The Norman Conquest changed the language situation of the uppermost parts of the upper echelons only. These included the aristocracy, the higher members of the clergy, legal professionals, political circles, and highest economic classes. Here, because of the prestige of French (Norman, not metropolitan French), anybody who wanted to make it, spoke French. As time goes on, there are reports of upper class children learning to speak French as a second language. The language that people wrote was mainly French. It was the language of courtly literature, of Romance [originally a story written in the Romance language, i.e. in this case, French]. An important group of stories in this tradition was those that concerned King Arthur. Although Arthur was probably a Celtic hero, after the Norman Conquest, the stories were taken over and adapted by the Norman ruling class. Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table became the models of the French concepts of chivalry and courtesy.
From the middle of the 13thc onward, French was beginning to be accepted as an alternative language of record. In courts of law, the previous practice with regard to Latin was transferred to French, and the words of people speaking English were recorded in French. This means it’s actually very hard to determine which language people were speaking in court, unless the court recorder explicitly mentions it.
Lower down the social and literacy scales, people spoke English. The local parish priest was likely to speak English, and the magistrate was also likely to speak English. English was everywhere, French was mainly in London, at court, in law and in the church. This left the vast majority of English people English. Unlike the Viking invasions, which affected every level of society, the Norman Conquest mainly affected the top. The proportion of England’s population that was Norman was at the most 2%, way too small for it to shape the whole society.
Despite the fact that there were so few Norman French speakers in England, English absorbed lots of Norman French—spelling, pronunciation, and NB.
Let’s look at the influence of French on the vocabulary, and then examine the social conditions that made French such an important source of borrowing for English.What areas of life were affected or change by French?Administration,law, church, and military; food and drink,fashion,science and learning,etc.
Why did English borrow so many words from Norman French? Compare the situation with the Celtic flight before the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. The key is the Prestige of French—but need to interpret this matter more sensitively—while Norman French was the initial influence, this lasted only a hundred years.
How the French language has influenced the English? A. L. P. Smith has pointed out in his book "The English Language" that "the main additions to the English language, additions so great as to change its character in a fundamental way, were from French, first of all from the Northern French of Norman conquerors and then from the literary and learned speech of Paris." Even before the Norman conquest, the English had become acquainted with the Norman culture and the way of its life, because of the social, political and Ecclesiastical intercourse between the two nations. During the reign of Edward, the confessor, several Norman nobles were placed in important positions in England and the fortified buildings in which they stayed were known as 'castels' (castles), 'capun' (capon) and 'bacun' (bacon) are two other words introduced at the tea time and they serve to suggest the greater luxury of French cooking which was new to the English. After the conquest, we find a stream of French words entering the English vocabulary and they suggest the influence of an occupying power over a conquered people. 'Prisun' (prison), 'tur' (tower), 'market', 'rent', 'justice', etc., have been thus introduced into the English language. After the Norman conquest, we find the 'church', the 'courts of law', the 'arts of war', trade with the 'continent' and the 'pastimes' of the aristocracy becoming Norman-French intermingling. Words like 'battle', 'court', 'countess', 'treasure', 'charity', etc., were derived from French. In the thirteenth century the contact with France was much weakened. Meanwhile the English and the Normans had become merged into one people and in another hundred years English had become accepted as the National language of the country in place of Norman-French. Frenchified terminology became restricted to the court of law. Among the French legal terms which were retained and are still in use are 'plaintiff', 'defendant', 'privilege, etc. The dialect of French that was becoming culturally important was Central or Parisian French. A series of central words like 'chancellor', 'charity', 'chattel', were introduced into English though their Norman French equivalent 'cancelar', 'carited' and 'cattle' were already known to English. Among the French loans from 1100 to 1300 the following words may be taken as representative of different objects- 'prisun', 'chapel', 'grace', 'service', 'miracle', 'religion', 'bataille', 'basin', 'lamp', 'beast', etc. The 14th century witnessed a great increase in the number of French loans. These were no longer limited in use to the educated or upper class but became integral parts of the language. During this period we find that there is a very high proportion of French loan words relating to hunting, cooking and the art of war to English vocabulary. For instance 'colonel', 'lieutenant', 'major', 'captain', etc. have been derived. While French influence on the English language was general and wide spreading during the Middle English period, it was no longer so after the beginning of the 16th century. Though like Latin, French continued to be the source of new words; the French loans after the 15th century were confined to particular classes of technical words restricted in use to the better educated people. The 16th century borrowings, for instance, were mostly technical terms and the common man had little to do with them. The 17th century is significant in the history of the French loans as it was a period of very close contact between the English and the French in matters of literature and social intercourse. One if the subjects which engaged the attention of the satirists and playwrights of Restoration was the indiscriminate imitation of all things French by 'smart set' in London. Words like 'dragoon', 'stockade', 'ballet', 'burlesque', 'tableau', 'chagrin', champagne', 'native', 'forte', 'soup', etc. are the representative of the 17th century borrowings from French. While the 18th century was also rich in the French entrants into English vocabulary, the 19th century was also the richest of all in those. Along with the usual borrowings of the military terms, we find those relating to diplomacy and those called forth by the French Revolution. The loan words of the 18th century are 'guillotine', 'regime', 'bureau', 'canteen', 'picnic', 'police', 'coup', etc. The 19th century witnessed a rich harvest of French loans. These include along with the usual military terms those relating to art and letters, textiles and furniture. 'Barrage', 'communique', 'renaissance', 'restaurant', 'matinee', 'motif', 'menu', 'chauffeur', 'elite', etc. are the examples of the 19th century borrowings. The kind of objects and ideas devoted by the French loans made during the two centuries following the Norman conquest till their own story of the conquering Normans and their authority over the conquered English. Waniba the jester in Scott's "Ivanhoe" points out how the living animals like ox, sheep, chalf, swine and deer have continued to bear their English names even after the conquest while the flesh of these animals used as food has been referred to by French words like 'beef', 'mutton', 'pork', 'bacon', etc. Terms relating to war were naturally adopted from the language of the conquerors. War itself is a French word. So are 'battle', 'assault', 'banner', 'armour', etc. The terms relating to family relationships have also been borrowed from the French. Thus 'uncle', 'nephew', 'niece', 'cousin' have all come from French. The use of the French prefix was extended to 'grandson' and 'granddaughter' in Elizabethan times. 'Mother-in-law' and 'father-in-law', though compounded of English words, are literal translation of Old French designations.
