Review of Burke, Peter, 'The art of conversation', Cambridge and Oxford, Polity Press and Blackwell, 1993: paper; pp.viii, 178; R.R.P. AUS$34.95 [distributed in Australia by Allen & Unwin].

Abstract

This set of five long essays is concerned with the social history of language in Europe, not focussing on the (near) contemporary so much as noting that many modern notions about sociolinguistics may be supported or qualified by topics neglected by them because of their falling in Renaissance or Early Modern times. This social history of speaking and communication, which is necessarily related to oral history, culture, and social behaviour, challenges the central notion of the dominant language of the ruling class by considering the language of leisure, as did Veblen, and the language of politics, particularly Latin, and by showing the paramount significance of Fishman's inquiry, 'who speaks what language to whom and when'. Thus notice is given at the outset (pp. 9 ff.) of the need to look closely at much earlier evidence for the language of women, religious minorities such as the 'Huguenots', social pretentiousness, national loyalty, bilingualism in frontier regions, and the reasons for the language of official documents. The languages of resistance of the twentieth century had many parallels in Europe three and four hundred years ago.