Resumen de Quaker Plain Speech: a policy of linguistic divergence

Barbara M. Birch

• When the Singular pronoun thou began to lose ground in the 1600s in Standard English, there was one group ofnonconformists, the Quakers, who resisted this change and initiated a policy of linguistic divergence called Quaker Plain Speech. Quaker Plain Speech wasfoundedon a contradiction between the inclusive aims of the policy and the inherently exclusive nature of linguistic divergence. After the first flush of missionary zeal Quaker Plain Speech lapsed into a barrier reinforcing Quakers äs a group and excluding Outsiders. In the late nineteenth Century, at a time oflow ethnolinguistic vitality, most Quakers gave up their characteristic speech marker äs an accommodation to the mainstream culture. However, Quaker Plain Speech continues to be used among some Quaker families for reasons of tradition, intimacy, and Community. It has a symbolic meaning ofrejection of mainstream values and priorities. The contradiction between inclusivity and exclusivity has still not been resolved.