Language, Self and Society

Peter Burke is a Reader in Cultural History at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

This important book examines the role of written and spoken language in shaping our sense of reality, in exchanges of social life, and in fashioning our sense of self. It develops a distinctive, socio-historical approach to these issues, offering a range of illuminating studies in the social history of language.

Introduction. 1. Heu domine, adsunt Turcae: A Sketch for a Social History of Post--medieval Latin: Peter Burke. 2. The Uses of Hebrew in the English Revolution: Nigel Smith. 3. From Shibboleth to Apocalypse: Quaker Speechways during the Puritan Revolution: Hugh Ormsby--Lennon. 4. a New World of English Wordsa : John Ray, FRS, the Dialect Protagonist, in the Context of his Times (1658 -- 1691): Jo Gladstone. 5. The Peoplea s English: Language and Class in England c.1840 -- 1920: Patrick Joyce. 6. Languages and Conquerors: Victor Kiernan. 7. Towards a Semiotics of the Nerve: The Social History of Language in a New Key: G. S. Rousseau. 8. Expressing Yourself Ill: The Language of Sickness in Georgian England: Roy Porter. 9. a A New Sort of Logick and Criticka : Etymological Interpretation in Horne Tookea s The Diversions of Purley: Daniel Rosenberg. Afterword: Dell Hymes. Index.