42 The Norman Conquest. The Influence of French Upon The English Language. Borrowings and Calcs

42. La conquista normanda. Influencia del francs en la lengua inglesa. Prstamos y calcos.
TOPIC 42
THE NORMAN CONQUEST. THE
INFLUENCE OF FRENCH UPON THE
ENGLISH LANGUAGE. BORROWINGS
AND CALCS
Virginia Ganda
Instituto de Ciencias del Hombre XXI

C/ Rumbau. 1 -3. 17a .46001 Valencia Tf. 963 51 9522 -963290 849. Fax. 963 94 33 05
http:l/www.cienciasdelhombre21.com
E-Mail: ich-tyd@digitalmk.com
CONTENTS
0- INTRODUCTION
I- HISTORICAL APPROACH
II- POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES
III- LINGUISTIC CONSEQUENCES
IV- INFLUENCE OF FRENCH UPON THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
A- INFLUENCE ON THE LEXICON
1- Borrowings
2- Compounding and Derivation
3- Calques
B- INFLUENCE ON THE SPELLING
C- INFLUENCE ON THE SYNTAX
1234-
Development of Prepositions
Influence on the Adjective
The Verb TO DO
The Verb TO TAKE
D- INFLUENCE ON ENGLISH LITERATURE

V- CONCLUSION
VI- BIBLIOGRAPHY

0- INTRODUCTION
The history of a language must include not only the evolution of the structure of the
language but also an account of the external forces, such as, political, economic, social, and
cultural, which influence this evolution in the course of time. Our knowledge of earlier stages of
English is a reconstruction of what we think once existed. There are no descriptions of medieval
English coming from before 1500.
The history of English, as well as other languages, is conventionally divided into periods
to facilitate the description of its evolution. In English, then, we can distinguish among five
different periods:
Pre-Old English (circa 450-700)
Old English (700 -1100): English was a flexile language, like Latin or Greek.
This is considered as a period of formation and growth of English as a new language spoken in
Great Britain. It was born out of the conjunction of several dialects of the Germanic tribes that
invaded the territory after the fall of the Roman Empire.
Middle English (1100 -1500): In this period English suffered its most meaningful
changes. In grammar it went from being a flexile language to being completely analytical.
Thousands of words were added to the vocabulary from French and Latin as a result of the
invasion and colonization from Normandy that lasted 400 years and noticeably deteriorated the
Old English.
Modern English (1500 -1950): During this period, the invention of the printing
press eased a conservative process in its grammar and its orthography, which was facing the need
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for a standard language for all its readers. It also eased an innovative process in its range of
vocabulary due to the discoveries and the travels of the British all over the world.
Contemporary-Present Day English (1950- . . . )
The period we are going to deal with in this topic belongs to the Norman Conquest,
which is placed during the last part of the late old English, and the beginning of the early middle
English. However, before we start talking about the Norman Conquest and its consequences in
the English language, we could say something about the history of Britain, and the English
language.
I- HISTORICAL APPROACH
As Francisco Fernndez points out in his book Historia de la Lengua Inglesa, the history
of the English language begins with the settlement of Britain by Germanic tribes in the middle of
the fifth century AD. Yet, before this happened, the island (inhabited by Celtic peoples for a few
centuries) witnessed a number of political and military events, which finally led to its conquest
by Germanic invaders. These invaders were Jutes, Saxons and Angles.
Until the tenth century there was no English monarchy. The Germanic tribes, which
conquered Britain, founded several small kingdoms. These three different Germanic tribes shared
the power of England until the Scandinavian invasions of the island. The Scandinavian invaders,
or Vikings, as they are usually called, were led by Danes and Norwegians during the middle of
the 8th century until the 11th century.
In 1042 the third period of Danish invasions came to an end, together with twenty-eight
years of Danish rule in England. The king Harthacnut (1040-2) was followed by Edward, who
had come to England in 1041 at the invitation of Harthacnut. Edward was acclaimed king in
London in 1042 and was crowned at Winchester a year later. Edward the Confessor was half
Norman by birth- son of Ethelred Unraed and Emma, daughter of a former Duke of Normandy-,
and spent most of his life there. He was no warrior, being his chief delights hunting and religious
observance.