The antipathy towards anything foreign, particularly if it had a papist tinge, shown by the Puritans was replaced by the wish to emulate all that was sophisticated and modern in France in particular. Latin loanwords became less frequent as French loans proliferated.
The proliferation of Fr. loans eventually became a cause of concern and as a result an anti-French faction gradually formed which aimed to check the great influx of words. To be sure, because there was no academy which dealt with such matters like in France often the gentlest of men would disagree over what was polite and proper in usage and what was affected. Even had there been an English academy, I believe that there would have been just as many disagreements because of the transitive term polite, which was the criterion for assessing affectation.
‘Polite’ became one of the most important words during the Restoration for it distinguished the speech of what came to be known as the English gentleman and the common brute. Polite usage was something quite separate from ordinary or colloquial usage.Two issues that stemmed from polite usage: proper pronunciation and appropriate vocabulary. It was common view at this time, according to N. F. Blake, “that pronunciation should be as close as possible to the written form” Thus, any speaker “who wished to be polite clearly had to be reasonably educated in order to read and to be familiar with the spelling system of the language”. Indeed, by making pronunciation dependent on spelling, nobody could be a natural polite speaker, not even the upper middle classes because it was not an imitation of a former aristocratic dialect. Education is what was of the utmost importance, not birth. Men like Jonathan Swift and John Dryden often ridiculed those who were or wanted to be members of the nobility and spoke in a strange way.
Blake observes that women were typically a target of harsh criticism because it was believed that the language they spoke was either “too affected or too coarse”. In this context affected literally refers to the use of unnecessary French loans. Hence in plays written in the Restoration period, it is quite common for female characters to be satirized for their affected use of French words.So in Dryden’s Marriage á la Mode (1673) there is ‘an Affected Lady’ called Melantha who is ‘one of those that run mad in new French words’. She peppers her conversation with phrases like mon cher, voyag’d, Bete, honete, home, bien tourney, obligeant, charmant, ravissant. In short, instead of speaking politely Melantha speaks what critics referred to as “á la Mode de Paris”.
Such satirical writing and branding however must be taken with a pinch of salt. Indeed, even Dryden was not opposed to the principal of borrowing. In fact, he defended the principal in the prefix to his translation of Virgil’s Æneid (1697). He states that our old Teuton monosyllables are all right for necessity, but if we want magnificence and splendour we must borrow words from aboard.
In assessing the linguistic situation and the criticisms, one cannot entirely rule out that it mattered who was introducing the French Loan.Women were often typically targeted because they were not permitted to influence the English language.Only the well educated and well respected gentleman/literati was permitted to borrow.When others borrowed irrespective of the reason, necessity or copia verborum, there choices and often even their character were ridiculed. To illustrate, let us take into consideration Addison remarks concerning the Duke of Marlbourough’s report on his successful campaign against the French on the continent:
The present War has so Adulterated our Tongue with strange Words, that it would be impossible for one of our Great Grandfathers to know what his Posterity had been doing, were he to read their Exploits in a Modern News Paper.The Warriors are very Industrious in Propagating the French Language, at the same time that they are so gloriously successful in beating down their Power.Addison objected to the new military words which had come into use such as manoruvre, bivouac, corps, terrain, and enfilade.However,these loans have become well established. Other military terms adopted after or just prior to the Restoration include: cartouche, brigade, platoon, mêlée, envoy, and aide-de-camp. Loans belonging to specialized registers such as the military were borrowed out of necessity.
While French loans did contribute to many specialized registers as demonstrated above, social loans such as repartee, liaison,naïve,class,décor, rapport, malapropos, métier, faux pas, beau, verve, ménage; and cultural loans such as rôle, crayon, soup, cabaret, cravat, memoirs, champagne, ballet, nom-de-plume, pool, denim, attic, mousseline and vinaigrette constitute the majority of loans.By cultural it is meant loans which would fit into the register arts, literature, dress, games and dancing, and food.
In the eighteenth century, food and cooking continued to attract French loans (e.g. casserole, croquette, ragout, hors d’ oeuvre, liqueur); so do literature, music, and art (critique, belles letters, connoisseur, vaudeveille, dénouement, précis,brochure).
The wholesale borrowing of French words was still a cause of much concern even by the eighteenth century. George Campbell protested against redundant synonymy:Are not pleasure, opinionative, and sally, as expressive as volupty, opiniatre, and sortie? Wherein is the expression last resort, inferior to dernier resort; liberal arts, to beaux arts, and polite literature, to belles letters?
In spite of such protests, many of the French loans which were branded as affections withstood the test of time as the analysis of Addison’s remark above demonstrates.As a result, the English lexis is very rich and speakers have a vocabulary at their disposal which allows them to express very fine nuances of meaning. Indeed, due to wholesale borrowing English speakers have the freedom to modulate their tone, to control the formality or informality of their language to fit the needs of their rhetorical situation, or by using the words, create the rhetorical situation they want. To illustrate, let us consider for example the French loan faux pas. Hypothetically, let us say you utter the following sentence “I realize I’d committed a serious faux pas by joking about his wife’s family” to friends (who do not have English or Linguistic majors) while telling an anecdote instead of saying “I made a serious blunder by joking about his wife’s family”. The first sentence to most native speakers feels slightly formal or even literary compared to the second sentence which is not felt to be stylistically marked.By choosing faux pas, instead of blunder or even mistake,one is modulating their style to fit the situation with its unique social variables. At any rate, many native speakers feel that the majority of social and cultural French loans are more formal or literary than their native counter part(s).
