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Language Log » Memes, typos, and vernacular English in a 12th-century Latin homily

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July 20, 2025 @ 5:37 am · Filed by Victor Mair under Language and literature, Language and religion, Memes, Philology, Vernacular « previous post | Before I introduce what to me is one of the most stupendous humanities discoveries I have encountered in the last six decades, I have to explain briefly why it is so exciting. Namely, here we get to witness the emergence of a few bits of vernacular English in a religiously imbued medieval Latin matrix. This is exactly how medieval vernacular Sinitic started to appear in the framework of Classical Chinese / Literary Sinitic during the heyday of medieval Buddhism. Just as in the medieval Christian homilies of Peterhouse MS 255, we see the common (sú 俗) preachers of Dunhuang resorting to vernacular language and popular "memes" in their "transformation texts" (biàn[wén] 變[文]) to keep the attention of their auditors / readers. I wrote my undergraduate thesis on Geoffrey Chaucer's (d. 1400) Troilus and Criseyde. That was a long time ago, six

Language Log >> Memes, typos, and vernacular English in a 12th-century Latin homily Language Log Home About Comments policy Memes, typos, and vernacular English in a 12th-century Latin homily July 20, 2025 @ 5:37 am &#183; Filed by Victor Mair under Language and literature , Language and religion , Memes , Philology , Vernacular << Cattle raiding in medieval Ireland (and elsewhere) | Linguistics Olympiad >> --> << previous post | next post >> Before I introduce what to me is one of the most stupendous humanities discoveries I have encountered in the last six decades, I have to explain briefly

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