Learning French in Medieval England: The Manuscripts of Walter de Bibbesworth's 'Tretiz'

13世纪中叶，一位名叫沃尔特·德·比贝斯沃斯的埃塞克斯骑士用押韵的对联诗创作了一套非凡的法语词汇，被学者们称为“特列兹”。在这部作品中，他列出了各种主题的词汇，包括分娩和婴儿，各种动植物的名字（其中有一个关于动物噪音的有趣部分），或职业，如马车制造和啤酒酿造。这部作品的16份手稿幸存下来，证明了它在全国范围内的广泛流通。这些作品的年代可以追溯到13世纪末到15世纪初（详情见附件中的视觉证据）。这些副本的长度和内容各不相同，在某些情况下差异很大，而且每一份副本都有一套单独的法语术语的中古英语翻译，要么写在空白处，要么写在行上方。比贝斯沃思作品的受欢迎程度进一步证明了它对后来在英国流传的法语学习材料的影响，包括15世纪改编的《Femina Nova》，其中包括完整的英语翻译和发音指南。因此，《特列兹》的手稿是关于法语在13世纪和15世纪之间是如何传播和获得的罕见而珍贵的文献，也是关于13世纪英国使用的拉丁教育材料的文献（因为它的主要来源似乎是拉丁语）。每一份手稿都有自己的故事来讲述它的用户，他们的语言技能和需求，以及他们阅读比贝斯沃思文本的方式往往是截然不同的。然而，令人惊讶的是，“特列兹”仍然很少被研究，这个项目将纠正这种状况。其中心目标是编辑文本的所有16个手稿，并以网站的形式向学者和一般用户提供这些手稿。这个数字版本将允许用户通过比较个人手稿的阅读，将英语和法语相互隔离，并按日期，地点或主题搜索文本记录来参与材料。对完整的文本记录进行编辑和研究，将有可能对法语在英国不断演变的地位和作用形成一幅详细的图景，每一份手稿都为个人用户打开了一扇门，他们的职业、社会地位或个人兴趣，出于不同的原因，都需要掌握法语。除了这个在线版本，额外的输出将提供一个关于《特列兹》从头到尾的明确描述：它是如何创作的，它是如何被阅读的，以及它如何影响后来的法语作品。这项研究活动的累积结果将使《特列兹》成为关于法语在中世纪英国地位的辩论的核心，这是学者们当前非常感兴趣的话题。该项目更广泛的目的是提高公众对英国的认识，英国通常被认为是一个单一的语言国家，但它有着悠久而持续的多语言传统，并找到利用这一传统为现代人口造福的方法。中世纪法语的情况在某些方面是例外的，特别是在大约300年的时间里，少数人口不间断地将第二母语传播开来；然而，它让人们注意到掌握一门以上语言的常态和可取之处。与学校教师一起举办的讲习班旨在开发资源和策略，以鼓励中学年龄儿童在自己的课堂环境中使用多种语言，并考虑中小学和大学中的现代语言在拓宽视野和为个人未来创造机会方面可以提供什么。一系列的公众参与活动（包括对目标遗产团体和组织的公开演讲，以及印刷和广播媒体工作）将把中世纪英国多语言的故事带给各种各样的新受众。

In the mid-thirteenth century, an Essex knight named Walter de Bibbesworth composed a remarkable French vocabulary in rhyming couplets, known to scholars as the 'Tretiz'. In this work he set out the vocabulary for a variety of topics, including childbirth and infancy, the names of various flora and fauna (which features an entertaining section on animal noises), or occupations such as cart-making and beer-brewing.Sixteen manuscripts of this work survive, proof of its wide currency across the country. These date from the late thirteenth to the early fifteenth century (see Visual Evidence attachment for further details). These copies vary in length and content, in some cases significantly, and each one has its own set of Middle English translations of individual French terms, written either in the margin or above the line. The popularity of Bibbesworth's work is further attested by the influence it appears to have exerted over later French language-learning material circulating in Britain, including the fifteenth-century adaptation 'Femina Nova' which includes a full English translation and pronunciation guide.The manuscripts of the 'Tretiz' therefore stand as rare and precious documentation of how French was transmitted and acquired between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, and also (since its main sources appear to be Latin) of what Latin educational materials were in use in thirteenth-century Britain. Each manuscript has its own tale to tell about its users, their linguistic skills and needs, and the often contrasting ways in which they read Bibbesworth's text. Surprisingly, then, the 'Tretiz' remains little studied, a state of affairs which this project will remedy. Its central aim is to edit all sixteen manuscripts of the text and make these available to scholars and general users in the form of a website. This digital edition will allow users to engage with the material, by comparing readings from individual manuscripts, isolating the English and French from each other, and searching the textual record by date, place or theme. Editing and studying the complete textual record will make it possible to assemble a detailed picture of the evolving status and role of French in Britain, with each manuscript opening a door onto individual users, whose occupation, social standing or personal interests, for diverging reasons, required mastery of French. Alongside this online edition, additional outputs will offer a definitive account of the 'Tretiz' from start to finish: how it was created, how it was read, and how it influenced later works on the French language. The cumulative result of this research activity will be to place the 'Tretiz' at the heart of debate about the position of French in medieval Britain, a topic of great current interest to scholars.The project's wider intention is to increase public awareness that Britain, often thought of as a singularly monolingual country, has a long and ongoing tradition of multilingualism - and to find ways of exploiting that tradition for the benefit of its modern population. The case of medieval French is exceptional in certain ways, notably in the uninterrupted native transmission of a second mother tongue by a minority of the population for around 300 years; yet it draws attention to the normality and the desirability of mastering more than one language. Workshops with school teachers will aim to develop resources and strategies for encouraging secondary-age children to engage with multilingualism in their own classroom environment, and to consider what Modern Languages in schools and universities can offer in terms of widening horizons and creating opportunities for their personal futures. A series of public engagement activities (including public talks to targeted heritage groups and organisations and print and radio media work) will take the story of medieval British multilingualism to a variety of new audiences.