Bilingualism and language education in medieval England

1
Bilingualism and language education in medieval
England

• Richard InghamSchool of English, Birmingham City
  University

2
Outline of talk

• Spelling variation in later Anglo-Norman
• Phonological differences between Continental
  French and Anglo-Norman
• Gender errors?
• Syntax of later AN
• Critical periods for language learning
• Pedagogical texts?
• Conclusion

3
Two versions of the same AN letter, written
three weeks apart-

• (1a) Jeo vous mercy en quaunt qe jeo say et peus
  des amyables lettres qe vous me maundatus
• John Felton to Hugh le Despenser 3/12/1324  WSS
  p. 111
• (1b) Jeo vus mercie en quant que jeo say et pus
  de les amyabelis leteris que vus moy avez maunde
• John Felton to Hugh le Despenser 25/12/1324 WSS
  p. 115

4

• (2a) Jeo mettray ma peyne et mun travail de
  server mun seignur et vous bien et loyamentus
• John Felton to Hugh le Despenser 3/12/1324  WSS
  p. 111
• (2b)Joe metteray ma peyne et mon travayl de
  servir nostre seyngur le roy et vus ben et
  leaument
• John Felton to Hugh le Despenser 25/12/1324 WSS
  p. 115

5
Around half the word tokens vary in spelling
(ignoring grammatical variation)

• (3a) Les bosoignus mun seignur ne purrunt pas
  bien aler
• John Felton to Hugh le Despenser 3/12/1324  WSS
  p. 111
• (3b) Les bosongis mons seyngur ne porrount pas
  ben aler
• John Felton to Hugh le Despenser 25/12/1324  WSS
  p. 115

6
Presence or absence of final schwa ceased to be
distinctive in AN

• ltegt spelling used for words where schwa not
  present in cont Fr.
• Vines (Vins) Br 76 dautre parte (dautre part) Br
  80 sa maine (sa main) Br 96
• le chaumpe (le chaump) Br 110 son heir de saunke
  (de sang) PROME Edw II 1316
• en prisone (prison) PROME Edw I

7
AN what mode of transmission?

• Insular French spelling and grammar seem to have
  been too variable to have been taught as school
  subjects
• Insular French was used as a vehicle language for
  the teaching of Latin till c. 1350

8
Some phonological characteristics of later AN

• Schwa did not feature in ME phonology, but
  distinguished masc and fem. forms of Old French
  determiner words, e.g. un, une, cel, cele, cest,
  ceste etc.

9
ltegt spelling sometimes dropped from words where
schwa was present in Cont Fr.

• Tut le mound (monde) Br 76 trent (trente) (30)
  Br 90 mon per (père) Br 264 en la gard (garde)
  son cosine PROME Edw I de la fest (feste) de
  Seint Michel PROME Edw II

10
Apparent gender errors were common in later AN,
e.g. missing e on determiners with feminine
nouns-

• (4)a en cel prison Bolland 1914 37
• (4)b sicum en acun rivere Britton 404
• (4)c par certeyn enchesoun Gippswich, 22

11
Conversely, determiner and adjective forms with
final e can be found with masculine nouns,
e.g.

• (5)a de ceste trepas Bolland 1914 12
• (5)b de ceste escrit Leics 194
• (5)c en le haute chemin vers Donestaple Tanque
  rey 1916 50

12
Gender errors with son sa in AN parliament
rolls (PROME)

• 2 errors in c. 2,500 uses, 1310-1360
• 35 errors in c. 2,500 uses 1361-1400
• (Ingham 2007)

13
Gender errors in insular legal French c. 1300 and
c. 1520

• 0/100 errors on son sa c. 1300
• 1/50 errors on son 44/50 errors on sa, c. 1520
• (Ingham 2007)

14
Critical periods for language learning

• Johnson Newport (1987) showed that nativelike
  competence in morphosyntax begins to decline from
  first exposure at age 6. Nativelike if first
  exposure at ages 3-5.
• Age effects for L2 pronunciation begin earlier,
  c. age 3 in some studies (Bongaerts et al. 1997,
  Flege 1999).

15
Advanced L2 learners vs. native speakers

• Even very advanced, highly proficient learners of
  French made some errors on subtle syntactic rules
  in Coppieters (1987)
• The critical period effect is pervasive in L2
  acquisition, and therefore typically found in the
  morphosyntactic competence of even advanced
  nonnative speakers. (DeKeyser 2000 506)

16
Old French syntax I

• Old French had syntactic rules not affecting
  communication of content word order rules
  regarding position of subject synonymy of-
• Li rois (Subj) apelet lescuyer (Obj)
  Lescuyer (Obj) apelet li rois (Subj)
• Or apelet li rois lescuyer
• (Marchello-Nizia 1995)

17
Verb second

• In a clause beginning with an adverbial
  expression, the subject followed the verb, e.g.
• (6a) Or apele li rois un escuier
• (6b) Maintenant apele li rois un escuier
• Or li rois apele un escuier
• Maintenant li rois apele un escuier

18
Old French syntax II

• A clitic (weak form) Object pronoun had to follow
  the verb in an infinitive clause
• (7) Por veoir le (por le veoir)
• (Buridant 2000 354)
• But a clitic object pronoun preceded the
  auxiliary in an auxilated clause
• (8) Il le puet veoir (il puet le veer)