The coronation of Edward marked the beginning of the end of the kingdom of England.
He contributed grossly to the weakening of the kingdom of England in every respect, since he
was not interested in efficient running of the state. He spent long years of exile in Normandy, and
during his reign he did nothing to improve the laws and administration, or to develop the defense
abilities of his country. Instead, he appointed Normans to important offices in his court, church,
and state administration.
After twenty-four years of reign, Edward the Confessor died in January 1066. A day after
his death, Harold (his brother-in-law) was made king. When the news reached Normandy,
William (the Duke of Normandy and 2nd cousin of Edward the Confessor) decided to conquer
England and assume the royal reins of power. It is believed that Edward promised the kingdom
to William in 1051 or 1052. Furthermore, being the closest living relative, he believed that
legally he had full rights to the English throne. Consequently, he invaded England later in the
year and fought a decisive battle near Hastings.
After initial success in repulsing several Norman charges, King Harold was fatally
wounded by a Norman archer. At that moment, the resistance disintegrated and the English were
defeated. As darkness fell, the remnants of the English army fled the battlefield. The road to
Winchester and London was open. Shortly after the battle of Hastings, Winchester capitulated, to
be followed by London a few weeks later.
On Christmas Day 1066, William, Duke of Normandy, was crowned King of England in
Westminster. A new nobility was introduced in the country.
II- POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES

The fact that William came to the English throne through military conquest had several
consequences for England and the English:
a- the introduction of a new nobility. William deprived the English earls of
their power and replaced them with a system of shires and baronies with his own local officials,
all Norman. Therefore, for more than a century after the
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conquest, almost all large estates and important positions were in the hands of Normans.
b- a strong military force control was established. The new elite brought
with it Normal feudal customs, which were reinforced by the need for cohesion and mutual
military support among the fairly small group of conquerors. Thus the rebellions among the
Norman barons were minor and short-lived, the interests of stability being paramount.
c- There was a strong impact on the English church. William not only
replaced the English nobility with Norman barons but also the native church establishment with
his own Norman clergy. Therefore, Norman clergymen were appointed to important positions.
New monasteries were founded and filled with foreign monks. By 1.076, not a single English
Earl remained, whilst in 1.087 only 3 of 21 abbots were English.
The coronation of William in 1066 was only the beginning of the Norman
Conquest. It took him four more years to subdue the whole country. From the coronation of
William the Conqueror until 1204 the kings of England were simultaneously dukes of Normandy.
Similarly, the English nobility also had their possessions on the Continent. Consequently they
spent much of their time in France, like their monarchs, attending to the business, which required
their physical presence there.
III- LINGUISTIC CONSEQUENCES
As Fernndez points out, when Anglo-Norman invaders came to England in 1066, they
were to subjugate a nation with higher culture than theirs, with a rich literature having its own
written standard. All this had a tremendous impact on the linguistic situation of England:
a- it enhanced the use of French in England from the 11th to the 13th century
b- it contributed to the further use of the language even later.
When Normans settled in England after 1066, they continued to speak
their own French dialect (Anglo-Norman). Some noblemen picked up enough of the English
language to understand it. Since a number of them decided to spend more time in England, it is

