Orchards of Power: The Importance of Words Well Spoken in Twelfth-Century Occitania

Rüdiger, Jan (2019) Orchards of Power: The Importance of Words Well Spoken in Twelfth-Century Occitania. Interfaces: A Journal of Medieval European Literatures, 6. pp. 65-95. ISSN 2421-5503

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Abstract

[EN] Occitan, now a regional language of France, has long been recognized as one of the most important vernaculars of the Medieval West – both for being the language of the troubadours and for being the first Romance (or Neo-Latin) language to develop a fully-fledged scripta. This article argues that unlike other regions, twelfth-century Occitania had not diglossia (learned Latin/vernacular) but triglossia. A courtly sociolect, written and spoken, vied with and even outdid Latin in large sectors of cultural production. Under particular circumstances, courtly culture, including courtly love, developed into a political and economic code whose relevance went far beyond the stylization of elite sociability with which French or German courtliness is often associated. The political culture which developed in Languedoc was one of the factors why the Albigensian Crusade (1209–29) was an unusually violent and consequential period of warfare.

Tipologia del documento:	Articolo in rivista
Parole chiave:	Occitan; Latin; diglossia; triglossia; courtly culture
Soggetto:	D History General and Old World > D History (General) > D111 Medieval History P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN0441 Literary History
Depositato il:	21 Ago 2026 21:40
Ultima modifica:	22 Ago 2026 14:26
URI:	https://www.rmoa.unina.it/id/eprint/8001

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