French as Language of Intimacy in the Modern Age Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- 1 Le français langue seconde, langue de la relation intime, de la relation à soi et à l’autre
- Part I From French as a Language of the Bilingual Netherlands to the ‘Language of Universality’ in a Wider Europe (Sixteenth – Eighteenth Centuries): Du français langue du bilinguisme aux Pays-Bas à la ‘langue de l’universalité’ dans l’Europe élargie (seizième – dix-huitième siècles)
- Part II The Use of French as a Second Language: From Continuity to Geographical Growth (Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries): De l’utilisation du français langue seconde. De la continuité à l’expansion géographique (dix-neuvième – vingtième siècles)
- Index
2 - Vertu versus Deugd: Noble Women and the French Language in the Eastern Netherlands around 1600
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 December 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- 1 Le français langue seconde, langue de la relation intime, de la relation à soi et à l’autre
- Part I From French as a Language of the Bilingual Netherlands to the ‘Language of Universality’ in a Wider Europe (Sixteenth – Eighteenth Centuries): Du français langue du bilinguisme aux Pays-Bas à la ‘langue de l’universalité’ dans l’Europe élargie (seizième – dix-huitième siècles)
- Part II The Use of French as a Second Language: From Continuity to Geographical Growth (Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries): De l’utilisation du français langue seconde. De la continuité à l’expansion géographique (dix-neuvième – vingtième siècles)
- Index
Summary
Abstract
In the sixteenth and early seventeenth century noblewomen collected songs, poems and adages of friends and family whom they met in their domestic setting in alba amicorum. These women's alba provide a unique insight into the knowledge of and familiarity with the French (and other) language(s) of the circles around these alba. The purpose of this chapter is to determine what the women's general knowledge of the French language was in this milieu around the year 1600 in the inland provinces of the Dutch Republic. At first glance, the results show a multilingual self-representation of the milieu. By studying the nature of women's contributions in French with respect to length, complexity and originality more closely, although this does not tell us much about the actual fluency in French amongst contemporary noblewomen, this study demonstrates that these alba may bear witness to the (emerging) success of French as a high prestige language.
Keywords: Sixteenth and seventeenth century, Dutch Republic, noblewomen, Dutch nobility, women's alba amicorum, multilingualism, self-representation, semi-public communication, semi-intimate communication
In his remarkable family chronicle, written in the years between 1589 and 1636, the Overijssel nobleman Sweder Schele frequently remarks on travels to foreign climes as well as his familiarity and that of his family with foreign languages, especially French and Latin. In Schele's vita (‘biography’) of Johan Ripperda he notes for example, that one of the Ripperda's sons was a student in Douai in the Southern Netherlands, a centre of the Counter Reformation and a place where Neolatin literary works were studied. Another one of his sons was summoned to France by the Count of Solms to fight in the Wars of Religion. While the son did not die on the battlefield, he did perish in 1591 on his way home. Johan Ripperda's brothers Adriaan and Balthasar also travelled to France in order to acquire a thorough knowledge of the language (they left ‘der sprach halber’ – ‘for the language’). Adriaan had already attended a local French school in the city of Deventer, where he had acquired the basics of the language.
In other vitae of noblemen from Overijssel and Guelders, Schele makes broadly similar remarks on language acquisition.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- French as Language of Intimacy in the Modern AgeLe français, langue de l'intime à l'époque moderne et contemporaine, pp. 47 - 66Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2016