PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

This chapter critically reviews the nature of early textual evidence and metalinguistic sources for the emergence of the Romance languages, including social variation in (late/medieval) Latin; the methods of internal and comparative reconstruction; the emergence of early vernacular textual traditions (including scriptae and koinés) and their relationship to medieval Latin textual practices; and the contribution of sociohistorical investigations to our understanding of the relationship between Latin and the emergent vernaculars in the Romània. Specific topics dealt with include: ‘pathways’ to vernacular writing traditions; in-scripturation (inserting Romance utterances in Latin texts); in-scripturalization (pragmatic texts in professional contexts, and discourse traditions and cultural memory); writing without focused norms; pragmatic and sociolinguistic recontextualization.