ABSTRACT

This chapter describes the main features of the language of the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) in order to provide a linguistic background to the description of the language of the contemporary language. It describes the language of selected liturgical texts by starting with the way in which language is 'realized', or apprehended by the hearer or reader. The chapter argues that composers of liturgy often use language in a similar way to poets. As these texts are used in both 'Morning Prayer' and 'Evening Prayer', they are very familiar to those who take part in BCP worship in England and New Zealand. The chapter analyses an extract from the BCP. It shows that what is normally thought of as traditional Anglican liturgical language can be conceptualized as a single linguistic variety. It is a variety that is easily recognized through its characteristics of phonology, graphology, grammar and lexis.