S0095 · macintosh_premodern_dialect_mapping · registry identity
14th century English dialect maps
External resolution
Resolution status: not_found
Bears on
Canonical propositions this source was matched as evidence for.
How Hirsch uses it
Every occurrence, grouped by book and chapter, with the claim it was linked to support and (where the extraction regenerated one) the underlying warrant.
1987 · Cultural Literacy
Historical dialect maps of the 14th century showing isoglosses of mutual unintelligibility between neighboring villages.
direct Before national standardization, linguistic borders were fluid and based on shifting dialectal intelligibility.
Warrant (implicit): Overlapping zones of comprehension across a geographic expanse indicate that linguistic identity was historically determined by proximity rather than by centralized institutional definitions.
could fail ifThe maps may reflect data collection biases where researchers grouped varied local idioms into arbitrary dialect categories that did not reflect actual communicative fluidness.
2010 · The Making of Americans
Linguistic mapping by Angus Macintosh showed that premodern British manuscripts could be pinpointed to within 20 miles based on distinct local dialects.
direct Before mass literacy, local dialects were so distinct they were mutually unintelligible across short distances.
Warrant (implicit): Highly localized variations in written manuscripts within a specific geographic region serve as an accurate proxy for the spoken mutual unintelligibility of the people in those locations.
could fail ifScribal conventions and regional spelling idiosyncraticies in manuscripts may reflect localized literary traditions rather than an inability of the actual speakers to understand one another's speech.
2022 · American Ethnicity
Fourteenth-century dialect maps showing isoglosses of mutual unintelligibility between neighboring villages.
direct Before the nineteenth century, languages diverged geographically because speakers lacked an external standard or internal gyroscope to maintain stability.
Warrant (implicit): High degrees of local linguistic variation in pre-literate societies demonstrate that language naturally drifts toward mutual unintelligibility without institutional intervention.
could fail ifThe fourteenth-century data may reflect extreme physical isolation and lack of trade rather than a lack of a linguistic 'gyroscope' or literacy.