Multilingualism and the Attitude toward French in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem

doi:10.1017/9781009236287.006

6 - Multilingualism and the Attitude toward French in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 April 2023

Jonathan Rubin

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Aneta Pavlenko

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Aneta Pavlenko: Affiliation:
University of York

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Summary

The conquest of Jerusalem in the summer of 1099 marked the founding of a new Latin polity on the Eastern shores of the Mediterranean, known as the Kingdom of Jerusalem. This Kingdom, which would continue to exist, with changing borders, till 1291, was the home of a greatly varied population, which included speakers of a very wide range of languages. These circumstances make the Kingdom of Jerusalem a fascinating laboratory for the study of questions related to multilingualism. Against this background, the first part of this paper provides some basic comments concerning the multilingualism which characterized the Kingdom. The second part focuses on one particular issue within this wider theme: the development of an attitude toward the French vernacular which was, at the time, unusual and innovative in comparison to the perceptions of French and Latin that dominated the western Christendom.

Keywords

Keywords: historic multilingualism vernacular Old French French of Outremer Crusades Kingdom of Jerusalem Acre John of Antioch intercultural exchanges translation

Type: Chapter
Information: Multilingualism and History , pp. 123 - 137

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009236287.006 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2023

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