reasonable to assume that the generations born in the 12th century would reach a certain degree of
bilingualism.
Despite this, French continued to be used as a means of everyday communication among
members of upper classes beyond the year 1200. The kings did not know English fluently until
the 13th century. French was used at the English court not only as the language of ordinary
intercourse but also as the language of literature. At first, those who spoke French were of
Norman origin, but soon, through intermarriage and association with the ruling class, many
people of England found to their advantage to learn a new language.
French was soon learnt by a number of Englishmen who saw advantages in speaking it:
as the language of upper classes and the court, French carried a mark of social and cultural
prestige.
a- a certain number of English people had to learn French in order to
function in the society whose ruling class was monolingual for some time.
b- all people serving Norman lords had to know their language.
c- It was also common for knights and merchants to be bilingual and both
Normans and Englishmen were learning English and French respectively.
French was spoken in some monasteries and by a sizable portion of the
clergy as well; but English remained the language of the common people. And some Normans
(especially soldiers) who settled among hundreds of English people would also learn the
language of those whom they had contact with every day.
Summarizing, the issue of the use of French and English in England at the close of the
12th century could be defined as a trilingual scene:
a- French was spoken by Norman upper and middle classes: in everyday
use, in law courts, in the army; it was used by some Englishmen under the same circumstances
whenever interacting with Normans.
b- English was basically the language spoken by the English population
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on all occasions; it was also used by Norman middle classes and sporadically by members of
upper classes in interactions with the ethnically English population. Furthermore, both French
and English were used in church sermons.
c- In writing, English and not French was used in writs (orders) issued in
1070. After 1080 Latin replaced English in legal documents, although a few documents still
appeared in English during the reign of Richard I (1189-99). The first law in French dated form
c. 1140-50.
It is important to notice that The Peterborough Chronicle continued to be
written in English until 1154.
All in all, the English language was used side by side with French from 1066 to 1200
and, although less prestigious, it functioned continuously in social, cultural and other spheres. As
a result of the growing bilingualism in a situation where French had a higher prestige, English
began to undergo serious changes under the influence of French and the reverse was probably
true also, although on a much smaller scale.
However, in 1204 AD, King John lost the province of Normandy to the King of France.
This began a process where the Norman nobles of England became increasingly estranged from
their French cousins. England became the chief concern of the nobility, rather than their estates
in France, and consequently the nobility adopted a modified English as their native tongue. The
conflict of interests between France and England caused the rise of antagonism between the two
countries, which finally resulted in an open military confrontation, the so-called Hundred Years
War, which lasted from 1337 to 1453. The Black Death (1349-50), on the other hand, killed
about one third of the English population. The laboring and merchant classes grew in economic
and social importance, and along with them English increased in importance compared to AngloNorman.
Therefore, English won its way back into universal use and in the 15th century, spoken
French had disappeared, while written French was still used as a medium for social
correspondence. However, the mixture of the two languages came to be known as Middle
English. The most famous example of Middle English is Chaucers Canterbury Tales. Both
French and English were used in correspondence. However in the first quarter of the 15th century,
the final shift towards English as an official and unofficial national written language occurred.
By 1362, the linguistic division between the nobility and the commoners was largely
over. In that year, the Statute of Pleading was adopted, which made English the language of the
courts and it began to be used in Parliament. Richard II and Henry IV were probably the first
English monarchs completely fluent in English. By the middle of the 15th century, only the House
of Lords and the Law Courts were still bound to French and, later on, only the Law Courts
continued with some of their Law French until the 18th century.
IV- INFLUENCE OF FRENCH UPON THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

The strongest French influence took place during the 13th and 14th centuries. These two
centuries were the ones when French vocabulary invaded English language massively. On the
other hand, the French literature of the period was at its peak in the whole of Europe, influencing
other literatures and languages. During the 13th century French romances such as The Matter of
Brittany, The Matter of France and The Matter of England were translated or imitated by the
English.
Chaucer ( topic 43) was of the gentle classes and he clearly spoke French from an early age
and probably first wrote poems in French, the language of the courts in which he served.
Chaucers first book, The Book of the Duchess, can be considered as a mere translation since it
has its French counterpart: Henriette DAngauleme. The Book of the Duchess, also The Book of
Blanche, was written on occasion of the death of Blanche of Navarra, the wife of John of Gaunt.
Translations continued all over the Middle English period. They were a way through which
French literary influence came into the English literature of the period.
By the later 14th century a demand for English had developed, and literary works in
English were wanted not because their audience had no French but because they preferred
English. By the 15th century, London English was firmly established as the dialect spoken by the
denizens of power, a fact comic effect in The Second Shepherds Play. The literary language that
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Chaucer fashioned become the standard written language of elegant writers and the language of
London became the written standard for all formal English.
However, we should point out that French influence upon the English language can be
seen not only in its vocabulary but also in certain idioms and syntactical usages that appeared in
the Middle English period. That is, special terms and stylistic expressions or idiomatic terms,
which are typically French are found in English literary works. Therefore, we will study here the
influence on the lexicon, that is, borrowings, compounding and derivation, and calques on the
one hand, and the influence on the spelling system. We will also pay attention to the influence on
the syntax, regarding the adjective and verb. French influence came from two separate dialects of
this language: the Norman dialect (both spoken and written language), and the French of the Ile
de France.
The words from French which would have been entering the language during Chaucer's lifetime were rather
different in character from those which arrived in the early Middle English period. The French of the Norman
conquerors was a northern dialect of the language, and this dominated the English scene for 200 years . By
the 12th century, however, Paris had come to be established as the centre of influence in France, and new
loan words began to arrive from the dialect of that area.
As the Parisian court grew in prestige, so Parisian French became the prestige dialect. It is this variety of
French which in due course would have been taught in quality schools in England, with the earlier Englishinfluenced varieties of French considered uneducated and perhaps a bit of a joke (if this is the correct
interpretation of Chaucer's remark about the Prioress, who learned her French at the Benedictine nunnery in
Stratford, Middlesex):
And Frenssh she spak ful faire and fetisly [gracefully],
After the scole [school] of Stratford atte Bowe,
For Frenssh of Parys was to hire unknowe [her unknown].
From a lexical point of view, it is important to note these dialect differences, as otherwise it is not possible to
explain certain spellingvariants. There are several pairs of loan words affected (though not all have survived
in Modern English):
Norman French
Parisian French
calange (1225)
challenge (1300)
canchelers (1066)
chanceleres (1300)
wile (1154)
guile (1225)

