Introduction: vernacularisation
Latin was the lingua franca in the middle ages and beyond, enabling communication across different language communities. Despite obvious advantages, a gradual shift from Latin to the vernaculars in written texts took place all over Europe.
Schendl as well as Pahta and Taavitsainen use the term vernacularisation to refer to the expanding range of vernaculars in comparison to Latin.1 This term encompasses both the writing of original texts in the vernacular and the translation of Latin texts into the vernacular. Depending on the domain and region, this vernacularisation can be observed before and after two major extra-linguistic developments: the invention of printing with moveable type in the mid-fifteenth century, and the Reformation, beginning in the early sixteenth century. Burke notes that in the domain of administration, for example, �Latin was replaced by some vernaculars in the early fifteenth century […], in the fourteenth century, or even, in the case of the chancery of Castile, in the thirteenth century’.2 Based on research by Voigts of scientific and medical codices from England, Pahta and Taavitsainen state that a �first phase of vernacularisation seems to have been largely completed by 1475’.3 Middle English recipes, in contrast, were vernacularised in the fourteenth century, according to Carroll.4 This small selection of conclusions shows that the shift from Latin to a vernacular was by no means a consistent process, with different text types being vernacularised at different times, even in different centuries. Definite conclusions about the timeline of vernacularisation in a particular region are, therefore, difficult to reach and researchers need to look at different text types in order to gain an accurate picture of these processes. Building on in-depth analyses of certain text types, we can look at the bigger picture and try to understand why Latin was replaced by vernaculars.While such in-depth analyses exist for certain text types (see earlier point as well as Stenroos, who works on vernacularisation in local administrative writing from England), research on this topic has focused on English, with Scots remaining under-researched with regard to vernacularisation.5 Both English and Scots descended from the Anglian dialect of Old English and both were certainly used in speech prior to any preserved records written in these languages.6 For Scots, Smith notes that this period (up to 1375) is generally referred to as �pre-literary’ Scots.7 Before 1375, �the only evidence [of the use of Scots] of any significance is to be found in place-names and in occasional glosses on Latin material’, according to Smith.8 This does, of course, not mean that no texts were written in Scots prior to 1375. In the Early Scots (1375–1450) and Early Middle Scots periods (1450–1550), Scots developed into what Smith calls an �elaborated language, i.e. a variety that could be used in more than one register, including writing as well as speech’.9 Görlach illustrates this development for the Lowlands in a number of graphs, which show the language choices (Latin, Scots, Scottish English) in different text types (religion and administration, scholarly texts, literature, conversation).10 The graph for �religion, administration’ suggests that Scots was the dominant language in these domains by 1400, with Latin gradually declining from 1400 to the end of the 1600s. Scots, on the other hand, started to decline in the second half of the 1400s at the expense of Scottish English, which had completely replaced Scots in the domains of �religion, administration’ by about 1650, according to Görlach’s graphs. It seems, however, problematic to combine the domains of religion and administration in one graph. Also, neither the specific sources nor the method used for these graphs is mentioned and the graphs are described as a �rough survey’ by Görlach himself.11 To achieve a better and more accurate understanding of vernacularisation processes, a careful analysis of one particular register, such as legal writing, may be more appropriate.
With regard to this register, Corbett et al. state that the proceedings in the Scottish Parliament began to be recorded in Scots in 1390, with Scots becoming the more dominant language in the records of parliament after 1425 when the earlier Latin Acts were translated into the vernacular.12 This happened during the reign of King James I, who composed original poetry in Scots13 and who seems to have advocated the use of Scots in legal sources. This move from Latin to Scots in legal writing must, however, also be seen in the wider context of late medieval Europe – a time when multilingualism was the norm and when vernaculars across Europe were used in an increasing number of functions and domains.14While Görlach’s graphs and the findings about language choice in the proceedings of the Scottish Parliament provide first insights into the vernacularisation of Scottish legal writing, a comprehensive diachronic study of vernacularisation processes in one particular documentary legal source from Scotland, as carried out here, has not been undertaken yet. It can be argued that the vernacularisation of legal texts results in more open and transparent legal records that can be consulted by the populace. At the same time, the vernacularisation of legal texts indicates a shift in the political worldviews of an influential elite, which broadened access to the law through vernacularisation, thus changing or modifying �cultures of law’. In this chapter, processes of vernacularisation are analysed in the first eight volumes (1398–1511) of Scotland’s oldest and most complete run of civic records, the Aberdeen Council Registers.15 Given their long run, these sources are particularly suited for linguistic research on changes in language use.