Month names collection / metastudy

[Jorge_Stolfi]

While looking into this, I came across Français et dialectes chez les auteurs belges du moyen age by JULES FELLER.

For Jules Feller, medieval Belgian authors were not trying to write in their local dialects (Wallon or Picard); rather, they were striving to write in French. However, because they did not have a perfect mastery of the central language, they attempted to deduce or "manufacture" French words by applying logical conversion rules or patterns of resemblance. [...] Feller thus categorizes octembre as "false French manufactured by analogy" or part of a "hybrid language"—a form that is neither pure dialect nor correct French, but an artificial creation born out of a well-intentioned (though clumsy) effort to write correctly.

Indeed that seems to be a quite plausible explanation for why it has been so difficult to identify a single language / dialect for all the month names.   Namely, the Months Labeler (whoever wrote those names on the vellum) was trying to write in a language which he was not fluent with.

Another possibility (which may overlap with that one) is that the Labeler copied the names from some book.  That could explain also the discrepancy (that, IIRC, some have noted) between the date of the handwriting style and the date range for the "octembre" spelling.  Namely, the book where the Labeler copied the names from was written in the early 1400s, but the copying happened at a later date.

Makes sense?

All the best, --stolfi