For a greater portion of the Middle English period (M.E.) French (Fr.) was the governing vernacular of England. It was the language of the ruling elite, many of which spoke little if any English, the language of the court, and the language in which polite literature was written. Hence, studies using the Oxford English Dictionary revealing that Fr. was the primary source of loans outnumbering Latin, the second largest source, four to one should hardly surprise us. As Baugh points out “where two languages exist side by side for a long time and the relations of the people speaking them are as intimate as they were in England, a considerable transference of words” is “inevitable”. As to the quantity of loans, Baugh states that it is “unbelievably great” and that “there is nothing comparable to it in the previous or subsequent history of the language”. Baugh, as well as many other linguists, believe that the upper classes carried over so many French words into English for the following reasons: to supply deficiencies in the English vocabulary; due to an imperfect command of the English vocabulary; yielding to a natural impulse to use a word long familiar to them. Whatever the motive or reason, the English lexis benefited greatly.It is necessary to point out that the majority of native speakers today would not recognize these words as foreign, because they have become apart of the common core.To illustrate, consider, for example, a sample of lexemes added to the military register: army, navy, peace, enemy, arms, battle, combat, skirmish,siege,defense,ambush, stratagem, retreat, soldier, garrison, guard, spy and the ranks of officers such as captain, lieutenant, and sergeant.They hardly seem foreign and it would be impossible to even imagine trying to discuss military matters without these lexemes.Other registers that were flooded with French borrowings were government and administration, law, ecclesiastical matter, fashion, food, social life, art learning and medicine. In the Early Modern English period (EModE), Fr. would continue to contribute to the English lexis; however, the quantity would be considerably less and motives would be different.
Because English was a “base speche” many writers such as Sir Thomas Elyot made a conscious effort to enrich the lexis. Their choice was not always a matter of practical consideration, coining new words for new concepts, but a matter of stylistic concern, providing richness to the lexis, known as copia verborum, which was considered the hallmark of a literary language.
French loans from the opening of the period to approximately the Restoration reveal that both of the aforementioned motives for borrowing are valid. To illustrate, let us take into consideration a number of military and naval terms: trophy 1513, pioneer 1523, pilot 1520, colonel 1548, volley 1573, and cartridge 1579. One could argue, and in those days many did, that the first three loans are examples of copia verborum because perfectly good native words −respectively, prize (1300), founder (1340), and steersman (1000)−existed to express these things while this cannot be said of the last three lexemes. Nonetheless, it is important to stress that one is walking on a fine line when labeling a lexeme as copia verborum. While the word steersman and pilot are almost completely synonymous at this point, the introduction of pilot did give the speaker the ability to express a fine nuance of meaning.
The latter part of Boorde’s comment that “the speche of Englande of late dayes is amended” is indicative of the shift in attitude towards the English lexis. Indeed, many felt that English was rich enough to express almost anything and that many were borrowing for the sake of magniloquence. This started a conflict known as the Inkhorn Controversy, which died down in the course of the seventeenth century.To be sure, those in favor of borrowing won the battle;however, the affectation of innovations, particularly French continued to be criticized, especially during the Restoration period.
Among the various types of changes which took place in the period in which Middle English borrowed from French through direct contact, are those which led to a mixing of Germanic and Romance elements. Thus one has cases of assimilation in which an English word was created on the basis of a similar sounding French word. Here one has an instance of the French form complementing the English one. For example, the English verb choose obtained a noun choice on the basis of a borrowing of French choix.
In some cases one can no longer decide whether the Germanic or the Romance form of a word has survived into Modern English. Thus in the case of the adjective rich one cannot tell whether it is a continuation of the Old English rice or the later French borrowing riche. However, one can in many cases see a contamination of the morphology of words due to French borrowing. With the previous adjective one can see the Romance suffix in the noun formed from it: richess as opposed to Old English richdom with the Romance ending -ess.
The form of a word may have been changed without its meaning having been affected. With the Old English word iegland / iland (cf. German Eiland) one arrives at the later spelling island under the influence of French isle. Note that the s here is unetymological, i.e. was never pronounced in English. Some French loanwords were influenced by changes later than Middle English. This is for example the case with Old French viage which was borrowed into Middle English but where the later French form voyage was borrowed into English and adapted in its pronunciation. The same is true of the Middle English noun flaute which was changed under the influence of later French flute.
The Norman Conquest of 1066 left England as a trilingual country,although most people would speak one or two of the dominant languages.Latin was the language for record keeping,learning and church.French was the language of the Norman aristocracy and therefore also the language of the common folk and menials.
When the Norman took over England,they changed the language of government and the court almost overnight and disregarded existing institutions.Instead,they took on almost wholesale institutions derived from France,including the feudal system which guaranteed strong control by the king.
There were three periods of French borrowings: The first period,from about 1066 to 1250 represents the height of Norman power.The language spoken by the Normans,known as Norman French(different from Central or Parisian French) was the language of the King’s court,the nobles’ castles and the courts of law.Norman French was therefore the language of honour,chivalry and justice.Indeed,Matthew of Westminster said,”Whoever was unable to speak French was considered a vile and contemptible person by the common people”(1263).There were not French borrowings,since English continues be used,largely in its own,low-level arenas and French and English speakers were kept separate.
We find the borrowings fall into several groups:
v Names for social roles and occupations that the lower classes would become familiar with through contact with a French-speaking nobility: baron,noble,
dame,servant,messenger,feast,minstrel,juggler,largesse.
v Labels introduced to English through literary channels:story,rime,lay
v Church terms(largest single group)-the need transfrer doctrine and belief from clergy to the people accounts for frequent transfer of words.
v In this period,the words were borrowed as foreign words,i.e.,the French words introduced into English were the sorts of words that people speakin one language often learn from people speaking another.
