Quelques phénomènes de variation dans les noëls du volume factice BL 8o 1974 (Le Mans, Médiathèque L. Aragon): entre diatopie, diaphasie et diastratie

The volume BL 8o 1974 kept at the Médiathèque Louis-Aragon in Le Mans assembles nine collections of noëls that were produced in Maine or in the surrounding regions in Western France and that contain texts composed in the first half of the 16th century to accompany the celebration of the Nativity of Christ. Although the volume does not contain any actual patois poems, it is possible to identify several instances of linguistic hybridity. Whereas Nicolas Denisot’s Noelz adopt a generally sophisticated linguistic register, without any regional characterization, other collections display in a more tangible way their linguistic connection with the territory they belong to. In this essay we intend to examine the different forms of linguistic variation that are at stake in this volume (diatopic, diaphasic and, to a lesser extent, diastratic variation) and to relate them to the communicative purposes that were pursued by the «noélistes».