’Les cent nouvelles nouvelles’ : a linguistic study of MS Glasgow Hunter 252

Description

MS Glasgow Hunter 252 is the sole surviving manuscript copy of the CentNouvelles Nouvelles. The present PhD thesis, funded by a Glasgow UniversityScholarship and supervised by James Simpson and Peter Davies, explores thelanguage of this collection of bawdy tales, attributed to the court of Philippe IIIde Bourgogne (1396-1467). Most existing studies on the language of the CentNouvelles Nouvelles have offered a literary (e.g. stylistic, narratological)perspective, and very few have considered the document within the widercontext of French historical linguistics. The present thesis aims to fill this gapby:- Presenting elements of linguistic interest within the document (dialectalisms,archaisms, rare features, cultural references, etc.), through a comprehensivesurvey of phonology, morphology, syntax and vocabulary.- Expanding and reassessing existing theories on orthographic standardisationand dialectal input in written and, more speculatively, spoken Middle French.- Providing scriptological evidence towards the localisation of other textualresources within the online Dictionnaire du moyen français (1330-1500).- Investigating the authenticity of the mise-en-scène of the Cent NouvellesNouvelles; reflecting on linguistic practices and note-taking at the Court ofBurgundy.- Exploring spoken language as rendered by direct speech passages, withspecial consideration of linguistic variation and stereotyping.- Publishing textual databases for future analysis (tables of main spellingvariants, alphabetical list of words, etc.).