16 Discourse traditions in the early Romance period (with a focus on Gallo-Romance varieties)

The concept of Discourse Tradition (DT) helps in understanding the difference between the two phases in the transition of Romance varieties from mere orality to literacy. From c. 750 to c. 1100 in all Romance-speaking territories, there is only a very limited number of Romance texts, scattered across time and space and not yet related to stabilized DTs. Only later, from 1100 onwards, do stable traditions of Romance writing emerge in the Gallo-Romance area, concentrated in three socio-cultural contexts favorable to the implementation of vernacular literacy: in the Occitan South, where society was still used to juridical literacy and developed new forms of vernacular documentary practices; at the Anglo-Norman court, where the written vernacular started to be part of the courtly culture; and in the oïl-speaking towns in northern areas, where urban lay society appropriated vernacular documentary, literary and written religious practices.