19
Loss of verb second in Middle French

• Asymmetry around 1300 between XVS after a
  preposed direct object (13a) and XSV after an
  initial adverbial (13b)-
• (9)a Grant partie des prisonniers envoia le roy a
  Paris GCF VII 93 (c.1300)
• (9)b En cel an meismes messires Jacques roys
  dArragon tint son parlement GCF VII 48 (c.1300)

20
TABLE 2 Frequency of VS versus SV order with
full NP subjects in AN chronicles, c. 1280-1350

• VS SV Total
• Time
• Adverbials 32 21 120 79 152
• Preposed
• Objects 10 83 2 17 12

21
TABLE 2 Frequency of VS versus SV order with
pronoun subjects in AN chronicles, c. 1280-1350

• VS SV Total
• Time
• adverbials 6 46 7 54 13
• Preposed
• Objects 18 100 0 0 18

22
AN clitic object pronouns with infinitives,
pre-1320

• (10)a ...ke jeo asuase par deboneirete de
  treiter les en amur HIII 2,m321 (1268)
• (10)b. Len a mester de prendre le Sen c. 41 (c.
  1280)

23
AN clitic object pronouns with infinitives,
post-1320

• (11)a ...qe ascun sentremet de les faire
  entrer LC II 62 (1334)
• (11)b. de ensi le faire Lanc. p. 29 (c.
  1354)

24
Frequencies of clitic object pronouns in AN
non-finite clauses 1250-1362

• 1250-1319 1320-1362
• clitic
• preverbal 1 (4) 36 (61)
• clitic
• postverbal 27 (96) 23 (39)
• Total 28 59

25
Frequencies of strong form pronouns in infinitive
clauses, 1250-1362

• 1250-1319 1320-1362
• strong form
• Preverbal 17 (85) 39 (89)
• strong form
• postverbal 3 (15) 5 (11)
• Total 20 44

26
What evidence of pedagogical texts?

• Rothwell (1976) argued that by the mid 13th
  century there was a public wishing to learn
  French as a foreign language and that this need
  was satisfied by the use of pedagogical texts

27

• Glosses, spelling and grammatical treatises,
  vocabulary manual (esp. Bibbesworths Tretiz de
  langage) these works functioned as manuals of
  different kinds to promote the teaching of
  French (Rothwell 1976 463).

28
Glosses French used to gloss target Latin words

• Hoc intercilium, entre les surcils
• Hic capriarius, qui garde les chevres
• Hoc cenaculum , u len manjue
• (Glasgow Lat-Fr glossary)

29
Orthographia gallica

• Pope (1934) syntactical phonetics, especially
  elided forms such as malme, dEngleterre.
• But this was a change in progress in mid-C13
  continental texts,where unelided spellings can be
  found such as en non de escange, de blé et de
  avaigne Oise deeds 1256 (Carolus-Barré, 1964) de
  elles , 1262, Valenciennes, Béguines, (Doc. Hist.
  Franc. Vol I), 1273 de autres princes, Relation
  dambassadeurs, ibid.

30
mauveis not malveis

• Following /a/e/o/, /l/ ? /u/ before a consonant
  , e.g. in malveis
• Spelling forms record the earlier Old French
  pronounciations, cf eskoltet, mals, voldret
  (Eulalie).

ben
31
Bien, not ben

• Pronounce /i/ before /e/ in words such as bien,
  mieuz, etc, not before 1st e in tenez, bevez etc.
  
• Again, an area where change had taken place from
  earlier Old French. Melz (Eulalie l. 16) seule lt-
  saeculum (l. 24),

32
Glosses in Bibbesworth

• The author says nest pas mester tut a
  descrivere/du fraunceis ki chescun seit dire.
• The English glosses can hardly have been supplied
  by the original author, since they ignore this
  point. Immediately after the above passage, words
  that Bibbesworths text presents as common
  knowledge - ventre dos echine, espaul bras,
  poitrine - are glossed into English, in the Cambs
  Gg 1.1 ms. used by Rothwell 1990 and Owens 1929.

33
Glosses in Bibbesworth

• The words not glossed into English in the ms
  edited by Rothell (1990) include many items
  squarely within the vocabulary area of activities
  related to the land
• haterel (41) entruit, aubume (202) eschele (238)
  arure (286) semaus (345) curteller (414) canois
  (416) pestour (381) pessel (428) vivere (514)
  aumail (549), enclume (571) navet (656)
  curtillage (776) blaret (788) feoun (819)
  chaltil, becheus (855) hurteurs (858) chartil
  (869) caruer (900) vayour/vaez (909-11) zoke,
  zouche (924), maillet (927) aguilloun (936).

34

• Likewise celer, pieler (950-1) traes (957) gymel
  (993) relate to house-building but are not
  glossed.
• The Bibbesworth ms cannot be presented as a
  systematic attempt to teach French vocabulary
  using English as a medium of instruction. Rather,
  it offers technical vocabulary enhancement in
  specialised areas to a young bilingual person
  already having a fairly accomplished ability to
  comprehend via French.

35
Conclusion

• Outside aristocratic circles, French was learnt
  in later medieval England until c. 1350 as a
  childhood second language in an institutional
  context experienced before grammar school the
  church school.