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English Witness Depositions 1560–1760: An Electronic Edition
Kytö, Merja Walker, Terry Grund, Peter
Kytö, Merja
Walker, Terry
Grund, Peter
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Abstract
The following is from a servant’s testimony, recorded in 1654 in south-east
England:
[...] this
Informant saied to the said Susan haue a care or els
you will sett the barne on a fire: And the said Susan
replyed if I doe what is that to you, goe about {goe} your
bussines:
(Essex Record Office, Colchester. Borough of Colchester Informations.
MS D/B5/Sb2/9, the information of Katheryne Perry, 1654)
Witness depositions like this abound in handwritten manuscripts that are scattered in archives across England. Because of their inaccessibility, these records are largely an untapped source in English historical linguistics. In this article
we report on a project currently underway, which aims at producing an electronic text edition of English depositions from 1560–1760. Unlike many previous editions, we will reproduce the original manuscript text as closely as possible; moreover, the electronic format will also allow the edition to be much larger than printed editions. The edition will contain both a transcription and a coded version of the transcription that will enable computer searches, a historical and linguistic introduction, textual notes, and a glossary, as well as a selection of manuscript images. We conclude this article with a case study, by which we illustrate the particular value of our edition of speech-related material for linguistic research.
Description
This is the published version, available electronically from http://clu.uni.no/icame/ij31/index.html
Date
2007-04-01
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De Gruyter Open
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Citation
Kytö, Merja; Walker, Terry; Grund, Peter. (2007). "English Witness Depositions 1560–1760: An Electronic Edition." ICAME Journal, 31(2007):65-85. http://clu.uni.no/icame/ij31/index.html