Abstract

In contrast to the Old French glosses in the commentaries of Rashi, those found in the work of his colleague, Joseph Kara, are relatively unknown among Romance philologists. In the first part of this study, I examine significant phonological and morphological traits of Kara's Job glosses, highlighting their significance for the study of late 11th century and early 12th century French. The results are then applied to the vocabulary of the glosses. It is shown that Kara's Job commentary contains several vocabulary items that are otherwise unattested in the French of his period, or attested only among those of Rashi. Given the glosses' phonological and morphological archaism, these words cannot be seen as additions by later scribes. Their significance in the context of Old French and the debate over whether a medieval Judeo-French dialect ever existed is explored.

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