This week at the Venerable Blog, we are excited to introduce the audio content newly added to the webpage of the Center’s French of England Project. Through the efforts of Thelma Fenster and Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, as well as Matthew Schottenfeld, Television Production Manager at Fordham, the Project’s site now hosts nine audio readings of texts in Anglo-Norman, all part of an ongoing collaborative enterprise “to make the French of England audible.”
The first five readings were recorded informally, by various voices, during the Reading the French of England Aloud sessions at the Kalamazoo International Congresses of 2012/13. Four others were recorded especially for Fordham’s French of England Project by Professor Emerita Alice Colby-Hall (Cornell University), a leading expert in the pronunciation of the medieval French dialects and of the Anglo-Norman language. Professor Colby-Hall also provides linguistic commentary. Each entry contains citations of a modern edition and translation, manuscript references, and a link to the external audio file. We encourage you to practice your Anglo-Norman aloud as the text scrolls past, or simply to listen along with us to these clear and instructive readings. The audio readings can be found here, at the French of England Project.
These audio readings are only one aspect of the French of England Project. We also conduct a biweekly Anglo-Norman Reading Group. This semester, it is led by Dr. Thomas O’Donnell of Fordham’s English Department and Dr. Brian Reilly, an Old French specialist in Fordham’s Modern Languages and Literatures Department.Anyone interested in participating in the ANRG should contact the Center for Medieval Studies at medievals@fordham.edu. We will be happy to provide you with the date and time of the next meeting and the material to be discussed.
Our next blog post will discuss the June conference to be held at Fordham University, stemming from the Latin Works of John Wyclif site. Visit Fordham’s searchable database of primary Wyclif texts to brush up before next time!