Research and methods of French language evolution – written documents under John the Blind from the XIVth century
[Recherche et méthodes de l’évolution du français ; actes écrits sous Jean de Luxembourg du XIVe siècle]
Zdenka Schejbalova
DOI: 10.18355/XL.2018.11.01XL.21
Abstract
In the paper, we present our linguistic research of the written documents established under John the Blind, King of Bohemia, King of Poland and Count of Luxembourg in the first half of the XIVth century. The comparative and quantitative study of the exonyms Bohemia, Poland and Luxemburg in the initial Protocol of the acts which form part of the royal titles, as well as of the set phrase of the Eschatology en témoignage de he reveals to us a great variety of forms in spite of the legal nature of the documents, which completely overturned our hypothesis of rather uniform set formulations typical for modern legal language. The richness of forms refers to the dialectal diversity of this time, testifies to the language without prescribed norm in full transformation. It is also due to the use of various local scribes-copyists during John the Blind's travels and frequent stays abroad.
Key words: exonyms Bohemia, Poland, Luxembourg; written documents; John the Blind; set phrase en témoignage de; French in the 1st half of the XIVth century ; comparative and quantitative methods