The Monastic Rules of Visigothic Iberia - eTheses Repository ...

used by everyone, whilst Attic was used by all Greek authors. He notes that Doric was used
by Egyptians and in Syria, but does not explain further the remaining two, Aeolic and Ionic.
His specific mention of Attic as a literary register suggests that the others are spoken
registers. The final part of the passage refers clearly to spoken language, since Isidore is
talking about sounds, suggesting that the Greeks and Asiani spoke from their palate (“in
palato sermones feriunt”), whilst Syrian and Chalcedonian are close to Hebrew in their
speech (“uicinus in Hebraeo est in sermone”), mentioning the sound of their letters (“sono
litterarum”).
It seems, then, that Isidore understood sermo to mean more generally the spoken
language. This is important not only because it fits well with the idea of the monastic rules as
being texts that were involved in oral recitation. It also suggests that the decision taken by
Isidore to write sermone plebeio uel rustico, rather than in the altius uel obscurius style of
some of his predecessors, demonstrates a conscious step to dissociate from a one style of
writing and associate with another that was more reflective of the spoken language.
5.8 Language Standard and Choice of Linguistic Register
There are various systems available to modern scholars to study the use of linguistic
registers. One of the most useful is that posited by the Russian scholar Mikhail Bakhtin.
Bakhtin‟s view of language and literature was, in many ways, similar to those of the
Formalist school (Dentith 1995: 22-40). Bakhtin proposed that language was „dialogic‟,
meaning that all language use was contextual and addressed to an audience (even if that
audience were the speaker himself). However, language is in reality an amalgamation of
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