So what happens to distinguish the earlier from the later period?The Norman influence waned,and the Parisian/Central/Metropolitian French became more important.This shift corresponded with a set of historical events which argually created the conditions for the re-emergence of English in the higher social strata.About 900 words were borrowed during this phase,with most of them showing the effects of Anglo-Norman phonology.In the 150 years following 1250,when all classes were speaking or learning to speak English,French loan-words entered English via speakers who were accustomed to speakin French,who now transferred these words into their adopted language,English.
The second period,roughly from 1250 to 1400 represents the period of English-French bilingualism in individuals(not just in the nation).The number of French-loanwords ballooned in this period.Why was this?
Very briefly,this is what happened.In 1204,Normandy(in northern France,where the Normans came from)was acquired by the French king.Among other thing,it meant that the Norman aristocracy in England couldn’t travel back and forth between their lands in England or France anymore.They had to choose whether they wanted to remain in England or in Fance.Those who remained in England began to see England as their home.This led to the reassertion of English as the language of realm.Other reasons for the reassertion of English are:the Normans in England belonged to the Capetian dynasty spoke Norman French;this became non-prestigious in France as the variety spoken by the Angevian dynasty in France,Parisian French, became the prestige variety;because Norman French was seen as socially inferior,it was less dificult to abandon it in favour of English;subsequently,Enland became at war with France in the Hundred Years War(1337-1453).
Even as English was o its way in,the gaps in English vocabulary had to be filled by loanwords from French. These include items pertaining to new experiences
and ways of doing things introduced by the Normans. So whilst the English already had kings,queens,and earls,terms taken from French include”count, countess, sire, madam, duke, marquis, dauphin, viscount,baron,master.Other domains that became enriched with French loanwords include:
Government and Administrative: govern,government,administer,crown,state,
empire,royal,majesty,treaty,statue,parliament,tax,rebel,traitor,treason,exile,peer
chancellor,treasurer,major,noble,prince,princess,duke,squire,page (but not king,
queen,lord,lady,earl),peasant,slave,servant,vassal,sovereign,scepter,ruler,power,
policy,court,office,chancery,counsel,ambassador,wardon,mayor,charter,accord,seal
agreement, covenant, alliance, curfew,duty,reign, civil, nation,tyrant,oppression.
Ecclesiestical: religion, theology, sermon, confession, clergy, clergy, cardinal, friar,crucifix, miter,censer lectern, abbey, convent, creator,savior, virgin, faith, heresy, schism, solemn, divine, devout, preach, pray, adore, confess, fraternity,
charity,chastity, chaplan,abbot, abbes, dean,confessor,person / parson, preacher,
evangelist,saint,chapel,closter,faith,bible,chapter,commandement,divine,service
prayer,sermon,absolution,procession,parish,baptize,praise,glorify,etc.
Legal terms: justice, equity, plaintiff, judge, advacate, attorney, felon,evidence, petition,inquest,sue,accuse,arrest,blame,libel,slander,felony,adultery,property,heir,estate,executor,privilege,statue,ordinance,judge, chief, crime, fraud, trepass, client,
transgression,accusation,coroner,plaintiff,defendant,claimant,executor,notary,bail,
process, appeal,decree, divorce,exile,heritage,prison, treason,dungeon,arrest,plead,
jail,punish,banish,realese,etc.
Military terms: (Much of the fighting during this time was done in France. Many now-obsolete words for pieces of armor, etc., were borrowed at this time.) army, navy,peace,enemy, arms,battle,spy,combat,siege,defence,ambush,soldier,guard, mail, buckler, banner, lance, besiege, defend, array, admiral, armour, artillery, war,
Fortress,host,warrior,archer,chief,captain,admiral,conqueror,victor,robber,destroy,
expedition,etc.
Clothing and ornamentation: habit, gown, robe, garment, attire, cape, coat, collar, petticoat, train, lace, embroidery, pleat, buckle, button, tassel, plume, satin, taffeta, fur, sable, blue, brown, vermilion, russet, tawny, jewel, ornament, broach, ivory, turquoise, topaz, garnet, ruby, pearl, diamond,blouse, chemise, cloak, frock,
veil,cotton,boot,broach,pearl,scissors,brush,mirror,towel,carpet,curtain,couch,lace,
blanket,cushion,table,chair,fashion,emerald,sapphire,crystal,amethyst,luxury,satin,
embroidery,taffeta,etc
Food and cooking: feast,repast,collation, mess, appetite, tart, sole, perch, sturgeon, sardine, venison, beef, veal, mutton, port, bacon, toast, cream, sugar, salad, raisin, jelly, spice, clove, thyme,fry,boil,roast,mince,dine,dinner,supper,appetite,flour,lard
grease,spice,vinegar,victuals,sausage,sauce,gravy,jelly,juice,cabbage,biscuit,fritter,cider,cucumber,onion,olive,lettuce,grape,orange,leman,cherry,peach,pastry,treacle,
tart,spice,clove,thyme,herb.
Social terms: curtain,couch,lamp, wardrobe,screen, closet, leisure, quilt,checker,
dance, carod,lute, melody,conversation,rein,stallion,trot,harness,mastiff,pheasant,
terrier,squirrel,etc.
Hunting terms: rein, curry, trot, stable, harness, mastiff,spaniel, stallion, pheasant, quail, heron, joust, tournament, pavilion,etc.
Art,Learning,Medicine: painting,sculpture,music, beauty, color, image, cathedral, palace, mansion, chamber, ceiling, porch, column, poet, prose, romance, paper, pen, volume, chapter, study, logic, geometry, grammar, noun, gender, physician, malady, pain, gout, plague, pulse, remedy, poison,clause,logic,geometry,compile,
copy,gout,etc.
Common expressions: draw near, make believe, hand to hand, by heart, without fail (These are loan-translations).
Geography: country,coast,river,valley.lake,mountain, frontier, border, city,hamlet,
village; estate,etc.
Noble title: emperor; duke; duchess; duchy; prince; count; countess; baron; squire; noble(man/woman); gentle(man/woman); dame; damsel,chevalier,master,dauphin,
marquis,etc.
