Simplifying Latin in Notker's Classroom: Tradition and Innovation

Abstract

Much of the rearrangement of the Latin syntax by Notker Labeo in his classroom translation/commentaries is done according to a pedagogic principle called theordo naturalis, which prescribes an SVO word order. A theoretical discussion of theordo naturalisis preserved in a tenth-century treatise composed at St. Gall, and its practical application is found throughout Europe in the form of glosses and construe marks. My analysis shows that Notker varied the traditional and prescribed “natural order” according to the passage at hand, taking into consideration the level of textual difficulty and pedagogic relevance of the passage as well as the text-building strategies of the original. In a few instances Notker even sprinkled his personal variant ofordo naturaliswith OHG word order. Notker expanded upon and modified tradition with his own pedagogic common sense, thus tailoring his teaching materials to the needs of the St. Gall pupils.