Le parchemin des cieux: essai sur le Moyen Âge du langage by Benoît Grévin (review)

Reviews 183 deuxième lieu, un chapitre est consacré aux contes euro-canadiens et à leur adaptation dans les cultures innues. L’étude montre que les contes innus ont tendance à simplifier la version d’origine. Les liens à la culture locale sont reflétés dans les références a ux activités quotidiennes. Enfin, un appel au développement de la documentation linguistique est lancé afin de préserver les langues autochtones en les documentant de façon scientifique. L’auteur décrit comment une étude peut se mettre sur pieds en suivant un processus scientifique précis. Jusqu’à présent, il n’existe aucune archive commune. Colorado State University Frédérique Grim Grévin, Benoît. Le parchemin des cieux: essai sur le Moyen Âge du langage. Paris: Seuil, 2012. ISBN 978-2-02-087894-4. Pp. 416. 25 a. To compare the linguistic marketplace of the Christian and Islamic worlds from the sixth to the fifteenth century (8), Grévin devises a tripartite classification of the participating languages according to their prestige and currency. In each area a dominant langue référentielle, Latin or Arabic, derives its status from sacred texts. The only more prestigious language was perhaps the angels’writing across the sky on le parchemin des cieux (13, 148). Of slightly lesser prestige and circulation are the langues courtoises, such as French and Occitan, or Persian and Turkish, which may rival and eventually replace the referential language. The least prestigious varieties are the local langues vulgaires. Because of their dominance in the linguistic marketplace, Latin and Arabic occupy the leading role in the author’s densely woven and carefully researched tale of the multi-layered landscape of the time. Most members of medieval society, whose view of language is paradoxically both mystical and scientific (122), must choose among these three varieties in their professional lives (70–96); in education, versification , and music (ch.3); in recording knowledge (ch.4); and in their contacts with Eastern Asia and other societies (ch. 5). The Provençal troubadour Raimbaud de Vaqueiras, author of a descort in six languages (101), and Frederick II of Sicily, proficient in Latin, Arabic, French, Sicilian, German, and Greek (110–11), epitomize the multilingualism of their time. Daily linguistic choices may lead over time to a change in linguistic status (44–69), so that French replaces Latin as the official language of the kingdom with the 1539 Ordonnance de Villers-Cotterêts. The importance of Latin is also asserted, even as it is replaced, by the close modeling of French on the previous Latin norm (120). The broad erudition and linguistic competence required to write this book make it an outstanding achievement.Furthermore,this historian’s perspective provides an accurate depiction of the history of the Romance languages, including the view that the distinction between Latin and the Romance languages began with Charlemagne (48) and that no linguistic variety is superior to another (11).The complexity enhancing the author’s feat, however, also places demands on the reader. The fourteen-page glossary of terms and the translations of foreign quotations provide some help, but several crucial aids are omitted, such as a map of place names, a table or list of languages, and a timeline of important events. Readers would also benefit from a complete subject index rather than a limited index of languages and linguistic and literary terms. In the current index, readers can look up the eighty-nine pages where“French”appears, but not people, texts, or events, such as Charlemagne, the Strasbourg Oaths, or the Battle of Hastings. This book is best suited then for serious medieval scholars or specialists interested in a well-documented example of linguistic marketplaces that, as the author suggests, may provide instructive comparisons with other medieval societies (376– 78) or even with the present-day global economy dominated by English (11). University of Georgia Diana L. Ranson Grinevald, Colette, et Michel Bert, éd. Linguistique de terrain sur langues en danger: locuteurs et linguistes. Paris: Ophrys, 2011. ISBN 978-2-7080-1292-9. Pp. 556. 58 a. Research on endangered languages has fieldwork at its heart,thus making the interactions and relationships between speakers of endangered...