History of the Society

When the Society was founded in 1998, it seemed like the field of diachronic linguistics was in danger of disappearing, despite great strides made in the study of how linguistic variation and change works, and on the methods of construction and transmission of historical texts made since the 1970’s. Literary studies increasingly seemed concerned with only recent works, and at the same time was moving away from structural approaches that overlapped with linguistics, and fewer and fewer language departments (including English departments) required the study of the history of their language. Within linguistics, the more theoretical approaches remained anchored for the most part in the synchronic study of linguistic structures, as they had done since the “Chomskyan Revolution” of the 1960’s. Although there were the occasional historical linguistic conferences in Europe and the Americas, these seemed to feature those scholars who did identified themselves as historical linguists, but not those who considered themselves medievalists, so that these two communities, who were working on the same materials in complementary ways, never had a chance to dialogue and compare notes.

Symptomatic of the problem was the relative invisibility of linguistics sessions at the International Congress of Medieval Studies held annually at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. While there always were a few sessions, including those sponsored by the Texas Medieval Association, dealing with Old English linguistics for the most part, and from 1994 through 1997, one “precursor” session labeled Medieval Languages and Linguistics, most “Language and Literature” sessions were purely literary, and there was particularly little scope for non-Anglicists to have their paper presented if its focus was linguistic. With a view to increasing the visibility of the discipline at the Congress, twenty scholars met to form this Society in 1998, proposing to be a permanent presence at Kalamazoo and resolving to meet each year there. With the announcement of the Society’s existence, the membership ballooned to over 140 members within a year and a half, and has continued to grow slowly since that time. We now have 182 members (as of 5/1/2005) with all continents (except Antarctica, of course) represented.

Since 1998, with one exception, we have sponsored at least one session at the Congress, and in most years, two or three. The papers have almost invariably been of top quality, and in the last few years especially, have been well attended, showing the level of interest in the discipline. Our success has also been reflected in the fact that there are now other linguistic sessions (often organized by members on their own) at Kalamazoo each year. With this year, 2005, we add a new web site (http://www.wmich.edu/smll/) to replace the old one maintained by Edwin Duncan at Towson University (http://www.towson.edu/~eduncan/smll/) and institute a LISTSERV, SMLL-L, located at Western Michigan University, to which members can subscribe and contribute to ongoing discussion about matters related to the field of medieval languages and linguistics. Further future developments are planned, so the Society is hopefully assured of continuing expansion in what we offer.

SESSIONS SPONSORED BY THE SOCIETY SINCE 1998: