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  • 17 - Grammatical Treatises in Early English

  • from Part III - Genre and Medium in the Record
  • Edited by Merja Kytö, Uppsala Universitet, Sweden, Erik Smitterberg, Uppsala Universitet, Sweden
  • Book:
    The New Cambridge History of the English Language
    Published online:
    18 October 2025
    Print publication:
    16 October 2025, pp 409-432

  • Summary

    This chapter focuses on grammatical writing from the seventh century to the publication of the first grammar of English in the sixteenth. Except for the last one, these texts focus primarily on Latin grammar, though the vernacular languages spoken in England played an important role since the engagement with Latin grammar resulted in grammatical descriptions of the vernaculars themselves. The chapter opens with an introduction to the teaching of Latin grammar and continues with a discussion of the English content of Ælfric’s Grammar. Then it provides insights into grammar writing after the Norman Conquest and takes a detailed look at the grammatical treatises in Middle English and the linguistic data these treatises provide. The chapter finishes with an outlook to the sixteenth century and the publication of the authorised ‘Lily Grammar’ and of Bullokar’s Pamphlet for Grammar (1586), the first grammar of English.