Terms referring to sections of the community: peasantry; people; subjects; burgesses; nobility; gentry; knighthood; chivalry,etc
Terms for emotional states:ease, disease, joy, delight, felicity, grief, despair, distress,courage,folly,passion,desire,jealousy,ambition,arrogance,despite,disdain,malice,envy,avarice,certainty,doubt, enjoy,despise,furious,etc
Trades and crafts: barber, butcher, carpenter, carrier,draper,forester,fruiterer; grocer; mason; mercer; merchant; spicer; painter; tailor; victualler; apprentice; surgeon; physician; bargain; fair; merchandise; price; money; coin; dozen; double; measure; gallon; bushel; purchase; profit; pay; usury; debt; prosperity; barrel; bottle; basket; vessel,etc.
Terms that expressed fundamental theological or religious concepts: creator,
saviour,trinity,saint,miracle,faith,heresy,reverence,devotion,sacrilege,temptation,redemption,absolution,immorality,salvation,etc.
Pervasive French influence on vocabulary:
by 1300-action, adventure, affection, age, air, bucket, calendar, cheer, city, coast, comfort, cost, country, courage, debt, force, flower, malice, manner,marriage, noise, odor, opinion, order, pair, people, person, poverty, sign,sound, waste,etc
by 1350-able, abundant, active, blank, calm, certain, courageous, poor,faint, easy, eager, firm, foreign, jolly, large, perfect, original, nice, hardy,safe, rude, real, solid, special, sudden, sure, tender, universal, usual, allow,apply, arrange, betray, carry, change, chase,close,complain,consider,continue, count, cry, deceive, declare, defy, defer, desire, destroy, embrace, enjoy, enter, flatter, force, grant, increase, inquire, join, marry, muse, murmur,obey observe, pass, please, prefer prove, receive, refuse, remember, reply, to take leave, to do justice, by heart, in vain, without fail, according to, at large,etc.
Assorted loanwords: affair; action; air; baggage; beauty; branch; cage; cable; cattle; chance; change; choice; company; consent; coward; couple; cry; cure; damage; danger; delay; demand; departure; difference; difficulty; error; example; exception; excercise; experience; face; fate; favour; fence; fool; force; foreign; fountain; guide; honour; labour; leisure; marriage; piece; pencil; possession; question; language; wages able; ancient; brief; certain; clear; considerable; cruel; different; difficult; easy; familiar; famous; favourable; feeble; faint; fine; general; gentle; glorious; poor; safe; sure achieve; arrive; appear; approve; approach; assemble; assist; attend; advertise; affirm; await; blame; catch; cancel; carry; cease; chase; cry; change; consent; consider; count; cover; demand; deny; depart; deserve; discover; disturb; finish; employ; encourage; enjoy; enter; excuse; escape; increase; examine; force; fail; form; grieve; marry; refuse; perish; suffer; paint; perform; propose; save; touch; travel; tremble,etc.
The conquered island of English was for centures a pale moon,illuminated by the Sun of French civilization,and it must be our task to trace the penetration of that light into English and common consciousness of the English people.
Two French words borrowed before the Conquest are of considerable interest.These are pride,which appears about A.D 1000,and proud which came in about fifty years later.They are both derived from the French prüd (preux) in modern French which descends from the first element in Latin verb prdesse, to be of value. These words,which in French had the meaning of valiant, brave, gallant,
soon acquired in English sense of arrogant,haughty,overweening. This change of meaning was due,perhaps,to bearing of the proud Normans who came over to England before Conquest in the train of Edward the Confessor,and the aspect in which these haughty nobles and ecclesiastics presented themselves to the Englishmen they scorned.Another word introduced at this time,and no doubt by Edward the Confessor,is chancellor-a word full of old history,which,for all its present dignity,is derived ultimately from cancer,the Latin word for crab. How the cancellarious, a petty officer of the Eastern Empire,stationed at the bars or crab- like lattices(cancelli) of the law courts,rose from an usher to be notary or secretary and come to be infested with judical functions,and to play a more important part in the Western Empire,belongs however,to European,and not to English history; but the word is interest to us as being one of the three or four French terms that found their way into English in Anglo-Saxon times.But the French language has undergone considerable and more recent changes since the date when the Normans brought it into England.Some words that borrowed have become obsolete in their native country,some consonants have been dropped,and the sound of others has been changed,we retain,for instance,the s that the French have lost in many words like beast and feas t,which are bête and fête in Modern French.So,too,the sound of ch has become sh in France,but in English words of early borrowings,like chamber,charity,etc.,they keep the old pronunciation.They keep,moreover,in many cases,forms peculiar to the Norman dialect,as caitiff,canker,carrion,etc.,in which c before a did not become ch,as it did in the Parisian dialect, cark and charge are both from the same Latin word carricare,but one is the Norman and the other the Parisian from the word.In many cases the g of Norman French was changed to j in the Central dialects and English word goal has preserved its Norhern spelling, while it is pronounced,and sometimes written,with the j of Parisian French.
As we haven seen,the main additions to the English language,additions so great as to change its character in a fundamental way,were from the French,first of all from the Northern French of the Norman conquerors,and the from the literary and learned speech of Paris.But the French language,as we have seen,is mainly based on Latin-not on the Latin of classical literature,but the popular spoken language,the speech of the soldiers and uneducated people, and the Latin words were so clipped, changed and deformed by them (not,however,capriciously,but in accordance with certain definite laws) that they are often at first unrecognizable.
From early times,however,a large number of latin words were taken into French,and thence into English,from literary Latin;and as they were never used in popular speech,they did not undergo this process of popular transformation.
