Medieval English in a Multilingual Context
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"This book provides a practical guide to current theories and methodologies in medieval English multilingualism, as a response to the 'growing interest in the multilingual culture of medieval Britain and its impact on the development of English' (p. 1). This wide-ranging volume is designed to complement recent advances in the field ... . The detailed bibliographies at the end of each chapter will also be of use to researchers or teachers looking for further information." (Christine Wallis, English Language & Linguistics, Issue (2), August 19, 2025)
"This excellent volume contains individually strong chapters that have been thoughtfully curated by editors Sara M. Pons-Sanz and Louise Sylvester . . this is an impressive collection that moves the field forward in exciting ways while also making clear the rich potential for future studies. The chapters are uniformly of high quality and interest . . Medieval English in a Multilingual Context is a valuable contribution to the field in far more than a linguistic context." (Lindy Brady, SELIM - Journal of the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature, Vol. 29 (1), 2024)
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Sara M. Pons-Sanz is Reader in Language and Communication at Cardiff University, UK. She led the AHRC-funded network Medieval English (ca600-1500) in a Multilingual Context and co-led the AHRC-funded Gersum Project. She is the author of The Lexical Effects of Anglo-Scandinavian Linguistic Contact on Old English , and other books and articles on medieval English.
Louise Sylvester is Professor of English Language at the University of Westminster, UK. She co-edited the Bilingual Thesaurus of Everyday Life in Medieval England and the multilingual database Lexis of Cloth and Clothing in Britain c700-1450 . She has published widely on the effects of contact with French on the vocabulary of Middle English.Content
Chapter 3: From Original Sources to Linguistic Analysis: Tools and Datasets for the Investigation of Multilingualism in Medieval EnglishPart II Medieval Multilingualism and Lexical Change Chapter 4: Contact-Induced Lexical Effects in Medieval English
Chapter 5: The West Germanic Heritage of Yorkshire English
Chapter 6: Reframing the Interaction between Native Terms and Loanwords: Some Data from Occupational Domains in Middle English
Chapter 7: Cheapside in Wales: Multilingualism and Textiles in Medieval Welsh Poetry
Chapter 8: Caxton's Linguistic and Literary Multilingualism: English, French and Dutch in the History of Jason Part III Medieval Multilingualism and Morphosyntactic Change
Chapter 9: An Overview of Contact-Induced MorphosyntacticChanges in Early English
Chapter 10: Traces of Language Contact in Nominal Morphology of Late Northumbrian and Northern Middle English
Chapter 11: Origin and Spread of the Personal Pronoun They: La Estorie del Evangelie, a Case Study
Chapter 12: Language Contact Effects on Verb Semantic Classes: Lability in Early English and Old French
Chapter 13: Exploring Norn: A Historical Heritage Language of the British Isles Part IV Textual Manifestations of Medieval Multilingualism
Chapter 14: Textual and Codicological Manifestations of Multilingual Culture in Medieval England
Chapter 15: Adapting Winefride in Welsh, Latin and English
Chapter 16: Let Each One Tell its Own Story: Language Mixing in Four Copies of Amore Langueo
Chapter 17: The Materiality of the Manières de langage
Chapter 18 Afterword