The goal of this editing project is to publish and comment on vernacular writing from the first stage of mass literacy in a critical edition. The manuscripts of 260 pages consist of diary notes and songbooks from 1878-1901 from northern Sweden - written in a blend of dialect and standard Swedish. The grant application covers the costs for one year of editorial work to finalize the editing project, started in 2011. One month is set aside for a research stay at the Department of Finnish, Finno-Ugrian and Scandinavian Studies at Helsinki University. The main purpose is to benefit from the Finnish research experience from the historical literacy field in the planning of a future historical sociolinguistic project where the critical edition takes a vital part.

The manuscripts have already been transcribed, translated and commented. The remaining editorial assignments are the commentary chapters, proofreading, translation check and indices.

The editing project is framed within the research field of the social history of literacy - an expanding field within the Nordic countries and the rest of Europe, but still less developed in a Swedish context. This critical edition of vernacular writing is most valuable in studies of language standards, identification and modernization and especially for research in historical sociolinguistics. The texts constitute important data for future sociolinguistic studies aiming at representing an alternative language history "from below".