With importation,therefore,of French vocabulary into English,many of the learned words borrowed first from Late,and then from Classical Latin,were adopted into English.But in England,also,Latin was spoken by clergy and learned men of the country,the Bible and the service-books were in Latin,and historical and devotional books were largely written in it.When these Latin books were translated into English,or when a scholar writing in English wished to use a latin word,he followed the analogy of the Latin words that had already come to English through the French language,and altered them as if they had first been adopted in French.It is often,therefore,difficult to say whether a Latin word has come to English through the French language,or has been taken immediately from the Latin.
A curious tendency,due not so much to the Genius of the Language as to the self-conscious action of the learned people,has affected the form of Latin words in English and French,but more drastically,perhaps,on this side of the Channel.From early times a feeling has existed that the popular forms of words were incorrect,and attepts more or less capricious and often wrong,have been made to change back to words to shapes more accordance with their original spelling.Thus,the h was added to words like umble,onour,abit,etc;b was inserted in debt( to show its derivation from the Latin debitum) and l in fault,as proof of its relation to the Latin fallere,and p found its way into receipt as a token of the Latin receptum. These pedantic forms were either borrowed direct into English from the French,or in many old words the change was made by English scholars;and in some words,as for instance debt and fault,their additions have remained in English,while in French the words have reverted to their old spelling.These changes,as in honour,dept,receipt,do not always affect the pronunciation;but in many words, as vault,fault,assault,the letters pedantically inserted have come gradually to be pronounced fault rhymed with thought in the eighteenth century,and only in the nineteenth century has h come to be pronounced in humble and hospital.
Among the various types of changes which took place in the period in which Middle English borrowed from French through direct contact are those which led to a mixing of Germanic and Romance elements.Thus,one has cases of assimilation in which an English word was created on the basis of a similar sounding French word.Here one has an instance of French form complementing the English one.For example,the English verb choose obtained a noun choice on the basis of a borrowing of French choise.
As a generalization one can say that the French loans are to be found on a higher stylistic levels in English.With the later Central French borrowings this is obvious given the sectors of society where the loans occurred.The general split is between colloquial native words and more formal Romance terms and can be seen clearly I word pairs like”forgive and pardon”.Other examples are:
French English
close shut
reply answer
odour smell
annual yearly
demand ask
chamber room
desire wish
power might
ire wrath/anger
commence begin
cordial hearty
felicity happiness
aid help
conceal hide
repast meal
marriage wedding
dress clothe
amity friendship
nourish feed
liberty freedom
grief sorrow
The areas of the English lexicon in which the influence of French was to be felt reflect the spheres of life in which the French predominated in the early Middle English period.
In some cases French words supplanted even the most everyday words of the English vocabulary.Thus,the French word rivière supplanted the native word ēa river,the French word montagne supplanted the native beorʒ mountain,and the French paix the native friþ peace.in some individual cases there could be special conditions favouring the introduction of the foreign word;for example,the OE word ēa river became ē,in ME and was thus phonetically much weaker than the French riviére. Its phonetical weakness might thus promoted its appearance from the language.In other cases other factors may also have been at work.
Sometimes the intruding French word forced its native synonym into a different sphere of meaning.For instance,the OE substantive hærfest,meaning autumn,was superseded by the French word autumn,but survived in the English language with the meaning harvest. The semantic tie between autumn and harvest is of course clear enough.
In some similar way,the OE substantive ʒebed prayer was superseded by French preiere,MnE prayer.However,the native word survived with the meaning beads,which had developed from the original meaning prayer owing to the intermediate meaning rosary;the number of prayers said was counted on the beads or rosary;thus,in certain circumstance,for example,five beads could mean the same as five prayers.
The degree to which French words penetrated into English depended on two factors:on the geographical region and on the social layer addressed by the document.Thus,we can state two principles in this sphere:
(1)the farther North,the fewer French words;
(2)the closer to the lower strata of society,the fewer French words.
A typical example showing the dependence of the French lexical layer on the social position of an author was found by comparing two documents belonging to the same time (early 13th century),but differing as to the social position of their authors.One of them is Ancrene Riwle(Statue for Nuns) adressed by an unknown author to three aristocratic nuns on the rules of monastic life;the other is Ormulum-a poem by a simple monk called Orm,addresed to his brother Walter.While the Ancrene Riwle contains a large number of French words,the Ormulum is almost entirely devoid of them.
The third period of French borrowings is from around 1400 onwords.The borrowings of the two periods tent to be more elegant and sophisticated but yet not too far away from the core and several became quite nativised (dance,April,native,fine,line,punish,finish). These later borrowings were more,distant from the core,with attention being explicitly called to their sophisticated,well-bred,cultivated,even arty’French’texture:notice the spellings and pronunciations of some of these items: ballet,tableau,statuesque,cliché,motif,format
trousseau,lingerie,soufflé,hors d’oeuvre,rouge,etiquette, etc.
By the 16th,especially the 17th century England was establishing itself as a modern nation state,economically viable,self-confident,powerful.No longer needed French words-for special effects.
The words of this period are not from the Norman dialect of French,but from the Central or Parisian dialect.They were borrowed from French as a result of political and cultural relations between the two countries.In the second half of the 17th century France was the greatest power in Europe.The French language became fasionable in England and that caused the appearance of a lot of new French words in the English language.
Such words as fianc,unique,machine,marine,police, etc were borrowed at this period.A lot of the words borrowed by the English at this period are international,e.g. toilet, hotel, illuminated, elegant, extravagant, delicate,
miniature, critique,symphony,bourgeois, regime, bomb, etc.
Under the influence of the French revolution some political terms have entered the English language,e.g.royalism,despotism,tyranny,democrat,aristocrat,etc.Those words are also international.
