Language Archive
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Metaphor in the Medieval Middle East
Posted on January 26, 2015 | No CommentsThrough a study of metaphor in medieval Arabic literature, Stanford comparative literature professor Alexander Key finds that the Arab world had a head start on the West when it comes to understanding how language works. -
Changing from OV to VO: More evidence from Old French
Posted on January 1, 2015 | No CommentsOne of the more obvious syntactic changes in the development of the Romance languages involved a switch in basic word order from the Latin SOV to the Romance SVO, a change still underway in early Old Romance. I -
Domiciling the Evangelists in Anglo-Saxon England: a Fresh Reading of Aldred’s colophon in the Lindisfarne Gospels
Posted on December 20, 2014 | No CommentsWhat is actually reliable about this highly literary colophon is Aldred’s purpose in writing the gloss: to give the Evangelists a voice to address ‘all the brothers’− particularly the Latinless. -
Norse loanwords in Old and Middle Irish
Posted on December 9, 2014 | No CommentsIt is my objective to detect what the semantic development of Norse loanwords in Old and Middle Irish can tell us about the language and social contact situation of the Irish and the Norse raiders and settlers during the Viking Age. -
‘Falseness Reigns in Every Flock’: Literacy and Eschatological Discourse in the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381
Posted on November 30, 2014 | No CommentsThe literature of the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, a miscellany of fourteenth-century poetry and prose penned before, during, and after the insurrection, often stresses the importance of literacy to the nonaristocratic population of England. -
The Viking Language of the Highlands and Islands: Reconstructing the Norn Language from Old Norse
Posted on November 18, 2014 | No CommentsThe Orkney and Shetland islands of Scotland were at one time colonized by Vikings and belonged firmly within the field of Scandinavian cultural influence. During this time the people of these archipelagos spoke a unique language known as Norn which evolved from the Old Norse language. -
Pedlars and Alchemists in Friuli History of itinerant sellers in an alpine reality
Posted on August 25, 2014 | No CommentsThis short review discusses about itinerant sellers in Friuli, who are Cramaro called (XI-XIX centuries). Attention is focused, in particular, on the question if some of theme were alchemists. -
‘That melodious linguist’: Birds in Medieval Christian and Islamic Cosmography
Posted on August 12, 2014 | No Comments“Birds,” writes Albertus Magnus, “generally call more than other animals. This is due to the lightness of their spirits.” -
How well do you know the origins of English words? – Part 2
Posted on August 8, 2014 | No CommentsCan you tell which English words come from Anglo-Saxon or Old Norse? -
(Re)casting the Past: The Cloisters and Medievalism
Posted on July 22, 2014 | No CommentsIn this essay, I focus on a variety of texts printed using Anglo-Saxon type between 1566 and 1623 in an effort to explore the use of Anglo-Saxon typeface in the early modern period as the use of the Old English language progressed from polemical truncheon to historiographical instrument. -
How well do you know the origins of English words?
Posted on July 14, 2014 | No CommentsCan you tell which word derives from the English of Anglo-Saxon times, and which word came from French? -
From Old Norse to Modern Icelandic
Posted on July 1, 2014 | No CommentsThus the language spoken and written in Iceland today is quite close to what has been called Old Norse, such as it appears in the medieval texts. -
Old English Words for Relics of the Saints
Posted on June 29, 2014 | No CommentsThis study begins with a review of some Latin terms and of certain material traits common to early medieval relic-cults, since these profoundly shaped the Old English vocabulary surveyed in the second part of the paper. -
The original Frenglish
Posted on June 10, 2014 | No CommentsWhen France was speaking English without the prompting of a war or was it England who was speaking French…. -
Signed, Sealed, Delivered: How Messages were sent in the Middle Ages
Posted on May 7, 2014 | No CommentsLet’s imagine, for five minutes, what it must have been like to try and communicate across long distance in the Middle Ages. -
Island Words, Island Worlds: The Origins and Meanings of Words for ‘Islands’ in North-West Europe
Posted on May 5, 2014 | No CommentsThis paper proposes the notion that words mirror ideas, perspectives and world- views. Etymologies and meanings of general words for ‘islands’ in a number of languages in North and West Europe are then discussed. -
Old Norse Influence in Modern English: The Effect of the Viking Invasion
Posted on April 12, 2014 | No CommentsIt is estimated that there are around 400 Old Norse borrowings in Standard English. These borrowings are amongst the most frequently used terms in English and denote objects and actions of the most everyday description. -
Theories of the Nonsense Word in Medieval England
Posted on April 8, 2014 | No CommentsThe goos the cokkow and the doke also So cryede kek kek kokkow quek quek hye -
From Legible Text to Magical Pattern: Arabic Inscriptions in Muslim and Christian Spain
Posted on March 28, 2014 | No CommentsThe Arabic inscriptions in this building fascinated me, and led me down a long path of research that continues today over a decade later. Today I will present some of that research, showing you some of the other structures and objects that are adorned with the same inscription. -
British Library purchases the Catholicon Anglicum
Posted on March 21, 2014 | No CommentsThe British Library has paid £92,500 in order to keep a 500-year old dictionary from leaving the United Kingdom. They announced earlier this week that they had completed the purchase of the Catholicon Anglicum, a 15th-century English-Latin dictionary. -
Alphabet Poems: A Brief History
Posted on March 16, 2014 | No CommentsAs a collector of alphabet books, and sometime editor of a newsletter on the subject, I have had many opportunities to consider the history of the alphabet poem. Although alphabet poems may take a wide range of forms, most are generally divided into twenty-six parts (lines, couplets, stanze...), one for each letter. -
The Anglo-Saxon Name for the s-Rune: Sigel, a Precious Jewel
Posted on February 22, 2014 | No CommentsThe Anglo-Saxon rune-name sigel has been interpreted as meaning ‘sun’. In some contexts Old English sigel does refer to the sun, in others it means ‘clasp’, ‘brooch’, or ‘jewel’. All these meanings, however, are difficult to reconcile with the maritime imagery of the Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem’s sigel stanza. -
Voynich Manuscript partially decoded, text is not a hoax, scholar finds
Posted on February 20, 2014 | No CommentsA Professor in Applied Linguistics believes he has decoded a few words from the mysterious Voynich Manuscript, a 600-year old work that has baffled scholars for the last hundred years. -
Norse Rune code cracked
Posted on February 7, 2014 | No CommentsA scholar of the University of Oslo has cracked one of the rune codes used by the Vikings, revealing they were sending each other messages such as 'Kiss me'. -
The Most Significant Manuscript Sources of Medieval Croatian Vernacular Verse
Posted on February 4, 2014 | No CommentsThe first part of the article gives a brief overview of the history of Croatian literacy up to the first written record of poetry in the Old Croatian language.