warrant (1225)
guarantee (1624)
warden (1225)
guardian (1466)
reward (1315)
regard (1430)
conveie(1375)
convoy (1425)
lealte (1300)
loialte (1400)
prisun (1121)
prison (1225)
gaol (1163)
jail (1209)
The central French spellings post-date the Norman ones. The situation is not always clear, partly because
of the uncertainties of English spelling practices at the time ; but there is enough evidence to show that
there were two distinct stages of borrowing from French in early Middle English. (After D. Burnley, 1992.)
A- INFLUENCE ON THE LEXICON

1- BORROWINGS
We could agree with Baugh that, a considerable transference of words is
inevitable when two languages exist side by side for a long time, as French and English did.
Therefore, and as we have been pointing out before, many French words were introduced into
English since the Norman Conquest. However, the earliest French borrowings are found on preconquest documents, and they reflect aristocratic values and tastes. For example, baron,
messenger
It is also true that even though French comes from Latin, prior to the Norman Conquest,
Latin had been only a minor influence on the English language, mainly through vestiges of the
Roman occupation and from the conversion of Britain to Christianity in the 7th century
(ecclesiastical terms such as priest, vicar, and mass came into the language this way), but now
there was a wholesale infusion of Romance (Anglo-Norman) words, as we are about to see.
Therefore, after the conquest, the earliest borrowings appear in the Peterborough
Chronicle. However it is possible that words borrowed from Latin were adapted to French
spelling conventions. The intake of borrowings increased dramatically around the 13th century,
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coinciding with the language shift among the upper class members, who were turning to the use
of English.
The influence of the Normans can be illustrated by looking at two words, beef and cow.
Beef, commonly eaten by the aristocracy, derives from the Anglo-Norman, while the AngloSaxon commoners, who tended the cattle, retained the Germanic cow. Moreover, many legal
terms, such as indict, jury, and verdict have Anglo-Norman roots because the Normans ran the
courts. This split, where words commonly used by the aristocracy have Romantic roots and
words frequently used by the Anglo-Saxon commoners have Germanic roots, can be seen in
many instances.
Therefore, we can appreciate how in changing from French to English they transferred
much of their governmental and administrative vocabulary, their ecclesiastical, legal and military
terms, their familiar words of fashion, food and social life, the vocabulary of Art, learning and
medicine. We can offer some examples related to each of the previous fields.
a- Church and Religion (from words expressing class or rank, to names of
objects or words expressing religious concepts): theology, sermon, confession, baptism, prayer,
virgin
b- Government terms: govern, royal, republic, minister, empireExcept for
king-Queen-Lord-Lady-Earl, most designations of rank are French: Noble, Sir, Prince,
Princess, Duke, Baron
c- Military terms: army, navy, battle, soldier, peace
d- Legal terms: justice, judge, jury, crime, verdict, prison, punishment
e- Fashion terms: fashion, dress, blue, boots, button
f- Culinary terms: bacon, salmon, sardine, fry, dinner, supper, appetite
g- Domestic and social terms: chair, lamp, curtain, towel, blanket, dance
h- High cultural terms: art, poet, prose, painting, cathedral, image
i- Medical terms: pain, stomach, physician, remedy, paralytic
However, borrowings from French are not limited to single words. Whole expressions were
also translated into English: plenty of, according to, by heart, to do justice

