From Late Middle Dutch to Early New Dutch: the influence of the printing press on the standardization of written Dutch.
Final Report Abstract
The overall aim of the project was to investigate the influence of the printing press on the standardization of written Dutch. It was hypothetisized that the technological innovation of printing books instead of copying manuscripts strongly favoured the standardization of written Dutch. To test this hypothesis, a comprehensive empirical investigation of the linguistic variance in Dutch prose texts of the 15th and 16th century from the four dialect regions (Holland, Brabant, Flanders and the Northeast) in which the new technology was applied, was carried out. The language of a total of 109 books, published by 53 different printers, was examined both quantitatively and qualitatively. The research focused on phonological dialect features, because these clearly reflect the transition from late Middle Dutch to Early Modern Dutch. A representative text sample of approximately 20.000 words was taken from each book. The possibility that more than one typesetter worked on a book was methodologically taken into account. For each book fragment it was examined how regionally colored the language was, which dialect features originated from which region(s) and what the frequency ratio was to their non-dialectical counterparts. Finally, the diachronic evolution of the general dialect degree and the frequency of the individual regional forms was presented in summarizing diagrams. A surprising result was that almost every Hollandic and Brabantian text at the end of the 15th century contained both Hollandic and Brabantian dialect features. The existence of a Hollandic-Brabantian writing tradition represents a remarkable break with the Middle Ages, in which a Flemish-Brabantian writing tradition prevailed. The analysis of the collected language data fully confirms the hypothesis that the standardization of written Dutch was favoured by the printing press. As early as 1500, the overall degree of dialect in the books printed in Brabant and Holland decreased significantly. The clear reduction of dialectal forms is due to their deliberately replacement by their nonregional counterparts by book printers and their staff. This process of de-dialectalization of the language in printed books took place in the leading printing centers in Brabant and Holland as early as the beginning of the 16th century, with Antwerp in the lead role. In the socio-economically peripheral regions of Flanders and the Northeast, the de-dialectalization of the printer’s language took place much later: in the Northeast around 1565, in Flanders around 1600 at the earliest. The traditional view that the standard Dutch language was built in Holland from the first half of the 17th century after earlier standardization tendencies in the South had been broken down in the 16th century, needs to be revised. The standardization of written Dutch began at the end of the Middle Ages with the de-dialectalization of the Hollandic-Brabantian written language in books printed by important Brabant and Hollandic printers. By deliberately reducing the amount of dialect features, these book printers can be considered to be the founders of a more uniform Dutch written language as early as 1500.
Publications
- Meeting of the Royal Academy of Dutch Language and Literature, Gent, 21.11.2018. ‘De Hollandse en Brabantse drukkerstaal rond 1500’
Marynissen, Ann
- Taal & Tongval-Colloquium: 'Spelling in ontwikkeling', Gent, 13.12.2019. De taal van Gheraert Leeu, drukker in Gouda en Antwerpen
Marynissen, Ann
- (2021): Op weg naar een geschreven eenheidstaal. De ontdialectisering van de schrijftaal bij Gheraert Leeu, drukker in Gouda en Antwerpen. In: Taal en Tongval 73, p. 245-295
Marynissen, Ann & Daniela Bock & Amelie Terhalle
(See online at https://doi.org/10.5117/TET2021.5.MARY)
