On variation and change in London medieval mixed-language business documents
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Laura Wright
Abstract
This paper considers evidence for diachronic change in medieval mixed-language business writing produced in London in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The relevant languages were Middle English, Anglo-Norman and Medieval Latin, and the mixed-language system is briefly described, consisting of function words in either Medieval Latin or Anglo-Norman (depending on which was chosen as the matrix), and an amount of lexical items in English. The changes discussed concentrate around the end of the fourteenth century, which is when English resurfaced as a written language (the Norman administration had replaced English with Latin and French for written purposes). Further, it seems likely that spoken Anglo-Norman, as a language of bilinguals in Britain, died out at the end of the fourteenth century, which seems to have been pivotal.
Abstract
This paper considers evidence for diachronic change in medieval mixed-language business writing produced in London in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The relevant languages were Middle English, Anglo-Norman and Medieval Latin, and the mixed-language system is briefly described, consisting of function words in either Medieval Latin or Anglo-Norman (depending on which was chosen as the matrix), and an amount of lexical items in English. The changes discussed concentrate around the end of the fourteenth century, which is when English resurfaced as a written language (the Norman administration had replaced English with Latin and French for written purposes). Further, it seems likely that spoken Anglo-Norman, as a language of bilinguals in Britain, died out at the end of the fourteenth century, which seems to have been pivotal.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface & Acknowledgments vii
- Editors’ introduction ix
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Part I. The evidence of place-names
- Celts in Scandinavian Scotland and Anglo-Saxon England 3
- The colonisation of England by Germanic tribes on the basis of place-names 23
- Ancient toponyms in south-west Norway 53
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Part II. Code selection in written texts
- On vernacular literacy in late medieval Norway 69
- Four languages, one text type 81
- On variation and change in London medieval mixed-language business documents 99
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Part III. Linguistic developments and contact situations
- Old English–Late British language contact and the English progressive 119
- The Old English origins of the Northern Subject Rule 141
- For Heaven’s sake 169
- North Sea timber trade terminology in the Early Modern period 193
- ‘Nornomania’ in the research on language in the Northern Isles 213
- Index of subjects, terms & languages 231
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface & Acknowledgments vii
- Editors’ introduction ix
-
Part I. The evidence of place-names
- Celts in Scandinavian Scotland and Anglo-Saxon England 3
- The colonisation of England by Germanic tribes on the basis of place-names 23
- Ancient toponyms in south-west Norway 53
-
Part II. Code selection in written texts
- On vernacular literacy in late medieval Norway 69
- Four languages, one text type 81
- On variation and change in London medieval mixed-language business documents 99
-
Part III. Linguistic developments and contact situations
- Old English–Late British language contact and the English progressive 119
- The Old English origins of the Northern Subject Rule 141
- For Heaven’s sake 169
- North Sea timber trade terminology in the Early Modern period 193
- ‘Nornomania’ in the research on language in the Northern Isles 213
- Index of subjects, terms & languages 231