11
As a result of all these borrowings, duplications were frequent for many of the French
words that came into use bore meanings already expressed by a native word. In such cases, either
one of the words was eventually lost, or where both survived, they were differentiated in
meaning. In most cases, it was the OE word that died out. E.g. the OE aepele yielded to French
noble, OE leode to French people.
Sometimes, then, French words replaced Old English words; crime replaced firen, and
uncle replaced eam. Other times, French and Old English components combined to form a new
word, as the French gentle and the Germanic man formed gentleman. Other times, two different
words with roughly the same meaning survive into modern English. Thus we have the Germanic
doom and the French judgment, or wish and desire.
However, where both the English and French words survived they were generally
differentiated in meaning: the common word in OE for smell was stench. During the Middle
Ages this was supplemented by the word smell and the French words aroma, odour, and
scent. Most of these have special connotation and smell has become the general word. Stench
now always means an unpleasant smell. Some other examples could be, Mansion (OE) vs. House
(Fr.); Might (OE) vs. Power (Fr.); Wish (OE) vs. Desire (Fr.)
On the other hand, and as it has been pointed out before, it is also important to notice that
due to French resemblance to Latin, it is certain that many of the words English borrowed from
French were originally borrowed by French from Latin. Therefore, the richness of English in
synonyms is largely due to the easy mingling of Latin, French, and native elements. It has been
said that English has a synonym at each level- popular, literary, and learned. Some examples of
this tri-level structure are:
12
English(popular)
French(literary)
Latin(learnt)
Ask
question
interrogate
Time
age
epoch
Rise
mount
ascend
Fire
flame
conflagration
Holy
sacred
Fear
Terror
consecrated
trepidation

There are some words that entered the English language without suffering any modification at all, and we can find
many examples:
Advertise- adopted in the 15th c. meaning originally notice.
Air- 13th c. meaning gas we breathe.
Ambulance- 19th c.
Apart- 14th c. from Old French
Attitude- 17th c. The same word as aptitude.
Boutique- 18th c.
Corporal- 14th c.
Domino- 18th c.
Favour- 14th c.
Grand Prix- 19th c.
Honour- 12th c.
Hors doeuvre- 18th c.
Hotel- 17th c.
Loterie- 18th c.
Machine- 16th c.
Menu- 19th c.
Noble- 13th c.
Opinion- 13th c.
Poison- 13th c.
Possible- 14th c.
Queue- 16th c.
Revolution- 14th c.
Restaurant- 19th c.
Saint- in the OE period
Sentiment- 17th c.
Torrent- 17th c.
Usual- 14th c.
Voucher- 16th c.
2- COMPOUNDING AND DERIVATION

Apart from borrowings, another way to enrich the vocabulary was by
means of composition and derivation. The result was that English adopted many French, Latin or
Greek prefixes or suffixes that they combined with already coined words by means of
grammatical rules. On the other hand, when borrowings entered English they adapted them to

13
their pronunciation and orthography, as for example, the French word cit became city in
English.
Compounding was frequently used in OE, but the productivity of
compounding had declined after the Norman Conquest, and foreign loans were adopted more
freely.
On the other hand, PREFIXATION was highly developed during the Middle English
Period. Some French prefixes used in English are:
Prefix
Date
Example
Re-
13-15th c.
reclassify
De-
15-20th c.
decontaminate
Dis-
14th c.
disallows
Inter-
14th c.
international
Pre-
14-19th c.
Predetermine
Mal-
15th c.
maladapted
Most of the OE SUFFIXES were kept in ME, and their number increased with
borrowings from foreign sources. Some French or Latin suffixes were assimilated:
Suffix
Date
Example
-able
14th c.
breakable, portable
-acy
14th c.
confederacy
-age
13th c.
baggage, passage
-ity
14-16th c.
sentimentality, prosperity
-ize
13-19th c.
finalize, specialize
-ment
14th c.
-ure
14th c.
amusement, shipment
pressure, failure
3- CALQUES
A calque ( or "loan translation") is an expression translated directly from one language into
another.
A famous example of a calque is George Bernard Shaw's "Superman" based on the German
Ubermensch (as used by Nietzsche in 1883). French has been one of the greatest sources of
calqued expressions.
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And how! (et comment').

