CHRISTIAN HEIMERL (ed.), The Middle English Version of William of Saliceto's Anatomia A Critical Edition Based on Cambridge, Trinity College MS R.14.41, with a Parallel Text of The Medieval Latin Anatomia Edited from Leipzig, Universitatsbibliothek, MS 1177, Middle English Texts, 39. * DAVID SCOTT-MACNAB (ed.), The Middle English Text of The Art of Hunting by William Twiti Edited from an Uncatalogued Manuscript in a Private Collection, Ashton-under-Lyne, with a Parallel Text of The Anglo-Norman L'Art de Venerie by William Twiti Edited from Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College MS 424/448, Middle English Texts, 39.

This chapter examines words of Germanic origin found in the DMLBS and considers them especially with respect to the relationship between three languages of medieval Britain: namely Medieval Latin, Middle English, and Anglo-Norman French. A detailed examination of numerous examples reveals complex routes of transmission of items from Germanic sources which demand consideration of multiple sources over many centuries. In particular, because of the way the vernaculars developed and the nature of the extant evidence, it is often the case that the earliest evidence for an English or French word is found in a Latin word. The circuitous and overlapping interaction and contact between these languages can be seen very clearly in the example of warda, and the discussion shows, by reference to the theory of etimologia prossima and etimologia remota, how the Latin word must be analysed with regard both to etymology and semantics in order to reveal the different layers of influence at different stages of the word’s development in this multilingual society.

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On Non-integrated Vocabulary in the Mixed-language Accounts of St Paul’s Cathedral, 1315–1405

Latin in Medieval Britain ◽

10.5871/bacad/9780197266083.003.0012 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Laura Wright

Keyword(s):

Middle English ◽

Business Writing ◽

Norman Conquest ◽

Medieval Latin ◽

Weights And Measures ◽

Text Type ◽

Semantic Fields ◽

Anglo Norman ◽

Mixed Language ◽

Base Language

Accounts of institutions and private individuals between the Norman Conquest and about 1500 were routinely written in a non-random mixture of Medieval Latin, Anglo-Norman, and Middle English. If the base language was Medieval Latin, then only nouns, stems of verbs, and certain semantic fields such as weights and measures could appear in English or French, with all the grammatical material in Latin and English and Anglo-Norman nouns, verbs, and adjectives Latinised by adding a suffix, or an abbreviation sign representing a suffix. If the base language was Anglo-Norman, then only the same restricted semantic fields and nouns and stems of verbs could appear in English. This situation changed over time, but was essentially stable for almost five hundred years. The chapter asks why, if English words could easily be assimilated into a Latin or French matrix by means of suffixes or abbreviations representing suffixes, were all English words not assimilated? Why did letter graphies such as <wr->, <-ck>, <-ght> persist in mixed-language business writing? One effect is to make the text-type of business writing very unlike any other genre—half a glance is all it takes to recognise a mixed-language business document and that may have been an advantage.

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INSULAR SOURCES AND ANALOGUES OF THE OTHERWORLD IN THE MIDDLE ENGLISH SIR ORFEO

The Grove - Working Papers on English Studies ◽

10.17561/grove.v24.a6 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 24 ◽

Author(s):

Jordi Sánchez Martí

Keyword(s):

Middle English ◽

Old French ◽

English Text ◽

Anglo Saxon ◽

Sir Orfeo ◽

Auchinleck Manuscript ◽

Middle English Romance ◽

Textual Evidence ◽

Classical Myth ◽

Anglo Norman

The Middle English Sir Orfeo presents a medievalized version of the classical myth of Orpheus that shows the influence of Celtic lore. Modern scholars seem to have accepted the views of A. J. Bliss, the editor of the Middle English romance, who argues that the English text is a translation of an Anglo-Norman or Old French version. Since we have no textual evidence that can positively support Bliss’s hypothesis, this article tests the possibility that the Middle English romance actually represents an insular tradition of the Orpheus myth that originated in Anglo-Saxon times with King Alfred’s rendering of the story and continued evolving by means of oral-memorial transmission until the fourteenth century, when the English romance was written down in the Auchinleck manuscript.

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