• There was a growing psycholinguistic sense of communicative difficulty because of the wide range of variant forms that one word could have (e.g. flower: flower, flowr, flour, floor, flouer)

• English became the language of the nation, eclipsing French and Latin

• People increasingly relied on English to perform the range of functions previously carried out by French and Latin

• Chancery may have speeded up the process of standardization

• The Bible translations initiated by John Wycliffe was also a factor

• The work of Chaucer achieved wide popularity and circulation to be counted as a factor

• The Bible translations initiated by John Wycliffe and the work of Chaucer have been called “incipient standards”: they were characterised by internal consistency in usage and enjoyed widespread dissemination

• There is clear evidence that these works were being read outside of their place of origin – by large numbers of people in all kinds of places

• Chaucer and the Bible were additional influences promoting a climate in which people became increasingly familiar with supra-local texts

• Ultimately, however, it was the influence of the capital city that proved critical in the emergence of a standard because of London's economic importance

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