingual Perspectives on National Language Norms - Carol Percy and Mary Catherine Davidson 2. Preface: Language, Prescriptivism, Nationalism and Identity - John Edwards Section 1. Managing Language Policies3. William Cecil and the Rectification of English - Ian Lancashire4. Prescribing Pastoral and Pragmatic Orientations: Challenges for Language Policy - Lionel Wee Section 2. Colonialism and Literary Canons 5. Mutual Preservation of Standard Language and National Identity in Early Modern Wales - John D. Phillips6. “A Highly Poetical Language”? Scots, Burns, Patriotism and Evaluative Language in 19th Century Literary Reviews and Articles - Marina DossenaSection 3. Transmarine and Transatlantic Allegiances7. Language and National Identity in 17th and 18th century England - Linda C. Mitchell8. “À la mode de Paris”: Linguistic Patriotism and Francophobia in 18th century Britain - Joan C. Beal 9. Pronouncing Dictionaries between Patriotism and Prescriptivism: Perspectives on Provincialism in Webster’s America - Massimo Sturiale Section 4. Re-defining Boundaries: Ideology and Language Norms10. Patriotism, Empire, and Cultural Prescriptivism: Images of Anglicity in the OED - Lynda Mugglestone11. You Say Nucular, I Say Yourstupid: Popular Prescriptivism in the Politics of the United States - Don ChapmanSection 5. Identifying Norms and Attitudes in Postcolonial Contexts12. English and Pidgin in Cameroon: Peaceful or Conflicting Co-existence? - Jean-Paul Kouega 13. “Susu” not “Sousou”: Nationalism, Prescriptivism, and Etymology in a Post-colonial Creole Language Orthography - Lise Winer Section 6. Prescribing Norms beyond Borders: Foreign Language Teaching14. Rules for the Neighbours: Prescriptions of the German Language for British Learners - Nicola McLelland 15. Nativeness, Authority, Authenticity: The Construction of Belonging and Exclusion in Debates about English Language Proficiency and Immigration in Britain - Martin Gill