{"id":1965,"date":"2026-02-06T22:54:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T22:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medingen.seh.ox.ac.uk\/?p=1965"},"modified":"2026-02-10T06:42:59","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T06:42:59","slug":"the-nuns-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medingen.seh.ox.ac.uk\/index.php\/2026\/02\/06\/the-nuns-language\/","title":{"rendered":"The Nuns&#8217; Language"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"453\" src=\"https:\/\/medingen.seh.ox.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-1024x453.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1878\" srcset=\"https:\/\/medingen.seh.ox.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-1024x453.png 1024w, https:\/\/medingen.seh.ox.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-300x133.png 300w, https:\/\/medingen.seh.ox.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-768x340.png 768w, https:\/\/medingen.seh.ox.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-1536x679.png 1536w, https:\/\/medingen.seh.ox.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/image-2048x906.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Two nuns wearing crowns, the initials GLM und GF on a capital in the cloisters of Kloster Ebstorf. Photograph: Wolfgang Brandis \u00a9Kloster Ebstorf. Discussed in the <a href=\"https:\/\/books.openbookpublishers.com\/10.11647\/obp.0397\/ch4.xhtml#TextAnchor054\">chapter IV.1 &#8216;The Idea of Love and Friendship in the Convent&#8217;<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Lecture for the General Linguistics Seminar, 9 February 2026<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>5:15pm &#8211; Linguistics Large Seminar Room, Faculty of Linguistics, 30.445<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>6:30pm &#8211; Reception in Linguistics Faculty Hub, followed by dinner at Mamma Mia. <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/document\/d\/1-CoXdNS7PIbudfxrVlTWU3aNLL4PvWW-bPvYWlztb5o\/edit?usp=sharing\">Sign-up sheet and further information<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Nuns&#039; Language. Latin-German Code-mixing in the L\u00fcne Letters\" width=\"750\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cbomiVgrlos?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>What happens when a community conducts all their business via correspondence? The 1,800 incoming and outgoing letters from the Northern German nuns of L\u00fcne Abbey, exchanged between mid-15th and mid-16th century, give a rare insight into a shared language \/ lingo \/ sociolect (suggestions as to the best term welcome after the lecture!), code-mixing between Latin (the language of the convent education) and Low German (the mothertongue of the nuns). This is a work-in-progress report from the ongoing edition. The volume with the first 415 letters is available as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mohrsiebeck.com\/buch\/netzwerke-der-nonnen-9783161608988\/\">&nbsp;Open access pdf<\/a>: Netzwerke der Nonnen. Kritische Edition der Briefsammlung der L\u00fcner Benediktinerinnen (Hs. 15, ca. 1460-1555), ed. by Eva Schlotheuber und Henrike L\u00e4hnemann, T\u00fcbingen: Mohr Siebeck 2025. Diplomatic text and English summaries in the<a href=\"http:\/\/diglib.hab.de\/edoc\/ed000248\/start.htm\">Digital Library of the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenb\u00fcttel<\/a>. Further reading: Chapter 3 (Education) and 4 (Love &amp; Friendship) in: Henrike L\u00e4hnemann &amp; Eva Schlotheuber:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.openbookpublishers.com\/books\/10.11647\/obp.0397\"><em>The Life of Nuns<\/em><\/a><em>. Love, Politics, and Religion in Medieval German Convents<\/em>, transl. by Anne Simon, Cambridge: Open Book Publishers 2024, Open access html, pdf, and audiobook versions<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.11647\/OBP.0397\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.11647\/OBP.0397<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Linguistic background Timo B\u00fclters \/ Simone Schultz-Balluff, Codemixing in den L\u00fcneburger Frauenkl\u00f6stern, in:&nbsp;<em>Historisches Codeswitching mit Deutsch: Multilinguale Praktiken in der Sprachgeschichte<\/em>, ed.by Elvira Glaser, Michael Prinz u. Stefaniya Ptashnyk, Berlin \/ Boston: de Gruyter 2021, pp. 175\u2013210.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div data-wp-interactive=\"core\/file\" class=\"wp-block-file\"><object data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!state.hasPdfPreview\" hidden class=\"wp-block-file__embed\" data=\"https:\/\/medingen.seh.ox.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Codeswitching-handout.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" aria-label=\"Embed of Codeswitching-handout.\"><\/object><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-7f5cb55a-52b9-47e1-859c-107898526633\" href=\"https:\/\/medingen.seh.ox.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Codeswitching-handout.pdf\">Codeswitching-handout<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/medingen.seh.ox.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Codeswitching-handout.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-7f5cb55a-52b9-47e1-859c-107898526633\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lecture for the General Linguistics Seminar, 9 February 2026 5:15pm &#8211; Linguistics Large Seminar Room, Faculty of Linguistics, 30.445 6:30pm &#8211; Reception in Linguistics Faculty Hub, followed by dinner at Mamma Mia. Sign-up sheet and further information What happens when<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1973,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[69,35],"class_list":["post-1965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-letters","tag-nuntastic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medingen.seh.ox.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medingen.seh.ox.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medingen.seh.ox.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medingen.seh.ox.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medingen.seh.ox.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1965"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/medingen.seh.ox.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1971,"href":"https:\/\/medingen.seh.ox.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1965\/revisions\/1971"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medingen.seh.ox.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medingen.seh.ox.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medingen.seh.ox.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medingen.seh.ox.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}