Langues française et anglaise, et multilinguisme à l'époque d'Henri II Plantagenêt

Abstract

The study of Anglo-Norman culture has produced the fallacy of widespread bilingualism in XIIlth and XIIIth century-England. Before the conquest, a linguistic competition already existed between Latin and Standard Old English as literary languages, English dialects being the spoken language. The loss of prestige of the literary form of Old English after the Conquest left a vacuum, so that when English was used again as a written language, it was on the basis of these dialects. None of the three languages in competition (Latin, French and English) was in a position to fulfîl all the linguistic needs. Although French did not have the same prestige as Latin, it was used for a contemporary translation of Magna Carla in 1214, and of the Provisions of Oxford in 1258. Paradoxically, French became more firmly established after the loss of Normandy, partly because it then replaces Latin. There are bilingual speakers (Henry of Huntingdon, Oderic Vitalis and William of Malmesbury were born of "mixed" couples). But the French spoken in England is more and more different from the French of Paris, which acquires prestige in the XIIIth century. Anglo-Norman French then loses ground. Henry II understood English (as many other languages, probably) but he spoke French and Latin. Alienor knew no English. Both belonged to an international sphere.