Bibliography

Jefferson, Judith A., Ad Putter, and Amanda Hopkins (eds), Multilingualism in medieval Britain (c. 1066–1520): sources and analysis, Medieval Texts and Cultures of Northern Europe, 15, Turnhout: Brepols, 2013.

  • edited collection
Citation details
Work
Multilingualism in medieval Britain (c. 1066–1520): sources and analysis
Place
Turnhout
Publisher
Brepols
Year
2013
Contributions indexed individually i.e. contributions for which a separate page is available
Description
Abstract (cited)
This book is devoted to the study of multilingual Britain in the later medieval period, from the Norman Conquest to John Skelton. It brings together experts from different disciplines--history, linguistics, and literature - in a joint effort to recover the complexities of spoken and written communication in the Middle Ages. Each author focuses on one specific text or text type, and demonstrates by example what careful analysis can reveal about the nature of medieval multilingualism and about medieval attitudes to the different living languages of later medieval Britain. There are chapters on charters, sermons, religious prose, glossaries, manorial records, biblical translations, chronicles, and the macaronic poetry of William Langland and John Skelton. By addressing the full range of languages spoken and written in later medieval Britain (Latin, French, Old Norse, Welsh, Cornish, English, Dutch, and Hebrew), this collection reveals the linguistic situation of the period in its true diversity and shows the resourcefulness of medieval people when faced with the need to communicate. For medieval writers and readers, the ability to move between languages opened up a wealth of possibilities: possibilities for subtle changes of register, for counterpoint, for linguistic playfulness, and, perhaps most importantly, for texts which extend a particular challenge to the reader to engage with them.
(source: publisher)
Subjects and topics
Headings
multilingualism and language contact
Contributors
Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
April 2013, last updated: November 2022