Mining emigrant correspondence for linguistic insights

Abstract

The examination of emigrant letters shows that a judicious exploitation of this material can yield a variety of insights regarding the linguistic structure of varieties at the time of letter writing, despite a number of caveats which must be borne in mind. The diagnostic value of vernacular correspondence would appear to be considerable in that it assists scholars in completing a picture of variety development over the past few centuries. A wide spectrum of letters helps to establish the profile of vernacular English as it was transported to different overseas locations in the later colonial period.

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