Non-Standard Language and Literary Dialect in Four Minerva Press Novels Written by Women Between 1794-1816

This thesis examines the literary dialects in the work of four, now obscure, female novelists, published by the Minerva Press between 1790-1820. The aim of this research is to explore what the literary dialects of these novels can tell us about Georgian-era social perspectives on speech, class, and education. The novels are: Anna Maria Bennett’s Ellen, Countess of Castle Howel (1794), Mary Ann Hanway’s Andrew Stuart; or, the Northern Wanderer (1800), Barbara Hofland’s A Visit to London; or, Emily and Her Friends (1814), and Mary Johnston’s Lairds of Glenfern (1816). Each multi-volume work contains a range of literary dialects and metalinguistic commentary on those varieties. I argue that the novels provide an insight into the authors’ understanding of the role of accent and dialect in the world around them, in particular as it relates to class and gender. Bennett, who was considered Welsh by her peers, writes a representation of Welsh English (WelE) in Ellen, remarkable for its early appearance in the history of the novel. Andrew Stuart, authored by the upper class Hanway, contains representations of aristocratic speech, Scots, Ship English, and various rustics, crafted to provide implicit commentary on class structures in Georgian England. Yorkshire-born school teacher and career writer, Hofland’s A Visit contains representations of various regionally-indicative literary dialects working for a specific didactic purpose. Finally, the virtually unknown author, Johnston’s Glenfern contains Scots literary dialect, various Cockneys, and a Northern/Cockney blend, which frames the author’s wider commentary on Scots as a literary dialect, and on social structures in London. The literary dialects written by these novelists exemplify how they perceive and engage with speech, and in so doing illustrate social interactions around language in ways that have been historically overlooked in scholarship in favour of a focus on grammars and handbooks on speech and usage.