| French literature, we now know, began in England not in France. The transformation of Old French from an oral vernacular to a language of written literature was perhaps the most momentous result of the collision of languages and cultures in England after the Norman Conquest. This paper seeks to add to our understanding of the event by tracing and analyzing changes in the way the Normans talked about, and conceived of, their vernacular tongue. At the same time, this medieval case study exposes crucial differences between medieval and modern ideas about the triangular relationship of language, nation, and state.;The men who stepped off their boats in 1066 were Normans who spoke romanz; two generations later, when Norman men and women in England became the pioneers of Romance vernacular literature, it was as franceis who called their language franceis. The language itself had not changed appreciably, but their metalinguistic construct had. Back on the Continent romanz had been understood as a sprawling not-quite-Latin, spoken everywhere and associated with no particular group. The Anglo-Normans conceived of franceis as a distinct language, proper to their natio.;Two methodological premises animate this study: dedication to explaining metalinguistic changes on the basis of textual evidence rather than vague notions such as 'changing perspective' or 'English influence'; and recognition that medieval discourse on language and identity---even terms whose meanings we presume to be obvious, such as romanz, franceis and France---must be translated astutely across time if we are to avoid imposing anachronistic assumptions. A comparative approach, examining Old English evidence alongside Latin and French, reveals that the Normans' shift in the way they defined themselves and their language involved directly translating English concepts and English words. The French language---not just the writing of it, but the very awareness of it as a language ---was formed by contact and conflict, not in any center or capitol but out on the border, where confrontation with the Other leads to self-definition and invention. |
