AB language

In English philology, AB language refers to a variety of Middle English found in the Corpus manuscript, containing Ancrene Wisse (whence 'A'), and in MS Bodley 34 in Bodleian Library, Oxford (whence 'B'). The Bodley manuscript includes what is known as the Katherine Group. The term was coined in 1929 by J.R.R. Tolkien who noted that the dialect of both manuscripts is highly standardized, pointing to "a 'standard' language based on one in use in the West Midlands in the 13th century."^[1]

See also

• Old Mercian

Notes

References

• Corrie, Marilyn. 2006. "Middle English - Dialects and Diversity". The Oxford History of English. Ed. Lynda Mugglestone. Oxford: OUP, pp. 86-119.
• Crystal, David. 2004. The Stories of English. London: Penguin, chapter 9.
• Hall, Joseph, ed. (1920), Selections from Early Middle English, 1130-1250. 2 vols., Oxford: Clarendon Press .
• Tolkien, J.R.R., ed. (1962), The English Text of the Ancrene Riwle: Ancrene Wisse: Edited from MS. Corpus Christi College, Cambridge 402, Intro. by Kerr, N.R., Oxford University Press for the Early English Text Society . (Reprinted in 2000 ISBN 0-19-722249-8).
• Tolkien, J.R.R. (1929), "Ancrene Wisse and Hali Meiðhad", Essays and Studies by Members of the English Association 14: 104–126 .