Many classical borrowings came into Early NE through French due continous contacts with France,for the French language had adopted many loan-words from classical languages at the time of the Renaissance.Sometimes the immediate source of the loan-word cannot be determined.Thus,the words solid,position,consolation and many others,judging by their form,could be adopted either directly from Latin or from French,having entered the French language some time before:such borrowings are often referred to as “Franco-Latin”.They should not be confused with loan-words from OFr,which usually go back to Latin roots,for French is one one of the descendants of Latin;words borrowed from OFr differ from their Latin prototypes as they have been subjected to many changes in French.Some loan-words from OFr were re-shaped by crudités of the age of Renaissance according to their Latin prototypes though their forms were historically correct,since they were adopted from OFr.This Latinisation in the 15th-16th century produced words like describe in place of Chaucer’s decrive(n), equal instead of ega l, languag e instead of langage,debt,doubt and adventure instead of the earlier dette,doute,aventure. Some corrections even affected the pronunciation :language,adventure.
Adoption of classical words may have been facilitated by the large number of French loan-words in the English language of the 15th and 16th century.This is how O.Jespersen accounts for extensive borrowing of latin words:
“The great historical events,without which this influence would never have assumed such gigantic dimensions was the revival of learning.Through Italy and France the Renaissance came to be felt in England as early as the 14th century,and since then the invasion of classical terms has never stopped,although the multitude of new words introduced was greater,perhaps,in the 14th,the 16th, the 19th,than in the intervening centuries.The same influence is conspicuous in all European languages,but in English it has been strongerthan in any other language,French perhaps excepted.This fact cannot,I think,be principally due to any greater zeal for classical learning on the part of the English than of other nations.The reason seems rather to be that the natural power of resistance possessed by a Germanic tongue against these alien intruders had been already broken in the case of the English language by the wholesale importation of French words.They paved the way for the Latin words which resembled them in so many respects,and they had already created in English minds that predilection for foreign words which made them shrink from consciously coining new words out of native material.If French words were more distingues than English ones,Latin words were still more so,for did not the French themselves go to Latin to enrich their own vocabulary?”
The influx of French words continued and reached new peaks in the late 15th and in the late 17th century.French borrowings of the later periods mainly pertain to diplomatic relations,social life,art and fashions.French remained the international language of diplomacy for several hundred years;Paris led the fashion in dress,food and in social life and to a certain extent in art and literature;finally,the political events in France in the 18th -19th century were of world-wide significance.
All these external conditions are reflected in French loans.Examples of diplomatic terms are attaché,communiqué,dossier;the words ball,beau,cortege,café,coquette,
hotel,picnic,restaurant refer to social life; ballet,ensemble,essay,genre, pertain to art;
military terms are brigade,corps,manoeuvre,marine,police,reconnaissance;fashions in dress and food are illustrated by words like blouse,chemise,corsage,cravat,menu
champagne, soup. Words of miscellaneous character are: comrade, detail, entrance,
essay,machine,moustache,progress,ticket.
As seen from the lists,later French borrowings differ widely from the loan-words adopted in M.E.Most of them have not been completely assimilated and have retained a foreign appearance to the present day-note their spellings,the sounds and the position of the stress.Words like genre and restaurant have nasalized vowels and a French spelling:police,fatigue,marine receive the stress on the last syllable and are pronounced with long [i:] indicated by the letter i like French words;the diagraph ch stands for [ ʃ ] in machine,in beau the letters eau have also retained the sound value of the French prototype [o:].
Words were borrowed from French into English after 1650,mainly through French literature,but they were not as numerous and many of them are not completely assimilated.There are the following semantic groups of these borrowings:
a)words relating to literature and music: belles-lettres, conservatorie, brochure,
nuance,piruette,vaudeville;
b)words relating to military affairs:corps,echelon,fuselage,manouvre;
c)words relating to building and furniture:entresol,chateau,bureau;
d)words relating to food and cooking:ragout,cuisine,etc.
Let’s summerise what happened in England after Conquest.For 200 years after the Conquest,the language of policy was French.And this was not a demarcation of ethnicity.Numerous English people(those of the upper classes)learned the language through marriage and by association. However, the language of the masses remain-
ed English.Until the beginning of the 13th century,French continued to dominate as the language of nobility.A very close connection existed between the continent and England…the nobility usually held land in both places;therefore,travel between the two was fairly common.
Further,William was no exception to this.In fact when William died,he left Normandy to his eldest son and England to his youngest son,William the Second.Later Normandy and England were under one ruler,but not until Henry the First.Under Henry the Second,English ”possessions” in France were even further broadened and enhanced.
When Henry the 2nd marries Eleanor of Aquitaine,he increased his holdings so that by the time he became King of England,he controlled about 2/3 of France.From William the Conqueror through Henry the 2nd,most kings spent at least 2/3 of their time in France.And besides Henry I,no other English king married an Englishwoman until Edward the 4th in the 1460.The perpetuation of French was on.Too much time and too much money were invested in France for the nobility not to have,as a natural course of events,used French as the language.No evidence exists to suggest that English was a “hated”language.Most probably very little attention was paid to it because classes simply did not mix.Fusion of the French and English-over time,the two”cultures”assimilated and adjusted to one another. Some nobility spoke English. This would be a natural occurrence.Some clergy preserved English. Some of educated, the nobility, and
clergy,then representing the upper social strata,were bilingual.Knights learned French.Merchants spoke both French and English.Managers (sheriffs,bailiffs,etc.) on large estates were bilingual.For the most part,bilingualism extended only down to the middle class.Bilingual as used above does not indicate fluency.In 1204 King John “lost” Normandy.He fell in love with a French noblewoman-Isabel of Angouleme.He married her hastily without regard for her other suitor(to whom she was already engaged),Hugh of Lusignan.Hugh was the head of a very powerful and ambitious family,but John chose to ignore these connections and,in anticipation of retaliation for stealing Isabel,attacked Hugh’s family.Hugh appeals to the King of all France,Philip,and Philip took advantage of the situation to “embarrass”the duke of Normandy (and King of England),John.Since John was extremely irritating to Philip,it was with great delight that Philip summoned John to appear before him,answer charges,and submit to the judgement of the court.John maintained that,as King of England,he was exempt from subjugation and did not appear at his trial.Hence,Philip stripped John of his “dukedom” and invaded Normandy.Philip succeded,and Normandy returned solely to the French.John lost support:he was viewed as a scoundrel.There was even thought(with some basis) that he had his own cousin,prince Arthur,murdered.
