“Historical Linguistics & Palaeography, two inseparable tools to date English Medieval Manuscripts”, 2nd International UCM Predoctoral Conference on English Linguistics (UPCEL): Language in Society, Universidad Complutense, 2017. (original) (raw)

Historical Linguistics & Palaeography, two inseparable tools to date English medieval manuscripts Irene Diego Rodríguez-Universidad de Alcalá (i.diego@edu.uah.es) Palaeography is the study of ancient and medieval handwriting, and it focuses on the establishment of 'patterns in the development of characteristic letter forms and abbreviations' (Lowe, 2006: 134). Historical Linguistics studies the diachronic evolution that languages endure. Hence, these two disciplines complement each other and provide the required tools and means to establish the date of different manuscripts. However, it is possible to state that Palaeography has been traditionally associated to History, whereas Historical Linguistics is related to Linguistics and unfortunately, these two academic disciplines have not frequently been intertwined. Linguists tend to lack the skills that historians possess to transcribe and analyse ancient scripts, whereas historians usually do not have the knowledge required to study the graphemes and spellings that are relevant to date a manuscript. That is why it is necessary to carry out a research that demonstrates whether both disciplines provide valuable evidence and reinforce each other as far as dating manuscripts is concerned. Therefore, this paper aims to narrow down the date of the Pseudo-Hippocrates' Treatise on Zodiacal Influence (ff. 98r-104r) contained in GUL, MS Hunter 513. A detailed analysis of the main features of the handwriting of the text will be carried out and followed by a thorough inquiry of the chief characteristics of the Middle English language. Therefore, I will bring to light and emphasise the importance of the connection between these two disciplines for the study of Middle English manuscripts.