The Role of Chancery Standard

Question 1

What was the first role of Chancery Standard?

Answer 1

• Chancery standard was a written form of English used by government bureaucracy and for other official purposes from the late 14th century.

Question 2

What was the second role of Chancery Standard?

Answer 2

• The government required a clear and unambiguous form for use in its official documents. Chancery Standard was developed to meet this need.

Question 3

Where was it largely based and why?

Answer 3

• It was largely based on the London and East Midland dialects, as those areas were the political and demographic “centres of gravity” of England

Question 4

Where was Chancery Standard mostly used in?

Answer 4

• By the mid-15th century, Chancery Standard was used for most offi-cial purposes except the Church (which used Latin) and some legal matters (which used French and some Latin)

Question 5

Who spread Chancery Standard and what slowly happened?

Answer 5

• It was disseminated around England by bureaucrats on official busi-ness, and slowly gained prestige.

Question 6

Who then started to use it by the later 15th century?

Answer 6

• Chancery Standard provided a widely-intelligible form of English for the first printers, who appeared later in the 15th century.