Zehen sprach hab ich gebraucht. Mehrsprachigkeit in der mittelalterlichen Literatur als kulturelle Repräsentation und performative Kommunikation

This article illustrates how formal and semantic aspects of multilingualism appear in medieval literature, using classical examples of courtly epic texts (Wolfram von Eschenbach, Gottfried von Straßburg, Wernher der Gärtner) as well as the late-medieval songs of Oswald von Wolkenstein. These texts assimilate forms of language mixing (by borrowing, by quoting) which question in specific ways (as cultural representations, as performative communication) affiliations and cultural identities. Hence, the multilingual medieval literature encourages a diachronic perception of multilingualism as an ambiguous and ambivalent phenomenon, and its integration as such into contemporary social discourse.