Code-switching and authority in late medieval England

The depiction of interlocutors who mix Latin, French or English in medieval texts suggests that language-mixing in speech was a feature of communication in late medieval England. Approaches adapted from studies of multilingualism in linguistics are applied in this analysis to patterns of mixed-language speech in The Chronicle of Pierre de Langtoft, The Canterbury Tales and Piers Plowman. Cases of multilingual communication in each text demonstrate that social motivations characterize why speakers strategically select or integrate languages. In interactions between interlocutors whose identities and status differ, mixed-language speech serves to construct authority and restrict membership across social and literate groups.