HOTEL 4.3 — From the London Dialect to the National Language | History of English

In 1400 there was no reason to expect any one variety of English to become the standard. There were four candidates. This video is about which one won, and why — and the answer is not the one in most textbooks. London English changed dialect during the Middle English period, not by evolving but by being replaced, through immigration from the Midlands and then the north. The forms you use every time you conjugate an English verb came down with those immigrants. We then compare the four candidate written standards, correct the usual accounts of Chaucer, of the Wycliffite Bibles and of Caxton, and set out why the textbook story of a “Chancery Standard” is currently being dismantled. The video closes on the dialects of England today and on the difference between accent and dialect. Part three of three. Lecture 4 of the course History of the English Language.