Conference. Medieval French Without Borders
This international conference looks anew at the origins and development of French within multilingual contact zones from the ninth century until the sixteenth century. It will take place 21-22 March 2020 at the 12th Floor Faculty Lounge, Lowenstein Building, Fordham University, Lincoln Center Campus, 113 West 60th Street
Please note: the conference has been postponed and will no longer take place in March 2020.
Medieval French Without Borders
Co-sponsors
Center for Medieval Studies, Fordham University
Centre for Medieval Literature
Program in Comparative Literature, Fordham University
Description
This international conference looks anew at the origins and development of French within multilingual contact zones from the ninth century until the sixteenth century. The dialects we now identify as the langue d’oïl emerged in a relatively small zone in northern Europe, but assumed international importance both as a transactional and a cultural language, bringing it into contact with varieties of Arabic, Breton, Dutch, English, German, Hebrew, Irish, Norse, Occitan and Welsh. From the ninth century French was a second language of empire (Carolingian, German, and later Angevin). From at least the eleventh, it was spread by trade, conquest, emigration, dynastic marriage, ecclesiastical networks and the soft power of northern French court culture to many different regions, courts, and cities across northern Europe and the Mediterranean. As an idiom used by city-dwellers, travelers, merchants, sailors, artisans, and pilgrims, its earlier language relationships were reconfigured even as new ones were being created.
For more information and for the call for papers (deadline September 15, 2019)
See the conference website, here