1066, the Duke of Normandy, the famous William sailed across the British Channel. He challenged King Harold of England in the struggle for the English throne. After winning the battle of Hastings William was crowned king of England and the Norman Kingdom was established. Norman-French became the language of the English court. At the beginning French was spoken only by the Normans but soon through intermarriage, English men learnt French. Some 10,000 French words were taken into English language during the Middle English period and about 75% of them are still in use. In grammatical use the English suffixes and prefixes were freely added with the French words. e.g. ‘gentle’ borrowed in 1225 is found compounded with an English word ‘gentlewomen’ in 1230.
The English and Norman commoners learnt some each-others language. Result, the English nobility was not an English nobility but an Anglo-French aristocracy. William himself made an effort at the age of forty-three to learn some English to settle disputes between his subjects. William considers destroying the Saxon tongue in order that the English and the French might speak the same language.
We might say that in the period up to 1200 A.D. the Normans did not cultivate English although they were not ignorant of it. By the middle of the thirteenth century English came into general use among the French aristocrats. A large-scale of French words adopted into the English language.
About 1300 A.D. English was once again known by every single British, but French is not fallen into disuse, it still remained in the British church and the court. The English servants serving meat at the dining table to the French upper classes had to conform to them in French. Thus the names of the animals remained English while their meat had French names –
Animal (English) | Meat (French) |
Sheep | Mutton |
Cow | Beef |
Swine / Pig | Pork |
A list of French words borrowing in English is given below –
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Since French-speaking Normans took control over the church and the court of London. A largest number of words borrowed by the government, spiritual and ecclesiastical (religious) services. As example – state, royal (roial), exile (exil), rebel, noble, peer, prince, princess, justice, army (armee), navy (navie), enemy (enemi), battle, soldier, spy (verb), combat (verb) and more. French words also borrowed in English art, culture, and fashion as music, poet (poete), prose, romance, pen, paper, grammar, noun, gender, pain, blue, diamond, dance (verb), melody, image, beauty, remedy, poison, joy, poor, nice, etc. Many of the above words are different from modern French in use or pronunciation or spelling.
woww… i never knew i spoke so much of French! 😛 this is nice piece of info! 🙂
Welcome Ashmita, Bienvenue à nouveau! xxx 🙂
MY first Language is French 🙂
what a great post …….
Man with the same theme as me 🙂
wish you the best 🙂
Cat xx
Merci Cat xxx 🙂
🙂 XXX
Nice drawing Vikram. W.
Thanks COLLTALES! 🙂
Informative, thanks
Merci Grosenberg! 🙂
I love learning so much information on your blog! 🙂
Merci! Bienvenue encore et encore! 🙂
Belle pièce d’art Vikram pour accompagner une pièce instructive de l’histoire. Bravo!
This is my French contribution! 🙂
Doux amour! Merci! 🙂
Do you know how long Latin prevailed after Romans left 475 or so ?
Hi DAG, Latin influence on English after the Anglo Saxon settlement in Britain is divided into two stages; early settlement (450 to 600) and post-Christian settlement (650), or may be a decade more! 🙂
Excellent!
Merci Noel!
awesome and I love your drawing…
Thanks Beverly Bishop!
your welcome….
I really learned a lot on this post of yours. Thanks. 😎
Merci! 🙂
Oh how you love words! You come up with some truly wonderful gems to post about!
~Blessings
Thanks Dulcinea! Love that you liked it! 🙂
I loved this post! Next to my ancestral language of Spanish, French is a favorite of mine 🙂
Vikram, this is great post – thank you.
Have you ever written anything on Chaucer? His name, as you probably know comes from the french Chausseur, meaning shoemaker.
I loved your writing about William Blake too – one of my all time favourites
Chaucer had a strong French connection! I will write soon on him! I promise! 🙂 Thanks Lottie!
Love the sketch, and the post
Merci Katrina! 🙂
vous etes l’accueril
Interesting post as I am here in Montreal. The drawing is lovely. Thanks.
