Bilingualism and language
education in medieval
England
Richard Ingham
School of English,
Birmingham City University
Outline of talk
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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
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
(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
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
Presence or absence of final schwa ceased to be
distinctive in AN
<e> spelling used for words where schwa
not present in cont Fr.
 Vines (Vins) Br 76 dautre parte (d’autre
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
AN: what mode of transmission?
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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
Some phonological characteristics of later AN
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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.
<e> spelling sometimes dropped
from words where schwa was
present in Cont Fr.:
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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
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
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
Tanquerey 1916: 50
Gender errors with son & sa in AN
parliament rolls (PROME)
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2 errors in c. 2,500 uses, 1310-1360
35 errors in c. 2,500 uses 1361-1400
(Ingham 2007)
Gender errors in insular legal
French c. 1300 and c. 1520
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0/100 errors on son & sa c. 1300
1/50 errors on son; 44/50 errors on sa, c.
1520
(Ingham 2007)
Critical periods for language
learning
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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).
Advanced L2 learners vs. native
speakers
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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)
Old French syntax I
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Old French had syntactic rules not
affecting communication of content: word
order rules regarding position of subject;
synonymy of:Li rois (Subj) apelet l’escuyer (Obj)
L’escuyer (Obj) apelet li rois (Subj)
Or apelet li rois l’escuyer
(Marchello-Nizia 1995)
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
Old French syntax II
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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)
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 d’Arragon tint son parlement… GCF
VII 48 (c.1300)
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TABLE 2: Frequency of VS versus
SV order with full NP subjects
in AN chronicles, c. 1280-1350
VS
%
Time
Adverbials 32 21
Preposed
Objects
10 83
SV
%
Total
120 79
152
2 17
12
TABLE 2: Frequency of VS versus SV order
with pronoun subjects
in AN chronicles, c. 1280-1350
VS
Time
adverbials
Preposed
Objects
% SV
% Total
6
46
7
54
13
18
100
0
0
18
AN clitic object pronouns with
infinitives, pre-1320
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(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)
AN clitic object pronouns with
infinitives, post-1320
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(11)a ...qe ascun s’entremet de les faire
entrer
LC II 62 (1334)
(11)b. …de ensi le faire
Lanc. p. 29 (c. 1354)
Frequencies of clitic object pronouns in AN
non-finite clauses 1250-1362
1250-1319
1320-1362
clitic
preverbal
clitic
postverbal
27 (96%) 23 (39%)
Total
28
1 (4%)
36 (61%)
59
Frequencies of strong form pronouns in
infinitive clauses, 1250-1362
1250-1319
strong form
Preverbal
strong form
postverbal
Total
1320-1362
17 (85%)
39 (89%)
3 (15%)
5 (11%)
20
44
What evidence of ‘pedagogical’
texts?
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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:
Glosses, spelling and grammatical treatises,
vocabulary manual (esp. Bibbesworth’s
Tretiz de langage) these works functioned
as ‘manuals of different kinds to promote
the teaching of French’ (Rothwell 1976:
463).
Glosses: French used to gloss
target Latin words
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Hoc intercilium, entre les surcils
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Hic capriarius, qui garde les chevres
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Hoc cenaculum , u l’en manjue
(Glasgow Lat-Fr glossary)
Orthographia gallica
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Pope (1934): ‘syntactical phonetics’, especially
elided forms such as m’alme, d’Engleterre.
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 d’ambassadeurs, ibid.
mauveis not malveis
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Following {/a/e/o/}, /l/  /u/ before a
consonant , e.g. in malveis
Spelling forms record
ben the earlier Old
French pronounciations, cf eskoltet, mals,
voldret (Eulalie).
Bien, not ben
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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 <- saeculum (l. 24),
Glosses in Bibbesworth
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The author says ‘n’est 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 Bibbesworth’s 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.
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).
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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.
Conclusion
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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.