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Medieval Diglossia: The Diversity of the Latin Christian Encounter with Written and Spoken Arabic in the “Crusader” County of Tripoli , with a Hitherto Unpublished Arabic Note from the Principality of Antioch (MS, AOM 3, Valletta: National Library of Malta, no. 51v)

Medieval Diglossia: The Diversity of the Latin Christian Encounter with Written and Spoken Arabic... AbstractThe widespread use of Arabic in the “crusader” county of Tripoli was an obstacle between the Latin Christian Franks and their indigenous subjects. The concept of diglossia – the co-existence of divergent high and low registers within a single language – is an important but under-appreciated consideration. Arabic's marked diglossia militates against simplistic generalisations that the Franks either did or did not learn Arabic. The Romance-speaking, Latin-writing conquerors of the county of Tripoli failed to learn formal written Arabic to any appreciable degree. They did, however, learn informal spoken Arabic with more success. The Franks recognised the importance and utility of Arabic, so felt obliged to employ intermediaries – usually local Christians – to speak and write on their behalf. Some Arabic vocabulary entered the Frankish lexicon, but the consciously Latinising style of clerical authors often obscured this. Most surviving written sources from the Latin East are misleading at best, and sometimes deliberately so. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Al-Masaq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean Taylor & Francis

Medieval Diglossia: The Diversity of the Latin Christian Encounter with Written and Spoken Arabic in the “Crusader” County of Tripoli , with a Hitherto Unpublished Arabic Note from the Principality of Antioch (MS, AOM 3, Valletta: National Library of Malta, no. 51v)

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Medieval Diglossia: The Diversity of the Latin Christian Encounter with Written and Spoken Arabic in the “Crusader” County of Tripoli , with a Hitherto Unpublished Arabic Note from the Principality of Antioch (MS, AOM 3, Valletta: National Library of Malta, no. 51v)

Abstract

AbstractThe widespread use of Arabic in the “crusader” county of Tripoli was an obstacle between the Latin Christian Franks and their indigenous subjects. The concept of diglossia – the co-existence of divergent high and low registers within a single language – is an important but under-appreciated consideration. Arabic's marked diglossia militates against simplistic generalisations that the Franks either did or did not learn Arabic. The Romance-speaking,...
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Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
© 2015 Society for the Medieval Mediterranean
ISSN
1473-348X
eISSN
0950-3110
DOI
10.1080/09503110.2015.1049419
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

AbstractThe widespread use of Arabic in the “crusader” county of Tripoli was an obstacle between the Latin Christian Franks and their indigenous subjects. The concept of diglossia – the co-existence of divergent high and low registers within a single language – is an important but under-appreciated consideration. Arabic's marked diglossia militates against simplistic generalisations that the Franks either did or did not learn Arabic. The Romance-speaking, Latin-writing conquerors of the county of Tripoli failed to learn formal written Arabic to any appreciable degree. They did, however, learn informal spoken Arabic with more success. The Franks recognised the importance and utility of Arabic, so felt obliged to employ intermediaries – usually local Christians – to speak and write on their behalf. Some Arabic vocabulary entered the Frankish lexicon, but the consciously Latinising style of clerical authors often obscured this. Most surviving written sources from the Latin East are misleading at best, and sometimes deliberately so.

Journal

Al-Masaq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean – Taylor & Francis

Published: May 4, 2015

Keywords: Language / Social History / Eastern Mediterranean; Tripoli (county) – Arabic language; Diglossia; Language contact – Arabic/French; Arabic language – sociolinguistics; Sociolinguistics – Arabic; Manuscripts – Valletta, National Library of Malta, Archives of the Order of St. John

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