10 - A Pilot Study on the Singular Definite Articles le and la in Fifteenth-Century London Mixed-Language Business Writing

Summary

Between the Norman Conquest and the evolution of Standard English in the late fifteenth to early sixteenth centuries, a mixed-language system, incorporating Middle English into a matrix of Medieval Latin and/or Anglo-Norman, was used for the text type of accounts and inventories. The mixture of [Medieval Latin + English] and [Anglo-Norman + English] was ordered in a principled manner – although all of its complexities have yet to be understood. The system changed over time, as is to be expected, and the purpose of this paper is draw attention to the introduction and distribution of the definite article, expressed as le, la and lez, les, in the [Medieval Latin + English] variety (which, despite having Medieval Latin as a matrix, is nonetheless vastly informed by Anglo-Norman, particularly in the wordstock). I survey here documents dated between 1420 and 1460 in the London records of the Bridge House Estate, and confine my comments to that period.

The principles that applied in the mixed-language business text type were informed by those that governed Middle English, Anglo-Norman and Medieval Latin, but the resulting linguistic code was governed by principles that were specific to itself (see Wright 1995, 1997a, 1997b n. 38, n. 39, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005 for a more detailed discussion). They included:

• ▪ do not write in monolingual Medieval Latin or Anglo-Norman, but include English nouns, stems of verbs, adjectives and -ing forms, variably (e.g. Itm solut Rīco Plastrer Ꝓ plastryng de leʒ ffrontes domoɚ apud le horn xxxvjs viijd, ‘And paid to Richard Plasterer for plastering of the house fronts at the Horn 36s 8d’, fol. 283, BHWP 3, 1429 x 1430, where x indicates text internally dated)