83

T. BRUNNER, The transition to vernacular language in “les actes de la pratique” in the West Based on studies of linguistic historians and diplomats, this article intends to draw up an initial statement of the history of the transition to the written word in vernacular languages, or “vernacularization”, in the West’s medieval charters of written Latin culture. A chronological presentation of the vernacularization of the actes in twentytwo linguistic areas brings out the differences – varying according to region and society - in this transition: the British vernacularizations in the High Middle Ages have had no descendants, the Mediterranean Romanophone areas of the Central Middle Ages experienced the intermediary stage of “latin farci” (“fattened” or “stuffed” Latin), whereas further North, Latin was generally completely replaced in charters from the 13th Century. In places, more complex phenomena occurred, with the use of a vernacular language that was different from the spoken language (or “exogenous vernacularization”). This European panorama raises questions about the reasons for this increased use of vernaculars in pragmatic literacy and calls for greater research in this direction.