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

1. Introduction
CONTENTS
English and Galician in the Middle Ages:
A Sociohistorical Survey
Begoña Crespo García
It is the aim of this paper to offer a new perspective on the
analysis of English and Galician by comparing the sociolinguistic
situation of these languages in the Middle Ages.
The paper will be organised into four sections: section 1 will
depict the common history of both communities in the Middle
Ages, referring particularly to their contacts with Norman/
French (note 1) and Castilian, respectively. Section *2 will be
devoted to the divergent evolution of both languages detailing
the behaviour of the main social strata. In order to complete
the sociolinguistic analysis, section *3 will explore the effects
of bilingualism and diglossia on English and Castilian as a
means to illustrate the great infl uence external factors can exert
on the corresponding linguistic community. Finally, section
*4 will summarise the conclusions reached in the light of the
proposals previously mentioned.
2. Two events in history
In the early Middle Ages the status of Latin as a language of
culture and prestige was unquestionable (Tout, 1922; Clanchy,
1993). Hence, its usage in offi cial records and for scholarly
purposes. In this sense, England and Galicia were not exceptions.
Nevertheless, the existence of vernacular literature, a
native ruling class and a certain level of political independ-
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