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42. The Norman conquest. The influence of French on the English language.…
42. The Norman conquest. The influence of French on the English language. Borrowings and calques
Historical background of the Norman conquest
11th: in Britain Old Norse + Anglo Saxon
Normans: descendants of the Vikings, northern France. Became French. Duke of Normandy powerful
1066: Edward the Confessor died childless. Harold chosen. William, Duke of Normandy and E's cousin wanted. Conquest: Battle of Hastling in Oct. 1066. Xmas day 1066: William King of England.
New nobility: nobles escaped or killed, replaced by William's followers. The Church: key positions occupied by Norman prelates
Linguistic situation in Britain after the Norman conquest
Normans: rural French dialect. OE to ME (1100-ca.1500)
11th C: Norman French lang of governing classes. Upper clases, administration. Relationship w/ Normans, EN people learned FR. EN: inferior class. Anglo Saxon Chronicle until 1154. Latin: religion, international communication.
12th C: FR in England bc lands in France and Normandy. EN people who wanted to be important learned FR. EN: more used by Normands due to marriages, children spoke EN. 1177: impossible to distinguish between Normans and EN.
13th C: King John lost Normandy in 1204. Looser ties w/ FR, competition. Ruling class: think more like EN, FR a second lang and for gov, law and public business. Norman FR not good as Parisian FR.
Hundred Year's War: national feeling, EN more important. 14th C: Black Death, 30% people die, low men access to social charges. 1362: EN in Parliament. 1399: Henry IV, first EN king since 1066.
15th C: EN replaced FR at home, education, gov. Replaced LAT in written comm. Survived, but changed.
Influence on the English language
400 years, EN changed more than in any other period. Thousands of words came, OE words left.
Changes: already taking place, accelerated by conquest.
Grammar
: simpler, losing inflections. -e, -est, -en, 's, s'. Loss of grammatical gender. The.
Verbs: lost endings for tenses and person. -(e)s, -ing, -ed. OE verbs: past changing vowels, now with -ed. Climb > clomb > climbed. New vbs from FR: -ed. Or: knowed > knew, teared > tore. 250 irregular vbs. Continuous tenses in ME, not common until later.
Order to express meaning. SVO. Prepositions: in, by, with, from.
1066-12thC: little written in EN. Change spoken lang easily.
Grammar changes not at the same time across regions (not gov lang). Difficult to understand other areas.
Spelling
: ME, they used words of their dialects. /x/: gh (S), ch (N), Night vs nicht. Modern EN: pronunciation from one dialect, spelling from other. Busy.
FR: replaced OE runic and Celtic symbols with Roman symbols. Introduced diagraphs [ts]: ch.
Printing press, William Caxton: East Midlands dialect (London, gov officials). Variations until 18th C. K in knee, l in would.
Vocabulary
: richer. 10,000 words taken.
First hundred years, slow flow. 13th and 14th C: loan words. Specialized terms for literature and government.
2 periods: 1) 1066 - 13thC: Norman French. 2) 13thC on: Central FR or FR of Paris
Borrowings and calques
Borrowings
: adopted from one language with some modification.
Calques
: literal translations.
FR: various aspects. OE terms in agriculture and seafaring.
Everyday terms
Relationship and rank, house and furnishing, food, sports, arts, education, medicine, government, political structure, law, church, war
FR replaced OE words: people. Both survived, differences in meaning: ask vs demands. 3 synonyms (Lat, FR, EN): sovereign, monarch, king.
Words connected with ordinary people: EN, upper class: FR. House, home vs palace, manor. Child, son vs heir. Cow, pig, sheep vs beef, pork, mutton.
New En words created: -ful, -ly. Structures: plenty of, by heart, at large, to speak in vain.
Calques: forget-me-not, Governor-General, free verse, flea market.