Bilingualism against Diglossia in the French Royal Chancery in the Late Middle Ages

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the use of Latin and vernacular languages in the French royal chancery during the Late Middle Ages. The language played an important role in constructing and strengthening the State. The idea of the unification of language went hand in hand with the idea of political unification. In France, the most important stage in the transition from Latin to the vernacular language was the 14th century. The first examples of the use of the vernacular language in the work of the chancery emerged on the periphery. The transition from Latin to French was not instantaneous, but took place in several phases. It should be noted that the ratio of languages was uneven in various areas of office work, and also depended on the region to which the charter was related. In this regard, many researchers propose to speak not about bilingualism, but about diglossia. Conceding with the validity of this remark, it is possible to complete this picture with several documents. In the collection of Nikolai Petrovich Likhachev (1862–1936) there is the charter of King John II (1352), the protocol and eschatocol of which are written in Latin, and the main part — in French. An analysis of this document shows how closely Latin and French coexisted in the documents of the royal chancery of France in the 14th century. It dissolves the boundaries between the niches occupied by one or the other language. Therefore, it seems not always correct to talk about diglossia.