L'élaboration du lexique français médiéval - variation diatopique, sélection et changement lexicaux

Abstract

The article examines some basic questions about the diatopic varia-tion, the lexical selection and lexical change in Old French. In particular, therole,statusandquantitativedimensionoflexicalregionalismsandlexicalchangeis discussed. The selection processes in vocabulary, which in the different regionsand political contexts of thelangue d’oïlare carried out with varying speed andintensity, are exemplified by a lexical analysis of two texts, a donation-documentwritten in a Lorrain monastery in 1234 and a marriage contract established in theFrench Royal Chancery in 1301. While nearly a third of the vocabulary of the Lor-raine document is no longer part of today’s standard French, the vocabulary ofthe record of the Royal Chancery is in the 13thcentury already very close to thatwhat will become the vocabulary of the future (and today’s) standard.