27-05-2016, 06:32 PM
VViews - I mean exactly what Rene says. Right now, in whatever approach one wishes to follow, the distinction between various dialects and even more distant members of the same family will be rarely relevant.
While I think the idea of a "rare" or rarely attested language is a very valid one, I'm not sure how this hypothesis will help us. We could say: the language might be this or that form of French, but what would we do then?
There is one possible line of investigation this path could lead to, which is what I said before: one might look for other manuscripts in rarely attested languages and see if they have anything at all in common with the VM - be it in subject or style - and take it from there.
Or do I understand this the wrong way?
While I think the idea of a "rare" or rarely attested language is a very valid one, I'm not sure how this hypothesis will help us. We could say: the language might be this or that form of French, but what would we do then?
There is one possible line of investigation this path could lead to, which is what I said before: one might look for other manuscripts in rarely attested languages and see if they have anything at all in common with the VM - be it in subject or style - and take it from there.
Or do I understand this the wrong way?