A well-known example of variation in Early Modern English is found in the morphology of the third-person singular present tense indicative verb. In general terms there was a gradual shift from -th to -s (e.g., pleaseth to pleases). However, previous studies such as Kytö (1993) and Nevalainen and Raumolin-Brunberg (2003) found that this shift was by no means uniform, varying by, for example, region, type of text, and author. More specifically, Nevalainen, Raumolin-Brunberg, and Trudgill (2001) analyzed the distribution of endings for the third-person singular present indicative verb in Early Modern East Anglian English, i.e., the variety of English used in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. However, for the final twenty-year period of their study (1660-1680), they only have four informants. This article analyzes the distribution of verb endings for a larger number of informants during this period, which marks the final stages of -th recession in East Anglian English, using letters written in Norfolk. The corpus based on these letters allows for a detailed analysis of linguistic and extralinguistic factors that influenced this distribution. Linguistic factors include the stem-final sound and verb-type (have, do, and say are analyzed separately). Among the extralinguistic factors analyzed are the sex of the author and addressee, the level of formality, and the author’s social class. One of the informants in this study is Sir Thomas Browne. The distribution of verb endings in his correspondence makes him an outlier. His usage has led some authors to exclude his results from their analysis. The present article offers a new approach to dealing with such cases. The overall results are compared with those for other parts of England from the same period in order to identify patterns of regional variation. Finally, an analysis of correspondence for the period 1680-1750 indicates that by this time -th had more or less disappeared from Norfolk correspondence.

中文翻译：

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早期现代英语的地域变异：以诺福克信函中第三人称现在时单数动词结尾的案例

在第三人称单数现在时指示动词的形态中发现了早期现代英语中一个众所周知的变体例子。一般而言，从-th 到-s 逐渐转变（例如，pleaseth 到pleases）。然而，之前的研究，如 Kytö (1993) 和 Nevalainen 和 Raumolin-Brunberg (2003) 发现，这种转变绝不是统一的，会因地区、文本类型和作者等因素而异。更具体地说，Nevalainen、Raumolin-Brunberg 和 Trudgill (2001) 分析了早期现代东盎格利亚英语中第三人称单数现在指示动词的词尾分布，即诺福克郡和萨福克郡使用的各种英语。然而，在他们研究的最后二十年（1660-1680），他们只有四名线人。本文使用诺福克写的字母分析了这一时期大量线人的动词词尾分布，这标志着东英吉利英语衰退的最后阶段。基于这些字母的语料库可以详细分析影响这种分布的语言和语言外因素。语言因素包括词干尾音和动词类型（have、do、say分别分析）。分析的语言外因素包括作者和收件人的性别、正式程度和作者的社会阶层。这项研究的线人之一是 Thomas Browne 爵士。他的信件中动词词尾的分布使他成为一个局外人。他的用法导致一些作者将他的结果排除在他们的分析之外。本文提供了一种处理此类案件的新方法。将总体结果与同期英格兰其他地区的结果进行比较，以确定区域变化的模式。最后，对 1680-1750 年间通信的分析表明，此时 -th 或多或少从诺福克通信中消失了。