CHANCERY STANDARD

Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language | 1998 | 700+ words | Copyright

CHANCERY STANDARD, also Chancery English. Present-day terms for the 15c written usage of the clerks of Chancery in London, who prepared the king's documents. Before the 1430s, official records were mainly in Latin and French, but after that date mainly in an English based on the Central Midland dialect, with such usages as gaf (gave) not Chaucer's East Midland yaf, such not swich, and theyre (their) not hir. Until the end of the 15c, Chancery and the Exchequer built a foundation of written English that was developed by CAXTON when he set up his press in Westminster in 1476. Over the years, printers replaced some features of Chancery usage with London equivalents, such as third person -s instead of -th (hopes, not hopeth), and are instead of be. See STANDARD ENGLISH.

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

MLA
Chicago
APA

TOM McARTHUR. "CHANCERY STANDARD." Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

TOM McARTHUR. "CHANCERY STANDARD." Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. (May 29, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-CHANCERYSTANDARD.html

TOM McARTHUR. "CHANCERY STANDARD." Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. 1998. Retrieved May 29, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-CHANCERYSTANDARD.html

Learn more about citation styles