Learning Anglo-French
@medievalfrench.bsky.social
600 followers 240 following 18 posts
We're a five-year (to 2028) research project based at @uniofexeter.bsky.social, investigating the learning of French in Britain, c. 1200 - c. 1500. Funded by UKRI; posts by @edwardmills.bsky.social (PDRF). Website: sites.exeter.ac.uk/learninganglofrench
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medievalfrench.bsky.social
We’re big fans of Wace here at LAF, thanks in no small part to our resident Wace specialist, Clem Pursey! Clem’s part of one of several medieval French panels at @frenchstudies.bsky.social this year, speaking about women’s agency in the ‘Brut’ and the ‘Rou’.
a-ndictionary.bsky.social
The works of Wace, a large and important source of early Anglo-Norman, were added to the A-Z dictionary. A thorough examination of surnames in Anglo-Norman sources yielded a wealth of new materials, resulting in in 877 new entries (with 909 senses and subsenses, 1873 citations) in the dictionary.
medievalfrench.bsky.social
Thanks, John! We really enjoyed your review too.
Reposted by Learning Anglo-French
lrb.co.uk
‘Multilingualism was so ordinary in 14th-century England that not everyone would have had a reliable sense of the boundaries between the country’s different languages.’

John Gallagher @earlymodernjohn.bsky.social on the influence of French on medieval English:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
John Gallagher · What a spalage! Mis languages est bons
With contemporary English including more than eighty thousand terms of French origin, Georges Clemenceau might have had...
www.lrb.co.uk
medievalfrench.bsky.social
An exciting find in French-of-medieval-Britain studies: a new witness to Walter de Bibbesworth’s ‘Tretiz’! (Sort of.) Do get in touch if you don’t have access and would like a read! #medievalfrench #middleenglish
Project MUSE - Building on Bibbesworth: Language, Estates Management, and the <i>Domestic Economy</i> of London, British Library, Ms Harley 4971
doi.org
medievalfrench.bsky.social
Our friends and colleagues over at @materialwills.bsky.social have gamified transcription, and we love it! Medievalists: a great chance to explore the Dark Side and brush up on your #earlymodern palaeography …
emilymayvine.bsky.social
We have brand new 'APPRENTICE' and 'MASTER' workflows over on the @materialwills.bsky.social @zooniverse.bsky.social site!

Practice your palaeography or dive straight in with some more difficult handwriting 📜✍️

www.zooniverse.org/projects/hjs...
materialwills.bsky.social
📢 NEW CATEGORIES over on Zooniverse! 📢

We've divided up our transcription tasks 📜✍️

Looking to improve your reading of early modern handwriting?
👉Click on the 'APPRENTICE' workflow.

Have more experience of palaeography?
👉Give our 'MASTER' workflow a go!

#skystorians #citizenscience #history
medievalfrench.bsky.social
With permission, I might add.
edwardmills.bsky.social
This seems like an appropriate reaction to having a document from 1377 in your rucksack. #medievalsky
medievalfrench.bsky.social
Thanks, Matthew!
matthewcollins.bsky.social
ProTip 2
When you have made a shareable figure put it on @wikimedia.bsky.social, like this image by Sean Doherty of @medievalfrench.bsky.social

Cite #wikimedia as the source in publications.

You avoid having to send requests to the publisher to use your own figure every time you give a talk.
Reposted by Learning Anglo-French
edwardmills.bsky.social
Optimist: the cup is half-full.

Pessimist: the cup is half-empty.

Anglo-Normanist: the lemma ‘cuppe’ is attested in both Middle English and insular French matrix-language texts, problematising a straightforward reading of the term as belonging to any one of medieval Britain’s vernaculars. Hence …
skrivafel.bsky.social
Optimist: The cup is half full.

Pessimist: The cup is half empty.

Runologist: After much debate, the most likely interpretation of the inscription on this cup is that it says "cup".
drbeard79.bsky.social
Optimist: The cup is half full.

Pessimist: The cup is half empty.

Literary critic: Difficulty and Opportunity: Liminality and the Cup in the Cultural Imaginary, 1789-1914
medievalfrench.bsky.social
French of Britain fans — amazing announcement that the wonderful Jocelyn Wogan-Browne is coming to Oxford!
oxhistoryfaculty.bsky.social
The James Ford Lectures in British History are coming to Examination Schools in January 2025!

Jocelyn Wogan-Browne (Fordham University) will be speaking on French in Medieval Britain: Cultural Politics and Social History, c. 1100-c. 1500 starting Thursday 23rd January.

See you there!
medievalfrench.bsky.social
I'd love to! Is the Centre on BlueSky? I can only add BlueSky accounts to the starter kit, rather than web addresses ...
medievalfrench.bsky.social
We made a Starter Pack of Centres (sorry, US followers) for Medieval Studies in the UK and beyond. Do let us know if you’d like to be added … go.bsky.app/PAQh2go
medievalfrench.bsky.social
There's a lot more to say about the project, and over the next few weeks, we'll be introducing members of the project team in a bit more detail. For now, though, do give us a 'follow', and we look forward to having you along for the ride. It'll be LAF-a-minute! (Sorry.)
medievalfrench.bsky.social
What might DNA evidence from medieval manuscripts tell us about their users? Where did the animals on whose skin our texts were written came from, and why does this matter?
medievalfrench.bsky.social
We're building a database of texts and manuscripts that were used for teaching French in Britain between around 1200 and around 1500, while also investigating certain textual traditions in more depth. We're also asking questions informed by an emerging discipline: biocodicology.
medievalfrench.bsky.social
What we don't know with nearly as much certainty is how exactly people from all walks of life actually *acquired* the language, and that's where LAF (as we're calling it) comes in.
medievalfrench.bsky.social
... but all of these terms refer to a language that, as the last few decades of research have revealed, was used throughout Medieval Britain -- and for longer than we historically thought.
medievalfrench.bsky.social
By 'Anglo-French', we're referring to the dialect(s) of French that people used throughout medieval Britain. It's an umbrella term, and one that goes by various other names, 'Anglo-Norman', 'insular French', and 'the French of England' to name just three, ...
medievalfrench.bsky.social
We're a research project based at the Department of Languages, Cultures and Visual Studies at @uniofexeter.bsky.social, funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). At the heart of our work (which runs until 2028) is 'Anglo-French', and how exactly it was acquired during a specific time period.
medievalfrench.bsky.social
Hello, BlueSky-verse! We're really happy to be here, and to be carrying on the conversation from our previous Twitter account (@medievalfrench). But who exactly is 'we'? Well, time for a good, old-fashioned welcome thread ...