This expression is used to exclaim, "you can say that again!" or "definitely!
e.g.
A: I bet that hurt!'

B: And how! (= Yes, a lot!)
A bag of tricks (sac des ruses) = resources, special abilities. "The whole bag of tricks" can also
be used to mean "everything":
e.g. Let's see what Roger's got in his bag of tricks -he's sure to have some solution.
e.g. We have to take the costumes and the props to the theatre every night and then bring the
whole bag of tricks home again.
To build castles in Spain ( chateau en Espagne) = to daydream
e.g. Joan, you're building castles in Spain again. Get real, they're not going to offer you the job
of Minister of Culture!
A cry from the heart ( cri de coeur) = an appeal in distress
e.g. The psychologist said that the teenager's suicide attempt was really a cry from the heart.
An embarrassment of riches (Embarras de richesse) = too much of a good thing
e.g. The restaurant's menu was ten pages long! A real embarrassment of riches if you ask me.
The fair sex (le beau sexe) = women. This expression is considered sexist and patronising these
days:
e.g. When men call us "the fair sex" is it because they are the unfair sex or the ugly sex?
Flea market (marche aux puces) = a market that sells second-hand things. The abundance of
second-hand clothes on sale at such markets meant that fleas were rife:
e.g. Jack and I are going to the flea market this afternoon to see if we can find a second-hand
bed for the spare room. Do you want to come, too?
B- INFLUENCE ON THE SPELLING SYSTEM

The English spelling system was also modified after the conquest. Anglo-Norman scribes
introduced thereafter some additions or modifications, such as:
-
the u was replaced by ou as in hus>hous>house

15
the letter o was used to indicate the sound /u/ before m,n,v,w. eg: mne>moon
y began to be used instead of i, whereas y from OE was replaced by u.Eg:

OE synn>sunne>sun
the combination of qu replaced OE cw in many native words. Eg: cwen>queen
C- INFLUENCE ON THE SYNTAX

1- DEVELOPMENT OF PREPOSITIONS
During the ME period, English suffered the leveling of vowels, which
produced the loss of gender and inflectional endings, thus becoming stricter. This loss had to be
compensated by developing a prepositional system, which English lacked. As a result, they took
prepositional phrases from French, such as:
In general from en general
In fact/ Indeed/ In effect from en fait
For why from Pourquoi
By cause that from cause de que
As one that from come cil que
Often times from sourventes fois
2- INFLUENCE ON THE ADJECTIVE

As it is well know, nowadays the adjective in English is placed before the
noun, with only a few exceptions. At that period, however, due to a French influence the
adjective could appear after the noun.
A thynge immortal> an immortal thing.
Later on, this way of using the adjective disappeared, leaving a number of
stereotyped expressions, such as:
the body politic
the state General
the poet Laureate
from times immemorial
Shakespeare himself made use of this construction in Hamlet: poem
16

unlimited, scene inolvidable We also find this feature in Chaucer, who was one of the most
influenced writers. In addition, he used the plural form with the adjective, as a result of the
French influence: the Goddes Celestials, places delitalables
3- THE VERB TO DO
Although the verb to do began to develop in the transitional period from
OE to ME, it was only used with motion verbs. However, in the Middle Ages the various uses of
to do began to develop extensively.
-
to form both interrogative and negative structures.
The ME expression: How does my lord? , has its counterpart in the French one:
Que faites mes Sires?
4- TERMS BUILT UP ON THE BASIS OF THE VERB TO TAKE

To take advantage is a literal translation of Prendre avantage
To take leave comes from Prendre coug
To take at random comes from Prendre randon
Other consequences of the French influence upon the English syntax were:
-
the loss of inflections promoted regular word-order
grammatical gender was early lost
the periphrastic comparison also had French influence (more larger, moste
clennest)
D- INFLUENCE ON ENGLISH LITERATURE