With the loss of Normandy (some holdings were left in the south of France) many nobles had to decide where their allegiance lay…France or England. Philip,
and later louis,helped solve this problem: he confiscated the land of many nobles.Those who still had holdings in both places were forced to give up one or the other.There were some that were divided up by Philip,and in some instances,the nobles kept their larger landholdings in England and gave up the lesser in Normandy.
By 1250 the holdings had been divided or the choice made to hold land either in England or Normandy,and by 1250,there was no real reason for using French.During the breakup of holdings,an influx of French from south was also oc-
curing during the reign of Henry the 3rd:
1.in 1233 under Peter des Roches(a Frenchman made bishop of Winchester and later chancellor).
2.in 1236 when Henry married Eleanor of Provence,and he gave her many,many relative land and positions.
3.the last in 1246.
Henry the 3rd’s reign was full of excesses and liberties.He freely gave to foreigners-land,etc,and encouraged their influx.The hostilities that insued were,in large part,due to Henry’s catering to the French.Resentment of the foreigners and of Henry was the attitude of the day.
Opposition to foreigners helped promote national feeling.Drove the barons and middle class together in a common cause.Ironically,one leader of the cause was Simon de Monfort-a Norman by birth.In line with these feelings,then,some knowledge of English would be regarded as desirable.
Though England was beginning to unite,this did not mean French was given up overnight.In fact,French was considered ”the” language of the continent.Even Germans and Italians spoke French.In the 13th century French continued to be spoken by the upper class in England,but not for different reasons.No longer the “mather” tongue,French was spoken as a matter of social custom and administrati-
ve convention.Because French use was fading and English use becoming prevalent,the impact of “borrowing” French vocabulary is major.When an English term was unknown and needed to be expressed,a French word or phrase was used.
One the whole English use was steady.By the middle of the 13th century,French is considered as a foreign language.Some attempt to preserve French existed in the clergy and from scholars,but not much.The French that had been spoken among “Englishmen”was considered by Francophiles to be a”backard” and butchered dialect.The 100 years’War-promoted national unity against the French to a very instense degree.Because the English came to”hate” the French,the French language was used less and less.
The rise of the middle class-with the outbreak of “The Black Death” in 1348,approximately 30% of the population died.This brought a shortage of labor;consequently,the economic importance of the working class grew.Since English was the language of the common laborer,its use become even more widespread.
By the beginning of the 14th century,English was once again the dominant language.Further,in 1362 Parliament enacted a law requiring all lawsuits to be conducted in English.English is,then,officially recognized.From here,the use of English filtered down to other branches of government and law.
Henry V’s reign from 1413-1422 marked a turning point in English as a written language.Henry used English in writing letters,and the practice diffused among the English people.French literature was not so easily replaced,though,by English literature.Most of the literature in Middle English comes in the form of religious.The diffusion of the hate language does extend eventually to literature.Chaucer(1340-1400),Langland(Piers Plowman),and the author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight emerge,leading to the labeling of writing at the time as The Period of Great individual Writing(1350-1400).
The 15th century literature of England becomes known as the Imitative Period or Transition Period,the period of imitators of Chaucer and before Shakespeare.
French influence led to different kinds of changes in the vocabulary.Firstly,there were many innovations,i.e.names of new objects and concepts,which enlarged the vocabulary by adding new items.Secondly,there were numerous replacements of native words by French equivalents,which resulted in a shift in the ratio of Germanic and Romance roots in the language,e.g.the loan-words very,river,peace,
Easy displaced the native OE swiþe,ēa,friþ,ēaþe. The adoption of a word synonymous with a native word did not necessarily lead to replacement.Most frequently the co-existance of a borrowed and native synonym ended in their differentiation,they were both retained as they differed in style, dialect, shades of meaning or combinability.This third kind of influence enriched the English vocabulary even more than the adoption of pure innovations.The influx of French words-as well as the later borrowing of Latin words-is one of the main historical reasons for the abudance of synonyms in ModE.The difference between the native and borrowed words often lies in their stylistic connotations:French loan-words,particularly those which were adopted in Late ME(and later)preserve a more
bookish,literary character;hence such pairs of words as French commence native begin,conceal-hide,prevent-hinder,search-look for,odour-smell,desire-wish.
Since the French loan-words of the ME period were completely assimilated,it is not easy to identify a French borrowing and to distinguish it from native words or borrowings from other languages.Some French loan have retained their bookish character,but this stylistic connotation is even more typical of later borrowings from classical languages (cf. e.g.sorrow,sorry-native, grief-French, affliction-L).
Many French words are polysyllabic,but so are many native words and borrowings from other languages.More reliable criteria are French suffixes and prefixes frequently occurring in borrowed words:-ment,-ty,-ion,re-,de- and others;and yet,since they came to be employed as derivational means in English and yielded new specifically English words,they cannot serve as absolutely reliable marks of French words.In order to understand this sphere of borrowings from French one must bear in mind that the first loans were to be found in the upper classes who spoke Anglo-Norman.This fact led to French loans being automatically placed on a level above the normal everyday English vocabulary.Up to the present-day this characteristic of French words in English has remained.While it is true that some of the common French borrowings have become part of the basic stock of English vocabulary.(cf.air,age,cry,change,large,manner,mountain,place,point,village,voice) a large quantity of words has remained on a stylistically higher level alongside the lower English terms.
Every language is in a state of flux and subject to variation and change in phonology,morphology,and syntax.The vocabulary was assimilated.With the advent of new vocabulary,some loss of the old will occur.Two things may occur:1)the old word becomes obsolete and disappears although or 2)the old word becomes archaic and is used by older speakers,but may drop out completely later.These are not mutually exclusive process.
The influence of the French language on the English vocabulary was extremely great,and though the English language remained Teutonic,more than a half of its words are of French origin.
CHAPTER III