A Prompt from a Primer: A Sociolinguistic Approach to Finnegans Wake

“A Prompt from a Primer” seeks to rethink the intersections of gender and language in Finnegans Wake. Considering this text comprised of voices as a speech community, it posits that the Wake’s female voices are developed in response to the edicts of the “primer.” The women’s adoptions of and rebellions against its “cumpohlstery English” correspond to gendered sociolinguistic patterns. This essay locates the “feminine language” of the Wake within the context of the changing roles of women in twentieth-century Europe and invites scholars to employ sociolinguistic studies to investigate further how the Wake was shaped by its historical context.