English literature written from the twelfth to the fifteenth century reflects exactly the
situation of the English language. When French was the language of the court and the nobility,
the literature in English was mostly religious or admonitory and appealing to the tastes of the
17
middle and lower classes. With the general adoption of English by all social classes, English
literature reached again one of the highest standards in Europe and produced works of
outstanding caliber. (ex. Chaucer and his followers)
In the middle ages, Europe was a feudal society with its own conventions of service,
honor and obligation. The Norman Conquest brought England more into contact with this
society, and especially with the new flowering of French culture, which was changing the pattern
of all medieval European literature. Thus, for over two centuries the literature produced under
patronage was French both in tone and in language, whereas literature in English was rough and
used for popular or didactic purposes.
There was an important Anglo-French literature in England in the 12th and 13th centuries,
being much of it religious and didactic, as it has been said before. Ex: Le Chasteau dAmour,
Voyage of St. Brendan, Roman de Brut
French works written in England during this period also include a number of romances
(verse stories written for entertainment). The courtly French romance, in which sentiment and
adventure were combined, had a great influence on English literature. Thus, French romances
were translated or imitated by the English, and a lot of French words related to hunting, games or
chivalry were adopted. Some English romances of this period are Matter of Britain, Matter of
Rome
The Fabliau was another type of short narrative poem, humorous and usually satiric. It is
associated with the new middle classes who grew in importance when the feudal system came to
an end. There are few individual fabliaux, though. The only English ones that have survived are
found in The Canterbury Tales, and Dame Sirith.
English poetry was influenced by French too. The rhymed French verse soon replaced
the Anglo-Saxon alliterative tradition in the 14th c. There was an important revival of it in works
such as Piers Plowman (by William Langland), Sir Gawain and The Green Knight.
V- CONCLUSION
18

It is true that during the Norman Conquest the English language was really affected by
French influence. However, English began to rise, little by little, in the social scale, achieving
international renown. The number of French terms still in use today goes up to 7500, and French
is only one of the different languages such as Dutch, German, Spanish, Italian or Indian, among
others, which English took words from.
As English teachers, we should consider using history as a means of overcome some of
our students doubts regarding English vocabulary. We should make our students realize the
strong and determining influence that social changes have on the language in order to make them
see that languages are not fixed structures, but live ones that can be transformed.
We must also bear in mind that this French influence is responsible for the similarity that
many English words have with their Spanish/Valencian equivalents and though it is very useful
sometimes, it is also the cause of false friends. Therefore, we must warn our students not to trust
in words similar to those of their mother tongue, because similarity in form does not always
imply similarity of meaning.

19
VI- BIBLIOGRAPHY
Baugh, W. & Cable, T. 1986. A History of the English Language. Trowbridge, Willshire,.
Crystal, D. 1988. The English Language. Penguin,.
Fernndez, F. 1993. Historia de la Lengua Inglesa. Gredos, Madrid,.
Woodward. 1980. Historia de Inglaterra. Alianza,.
Think in English 63
http://www.orbislingua.com/eaae.htm
http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/history/A083589.html
http://www.wordorigins.org/histeng.htm
http://www.icg.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/language.html
http://www.krysstal.com/english.html
20


42 The Norman Conquest. The Influence of French Upon The English Language. Borrowings and Calcs

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42 The Norman Conquest. The Influence of French Upon The English Language. Borrowings and Calcs

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42. La conquista normanda. Influencia del francs en la lengua inglesa. Prstamos y calcos.

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D- INFLUENCE ON ENGLISH LITERATURE

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II- POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES

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IV- INFLUENCE OF FRENCH UPON THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

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A- INFLUENCE ON THE LEXICON

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2- COMPOUNDING AND DERIVATION

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And how! (et comment').

A: I bet that hurt!'

B- INFLUENCE ON THE SPELLING SYSTEM

the u was replaced by ou as in hus>hous>house

y began to be used instead of i, whereas y from OE was replaced by u.Eg:

the combination of qu replaced OE cw in many native words. Eg: cwen>queen

C- INFLUENCE ON THE SYNTAX

In fact/ Indeed/ In effect from en fait

For why from Pourquoi

By cause that from cause de que

As one that from come cil que

Often times from sourventes fois

2- INFLUENCE ON THE ADJECTIVE

the state General

the poet Laureate

from times immemorial

Shakespeare himself made use of this construction in Hamlet: poem

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to form both interrogative and negative structures.

4- TERMS BUILT UP ON THE BASIS OF THE VERB TO TAKE

the loss of inflections promoted regular word-order

grammatical gender was early lost

D- INFLUENCE ON ENGLISH LITERATURE

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