That is all.


T.

esh-EEL, I believe it would be.

All my dictionaries and pronunciation dictionaries fail me, as do all the usual online resources. Now that is rare. I can pop in the university library tomorrow and give the OED a try. If the word has seen any recorded use at all in modern English, that should do it.

Undead Trout’s proposal seems a good guess to me, though I suspect the /i/ would probably be short.

Undead Trout’s proposal seems a good guess to me, though I suspect the /i/ would probably be short.

The term doesn't seem to exist outside of KAP, actually. It would seem a misspelling of the French échelle, "ladder," from the Latin scala. Pronunciation is AY-shell. The modern military term is "echelon".

Undead Trout’s proposal seems a good guess to me, though I suspect the /i/ would probably be short.

Only to split hair with an expert here,
Sir UT finds no fight in me on this, except in those fine hairs

The term doesn't seem to exist outside of KAP, actually. It would seem a misspelling of the French échelle, "ladder," from the Latin scala. Pronunciation is AY-shell. The modern military term is "echelon".


The term was was confirmed by a native Frenchman who knows the ancient words too
It's actually from charlemagnian sources, not Arthurian :)

misspelling?
In a medieval language? :)

Yes, it has evolved into modern echelon.
The modern word is too divergent to use easily
The rules use "unit" where eschille might appear

(Mis-)Pronunciation is from me,
whose attempts at speaking French makes natives of the tongue wince, when they are polite

Very interesting. Thanks, guys!


T.

Eschille

1. Eschelles. Compagnie de gens de pied avec Ensei-
gnes. (Voyez Scarre, Scadre.)
http://archive.org/stream/dictionnairedest02bore#page/156/mode/2up] (http://archive.org/stream/dictionnairedest01bore#page/248/mode/2up
Scarres. Escadres ou Escadrons de Cavaliers ; dits aussi Eschelles
http://archive.org/stream/dictionnairedest01bore#page/248/mode/2up
Scarres. Escadres ou Escadrons de Cavaliers ; dits aussi Eschelles
http://archive.org/stream/dictionnairedest02bore#page/156/mode/2up[/url]

Eschelles. company of foot gentlemen with officers. (see Scarre, Scadre)

Scarres. Wings or Squadrons of horsemen; also called Eschelles.[This looks like the Latin Scarae (singular Scara)]

These guys https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=102 8&bih=628&q=the+golden+psalter+of+st.+gall&oq=the+ golden+psalter+of+st.+gall&gs_l=img.12...2283.3088 0.0.32481.30.10.0.20.20.0.62.557.10.10.0...0.0.0.. 1ac.1.15.img.DvNOAn_EuHE (https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=102 8&bih=628&q=the+golden+psalter+of+st.+gall&oq=the+ golden+psalter+of+st.+gall&gs_l=img.12...2283.3088 0.0.32481.30.10.0.20.20.0.62.557.10.10.0...0.0.0.. 1ac.1.15.img.DvNOAn_EuHE)

Charlemagne's Frankish horsemen.

Note: The Scara on the orange horse with the orange cloak is doing a classic crouched lance charge. Another Scara is clearly throwing his lance, they looked like they used their lances just like the later “Norman” Knights whom fought at Senlac/Hasting in 1066, sometimes throwing them, at other times using them gripped underhanded to fight with and also using them for crouched charges. Greg a useful point for the Carolingian setting.

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=102 8&bih=628&q=psalter+of+st.+gall&oq=psalter+of+st.+ gall&gs_l=img.12...5374.48541.0.50622.526.177.0.9. 9.162.132.11927.175j2.177.0...0.0.0..1ac.1.15.img. MGZogvm-ty0#facrc=_&imgrc=_OSMYQffqBreQM%3A%3BTcMRZLRIjLFl XM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252F24.media.tumblr.com%252Ftu mblr_m4h3f4OWky1rul442o1_500.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F% 252Fillumanu.tumblr.com%252Fpost%252F23678535848%2 52Fend-of-9th-century-890-900-switzerland-or%3B500%3B379 (https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=102 8&bih=628&q=psalter+of+st.+gall&oq=psalter+of+st.+ gall&gs_l=img.12...5374.48541.0.50622.526.177.0.9. 9.162.132.11927.175j2.177.0...0.0.0..1ac.1.15.img. MGZogvm-ty0#facrc=_&imgrc=_OSMYQffqBreQM%3A%3BTcMRZLRIjLFl XM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252F24.media.tumblr.com%252Ftu mblr_m4h3f4OWky1rul442o1_500.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F% 252Fillumanu.tumblr.com%252Fpost%252F23678535848%2 52Fend-of-9th-century-890-900-switzerland-or%3B500%3B379)

Eschelle is Middle French, from old French Eschale. It also means ladder or rung of a ladder. It's the word that evolved into Échelon. Most likely, Greg's french source has conflated Eschelle and Eschiele into Eschille. I would have concluded they were the same word too, had not the 17th century dictionary I used distinguished them [I also checked other online Middle French dictionaries and did not find “eschille”.Eschale > Eschelle > Échelon come from the Latin word Scala, so would have normally been pronounced Es-shell' (not that one can really pronounce French words correctly in English).

Old French was a combination of Frankish and the Latin spoken by the Gauls. It's normally dated as starting circa 900.

The Franks originally were footmen rather like the “Saxons” at Hastings,that is,they rode horses to battle and then fought on foot. They learned to fight as Heavy Cavalry from the Goths Clovis defeated. The Frankish Winged spear/lance was long enough to be used as a pike. Most likely the eschelle refers not to the way the units were deployed, but to the way the individuals were. A footman has a facing of 3', while a Horseman has a facing of 4 ½'. Pikemen thus have 6 Pikes facing every Lance charging them and the Pikes are grouped together like a ladder.
The Hussar of the Common Wealth also fought sometimes in a formation were there were grabs in between the files allowing slightly more of them to hit in the charge. I can't confirm that Carolingian Scarae ever did this, but they might have.

The illustrations of Scarae are from the Psalter of ST. Gall.

Eschiele. Troupe de soldats, vient à mon advis C prononçoit le c comme un k ou q, et changeoit
la lettre r en /, comme il est arrivé souvent. De sorte que
pour esquierre ou esquadre, vieux mots signifians troupes
ou bataillons, on a dit eschiele. On disoit aussi escarmoude.
Eschielle. Troop of Soldiers,[vient à mon advis C prononçoit le c comme un k ou q, et changeoit la lettre r en /, comme il est arrivé souvent. – my French is not good enough to translate this line. I think it means “In my opinion the “c” was pronounced as a “K” or “q”, and changed to the letter “r” as often happened”]so that the old word “eschielle” signifies square or squadron, also called escarmonde.

Volume I, page 249
Source:Dictionaire des termes du viex francois [Dictionary of Old French terms]
Volume I: http://archive.org/details/dictionnairedest01bore (http://archive.org/details/dictionnairedest01bore)
Volume II http://archive.org/details/dictionnairedest02bore (http://archive.org/details/dictionnairedest02bore)
Pages http://archive.org/stream/dictionnairedest01bore#page/248/mode/2up (http://archive.org/stream/dictionnairedest01bore#page/248/mode/2up)