Multilingual Events in Late Medieval Personal Documentary Texts from the Winchester Diocese Collection in 1400–1525

Abstract

This chapter discusses multilingual practices (involving Latin, English and French) in fifteenth-century personal documents from the Winchester Diocese collection. It investigates instances of multiple language use – here called multilingual events – within single texts from a selection of 33 personal documents. Sociolinguistic and philo-pragmatic perspectives form the basis of the theoretical framework here employed, which also takes account of the visual layout of manuscripts. The resulting analysis reveals certain patterns of the interplay between Latin and the two vernaculars, which seem to support the claim that Latin was still the main language of official writing, while English was increasingly more used in personal documents, and French seemed to be dying out. Importantly, the multilingual events show two main functions: they act as pragmatic devices to guide the reader and structure the text while simultaneously providing an insight into the multiple voices involved in the multi-layering of manuscript texts over time.