Research subject French Philology

The focus on research in French has been editing texts in Old French. The number of texts is very high and there are several genres and periods, from the 12th century to the 16th, where the period of Modern French begins. These texts are a good base for linguistic studies.

The reasons for this are social, demographic, geographic and/or political. During some periods changes are faster than during others. As a language historian one can study how a language has developed over the time (diachrony) or how it looked during a certain time during the history (synchrony).

The focus on research in French has been editing texts in Old French. The number of texts is very high and there are several genres and periods, from the 12th century to the 16th, where the period of Modern French begins. These texts are a good base for linguistic studies. Translations of Latin texts to French have also been made. In addition, several texts in Old French were “translated” into French during the 15th and 16th century; the evolution of French had the effect that many people did not understand the old texts. Thus, these texts were adapted to the French of the later periods.

The base of the editions is one or several manuscripts; some popular texts exist in up to fifty manuscripts. Normally, the editor chooses the oldest manuscript, considered as being the most reliable, as the base for the edition. The editor’s task will be to interpret and evaluate the different readings in this manuscript and in the others. A vocabulary containing unusual and difficult words must be added in order to make the reading easier.