New Approaches to Multilingualism in the Distant Past
On Friday, April 5th from 11am to 2pm, we hosted two distinguished lectures given by Professor Alex Mullen (University of Oxford) and Dr. Franck Cinato (CNRS, Paris). Both lectures introduced us to new evidence of the complex multilingual societies of Roman Gaul and the Carolingian Renaissance.
PROGRAM:
11:00 am -12:00 pm
Franck Cinato (CNRS Paris)
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Dans le cadre général des recherches portant sur la transmission de la tradition grammaticale gréco-latine, Dr. Cinato s’intéresse en particulier aux travaux tenus durant la période du haut Moyen-Âge (VIe-Xe siècles) qui constitue une période de transition capitale entre deux civilisations : l’Antiquité et le Moyen-Âge. Il a beaucoup écrit et parlé sur ces sujets et son livre de 2015 chez Brepols est le principal ouvrage sur les gloses trouvées dans l'Ars grammatica de Priscien. |
Mixités carolingiennes: Panorama de la diversité sous-jacente à la Renovatio du 9e siècle
Le haut Moyen Âge est une période de reconfiguration culturelle intense qui prend appui en son commencement sur le monde tardo-antique complexe et aboutit à la prise de conscience de l’unité culturelle de l’Europe chrétienne occidentale, malgré ses diversités et l’environnement multilingue généralisé. En effet, la cour carolingienne mais aussi les institutions monastiques deviennent des carrefours où se côtoient des intellectuels en provenance de tous les horizons, italiens, espagnols, anglo-saxons et irlandais. Le multilinguisme est de rigueur, mais il se voit transcendé par l’élan dynamique donné à l’étude du latin des Antiqui : à partir de ce moment, on ne peut que constater que les habitants de Gaule ne parlent plus latin, mais soit une rustica romana lingua soit la theotisca lingua, tandis que « restauré », le latin devient la koinè des lettrés !
Nous nous intéresserons plus précisément au 9e siècle, cœur de la période carolingienne, pour nous concentrer sur les deux grands apports de la Renouatio : l’écriture et la grammaire. Ils ont constitué les enjeux fondamentaux de ce temps, qui permet un accroissement notable de qualité dans la production de l’écrit en même temps qu’elle rend désormais possible l’accès à des textes antiques difficiles qui avait été mis entre parenthèses ; de plus, par effet de symétrie le contexte scolaire de cet enseignement nous livre de nombreux indices sur les vernaculaires sous-jacents et la mixité des influences.
Un des aspects frappant de ce double apport, écriture – grammaire, se manifeste par l’importance croissante d’une démarche herméneutique particulière qui va prendre corps dans ce qu’on nomme communément les gloses. Le centre de cet exposé fera le point sur l’importance du phénomène, de ses diversités et de ses implications culturelles.
Carolingian Diversity: A panorama of the diversity underlying the Renovatio of the 9th century
The High Middle Ages were a period of intense cultural reconfiguration, beginning with the complex world of Late Antiquity and culminating in the cultural unity of Western Christian Europe, despite its diversity and widespread multilingual environment. Indeed, the Carolingian court and monastic institutions became crossroads for intellectuals from all horizons - Italian, Spanish, Anglo-Saxon and Irish. Multilingualism was the order of the day, but it was transcended by the dynamic impetus given to the study of the Latin of the Classical authors: from this point onwards, it is clear that the inhabitants of Gaul no longer spoke Latin, but either a rustica romana lingua or the theotisca lingua, while "restored" Latin became the koinè of the literati!
This talk takes a closer look at the 9th century, the heart of the Carolingian period, to focus on the two major contributions of the Renouatio: writing and grammar. These were the fundamental issues of this period, which saw a significant increase in the quality of written production and access to difficult ancient texts that had been sidelined. As reflection of the growing emphasis put on writing and grammar, the school context offers us many clues as to the complex negotiation of linguistic diversity, including the underlying vernaculars.
One of the striking aspects of this dual contribution - writing and grammar - is the growing importance of a particular hermeneutic approach, which will take shape in what are commonly referred to as glosses. This talk will focus on the importance of this phenomenon, its diversity and its cultural implications.
12:00 - 1:00 pm (delicious) CATERED LUNCH
1:00 - 2:00 pm
Alex Mullen (University of Nottingham)
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Professor Mullen's main research interests lie in the application of contemporary sociolinguistics to the ancient world and the integration of sociolinguistics, epigraphy and archaeology to write socio-cultural history. She has written and edited many books with OUP and CUP and written a staggering number chapters and articles on these topics and has recently completed the ERC-funded project LatinNow on the Latinization of the north-western Roman provinces, based at the University of Nottingham and CSAD. |
Linguae Gallicae and the sociolinguistics of Roman Gaul
What did the inhabitants of Roman Gaul speak, and how had this changed between the Conquest and the end of Empire? More importantly, why should we care? This talk explores what we know, and do not know, about the sociolinguistic variation of Roman Gaul, including the evidence for Gallic Latin and the Gaulish language, and how language differs along regional and social lines. We focus on the evidence for Latin–Gaulish bilingualism, particularly the documents related to production and the less formal texts on spindle whorls, and the latest research on the longevity of Gaulish, based on both epigraphic and literary sources. What do these tell us about sociolinguistic attitudes and cultural identities and their evolution across time and space? Some thoughts setting Gaul within its wider western provincial context are offered, revealing significant differences across the Roman West. Latin was not an inevitable and unremarkable by-product of Roman rule and tracking the contours of sociolinguistic complexity can lead to new perspectives on the lives of diverse ancient populations.
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We had a fantasic turn out both in-person and virtually, and the best part was the diversity of disciplines that these two talks spoke to. Faculty from Classics, History, French, The Centre for Medieval Studies, Celtic Studies, and Linguistics were in attendance, a contingent of three UTM librarians attended, and a faculty member and a graduate student from Cornell University engaged in both talks, in addition to fifteen UTM undergraduate students.
 Prof. Alex Mullen giving her lecture (photo: Jeff Steele) |
 Some of the attendees |