English and Galician in the Middle Ages - Publicaciones ...

English and Galician in the Middle Ages:
A Sociohistorical Survey
Begoña Crespo García
gale, Pearl, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, The Pricke of
Conscience, a 14 th century book of travel, Langland’s Piers
the Plowman, Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, and others.
However, the existence of a similar literary output is not valid
for Galician. It is true that some Galicians tried to write in
the prestigious language and imitate the canons of Galician-
Portuguese poetry and it is also true that, in the end, they
left aside their roots forgetting their mother tongue for a long
time:
O ano 1350 sinala o último límite da xeira cumiante na poesía galego-portuguesa.
Desde entón ate o 1450 ábrese unha etapa de transición,
durante a que confluen as escolas poéticas de Galicia e de
Castela, pero conservando ainda aquela a primacía deica o 1400. A
partir de aquí a escola castellana comeza xa a adquirir predominio
sobre a galega (note 15) (Fernández del Riego, 1984: 39).
As for the learned and privileged it was only an elite in both
communities that was literate. The arrival of foreign rulers
brought, in each case, the establishment of a cultural and
governing elite. The efforts of some groups of the population
(English-French) or the vast majority (Galician-Castilian) were
directed towards the imitation of foreigners speech habits and
cultural standards, especially when in contact with them. This
general attitude is echoed in literature.
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