Merci Ronkozloff! 🙂
the french gave the english beauty through language, the idyllic latin component is what presents itself between the similarities, i speak french pretty fluently, and studied german for a year or so in university, and the latin element in german is definitely missing, so abrupt and jaw intense, the french introduced a fluidity of the tongue that suggest ease, and that’s what you have, german and french = english. a theory 😉
In our university German lesson was compulsory. Danke! 🙂
bitte schon, hehe
We both must be etymologists! I love words and knowing their root just makes them all the more interesting.
Also love it that you include one of your own drawings!
Merci Bela! 🙂
Nice post. I think it’s funny that the word Beef is of French origin. In America there is a small group of people that think France is the devil and that Americans(of US origin) are perfect. Since beef is considered so “American” , it makes me laugh. I know that wasn’t the point of your post.
Does that make sense? Perhaps it is my own logic and doesn’t make sense to anyone else.
I feel so much smarter now that I read this. Thanks.
The words don’t have any connections with the devil. Words are words people use to describe themselves. Why people can’t think they are all world citizen? Then see you will not feel an American or a French! Are you a part of the universe? Then everyone is. Thanks 🙂
Right. Especially these days with the mixing of cultures it is silly that people don’t realize how many words they use EVERDAY are from different areas even ones they don’t respect.
Reblogged this on Things I grab, motley collection .
Thanks for the reblog! 🙂
you’re welcome. Waiting to read some more.
Most welcome. I will always remind it! Thanks! 🙂
excellent.
Thanks for shedding some light into french-english relationships in that earlier time, like somebody mentionned it, here in Montréal, french and english cultures came to close contact, of course many new ethnics bring lot of things, some say good others not so good…:), people also say it is a bit of Europe meeting America, donc à bientôt…:)
This is something new to me so thanks for the “Trivia”. This post is educational.
Ceci est très bonne Vikram.
Merci Jocelyne!
Reblogged this on lisparc.
C’est vrai!
Il est vrai! Merci! Accueil! 🙂
Ca boom!
Can somebody explain about the English military words derived from French? Why, when and how?
Woooow i lov dis discovery, so i speak french
Hey, I was wondering if you had sources for this (in particular the ‘gentlewoman’ thing)? Just that I’m writing a paper on this for school. 🙂
If you can’t remember, do you know any books on this that you would recommend?
Early 13th century Old French word “gentil”, means high-born or noble, is borrowed in Middle English! Then the word compounded with “gentleman” and “gentlewoman” to describe noble man or noble woman!
hi,vikram ur information regarding the language gives us the clear picture…will u please suggest me some more information on the same topic.. 🙂
Vikram there are many English-French “false friends.” Take a peak, for example, at a Jewish view of. French bottom.
http://onedaringjew.wordpress.com/2011/01/09/a-jewish-view-of-a-french-bottom/
Hi Vikram!
I love history and thoroughly enjoyed your post. Thanks for the fascinating information.
Warmth and Peace, (Paz, Pax)
The story of the English language is a fascinating one. We don’t even realise that so much of the vocab we use today is of French origin (every word ending in ion or ment is French) – it should mean learning that language is easier but of course there’s that convoluted grammar we have to learn too.
If you enjoyed this book, try reading Melvin Bragg’s The Art of English which looks at the Anglo Saxon roots.
Gosh, isn’t language fascinating? Very much taken by the fact that you have chosen this as a topic.
Love your blogs, your poetry, your drawings. You truly are a Renaissance man! Thanks for your comments about my blog but the question remains: “Lis-tu le français?”
Hi Andrée Laganière, I know 5 languages. English, Bengali, Sanskrit, German, and Hindi. I don’t know French, I use Google Translate to read them, merci! 🙂
Always love
Vikram
German – Sprechen Sie Deutsch?
Englishman? German? – Nein, lenkviches ekshept Cherman.
This is a great post, Vikram. The Norman invasion was hugely important for the English language and for a lot of the history of Europe. For 3 centuries after 1066, England actually had 3 official langauges; Norman French for the Royal Court, Latin for the Church and the Anglo-Saxon langauge for the rest of the population. This is why English often has so many synonymes today as they are words being borrowed from diferent languages.
thanks you really helped me in my homework your blog is awsome
Interesting! I’m studying French and I love looking at the etymology of words. English is such a mélange of different languages. Which may be why its so fun to speak.