The standardisation of i and y in Early Modern English (1500-1700)

Between the sixteenth and the seventeenth century, i and y shifted from an early distribution principle to a new, modern standard, which generally resulted in the establishment of vocalic word-initially and word-medially, as well as for glides word-initially and for vowels word-finally. Previous scholars have offered interesting insights into some of the graphemes above, but the overall history of development in i and y, and the factors behind their modern standardisation, still remain partially uncovered. This paper investigates graphemic changes in the two letters in printed English between 1500 and 1700, using a quantitative model for the analysis of patterns across a range of texts from Early English Books Online. The analysis establishes the presence of a quantitative shift in the wholesale uses of and between the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries, and provides a precise chronology for the standardisation of word-initial, word-medial and word-final graphemic changes in i and y. The discussion reflects upon the development of the positional graphemes, and argues for pragmatic factors within the Early Modern English printing industry as primarily responsible for the modern standardisation of i and y

Ælfric of Eynsham and Two<i>Post-Mortem</i>Visions

This essay discusses what is possibly the earliest translation from theVitas Patrumcorpus into a Western European vernacular, i.e. the Old English version of two visions of departing souls from theVerba Seniorumby Ælfric of Eynsham. Contrary to received notions, Ælfric favoured the narratives of the Desert Fathers as sources for paradigms of clerical celibacy and continence, two of the values that he was most anxious to teach and on which he took a strongly reformist stance. The two case studies presented aim to shed new light on the diffusion and appreciation of the Desert Fathers tales in Benedictine Reform England, in that they will show that, not unlike many anonymous homilists, Ælfric too drew on them as eschatological sources to conjure up two dramaticpost-mortemscenes

Vitamin D, Adiposity, and Calcified Atherosclerotic Plaque in African-Americans

Context: Inverse associations are reported between circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D and visceral adiposity. The effects of vitamin D levels on atherosclerosis are unknown