From “Latin” to the Vernacular: Latin-Romance Hybridity, Scribal Competence, and Social Transformation in Medieval Castile

Abstract

This study presents an alternative interpretation of language represented in Latin-Romance hybrid documents of early-thirteenth-century Castile based on analysis of local legal documents produced by Nicholaus Martini, a scribe of the city of Burgos. Most scholars have attributed hybrid practices primarily to some kind of scribal ignorance of “Latin” norms. In contrast, we highlight evidence of scribal competence by focusing on the production of a single, typical scribe, arguing that he (and peers) worked within a monolingual culture characterized by spectroglossia. The patterns of switching, mixing, and blending of registers in Nicholaus’s texts cannot be accounted for primarily as a result of incompetence. Rather, they develop as conventions in response to larger sociocultural changes (e.g., urbanization, laicization) and a number of social and cultural factors that favored representation of “Latin,” representation of “Romance,” and representation of a hybrid register. In so doing, we also argue against an overemphasis on ease of comprehension as a factor shaping the design and reception of written texts and oral performances of them. The study suggests that this type of hybrid document corresponds to a period that set the stage for subsequent development of practices and conceptions that differentiated sharply between Latin and Romance(s) as separate languages.