What is it about?
The article describes the use of French as a migrant language in Norwich in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It discusses the varieties of French used in Norwich, including standard French, Law French and dialectal French, notably Picard. It then looks at how French was used in relation to three other languages used in Norwich, English, Dutch and French and considers the processes by which it shifted from being a first language to a learnt language.
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Why is it important?
It has long been recognized that for much of its history England has been multilingual. However, relatively little work has been done on which languages were spoken by whom in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The work that has been done on French in early modern England tends to focus on its use by a cultured, educated elite in urban centres such as London, Oxford and Cambridge. This is a first look at the varieties of French used in another city, Norwich. Of particular interest is the evidence the article presents for the use of non-standard varieties of French and the evidence for language shift to English.
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Dr. Christopher Joby is Associate Professor of Dutch, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Seoul, South Korea. He is the author of ‘The Multilingualism of Constantijn Huygens (1596-1687)’ (AUP, 2014), and ‘The Dutch Language in Britain (1550-1702)’ (Brill, 2015). He has published over 30 articles on the history of language, religion and culture. He is currently writing a book on the Anglo-Dutch poet, Jan Cruso of Norwich (1592-fl. 1655)
Christopher Joby
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: French in early modern Norwich, Journal of French Language Studies, December 2016, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1017/s0959269516000429.
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