Impact of French upon English Language After 1066

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by a rule designed for the monks of St Peter’s, Westminster, to use French or Latin instead of English. Despite increasing French literature during the first half of this period, the amount of texts found suggests that Latin was the main competitor of English as a written language. This idea is supported by more manuscripts of Ancren Riwle written in English and Latin than in French (Wilson, 1943). Through the analysis of charters, which documented land grants and privileges, Latin was also kept as the diplomatic language in England. So while French was mainly used for administrative purposes and Latin for diplomatic purposes, English was apparently ‘demoted’ for only everyday communication and primarily by lower classes. This traditional view is reinforced by limited evidence that suggests French was common amongst the peasantry. However, the religious Katherine Group texts demonstrate not only the use of English for important aspects in society, but also internal, such as spelling, changes in Old English that contribute to the development of Middle English (van Gelderen, 2006).

Under Norman reign, approximately 85% of English words were lost to French influence (Mastin, 2011). However, it is key to consider the difficulty of making such estimates. English borrowings from French were used in a wide range of areas involving government, medicine, religion, learning, food, art, and fashion. These words include nouns beginning with the prefixes “con-”, “ex-”, and “pre-” or ending with the suffixes “-age”, “-tion”, and, “-ity” (Mastin, 2011). Less specialised were also borrowed from French, which include “common”, “able”, and “adventure”. Interestingly, simple things retained their English names whereas more complex things adopted French words. For example, the level of skill required for working in a particular trade. Thus, “shoemaker” is English and “merchant” is French. This external language change reflects the social class system in England in this period. Similarly, while English words identify live animals (e.g. cow), French words identify food (e.g. “beef”). This change displays how English semantics or the meaning of words relied on French vocabulary. The Normans also changed the Old English letter pattern “hw” to “wh”, which corresponds with the letter patterns, “ch” and “th”, and short vowels were located by consonant doubling, for example, “siting” became “sitting” (Mastin, 2011). Another French influence upon English can be seen with the indication of plurals as /en/ is replaced by /s/, although words like “children” are an exception (Mastin, 2011). Due to rarely known French-English hybrid words (e.g. “endearment” which contains the English root word, “dear”, and the Romance prefix, “en”, and suffix, “ment”), Dalton-Puffer (1996) infers that French had a weak influence on English morphology.

After 1204, the political separation and ongoing tension between France and England resulted in the more prevalent use of English in England, as the Norman aristocracy that chose to stay with their valuable English land holdings lost ties with the French culture and eventually became ‘Anglicised’. Intermarriages between Normans and Anglo-Saxons drove this process by facilitating bilingualism. During this period, the formation of bilingual word lists shows the mixture of French and Old English that add to the progress of Middle English. Wilson (1943) infers that trilingualism was highly probable amongst the higher clergy. Unlike during the several decades after the conquest, by around 1250, regular French speech and monoglot French speakers were rare. And although the French language was still studied by the upper class, it did not it evolve rapidly in England.

French impact upon English from 1267-1466

Relative to the time period discussed above, French influence upon English between 1267 and 1466 was weak. French speakers adopted English because it is challenging for immigrants to only pass on their native language beyond the third generation (van Gelderen, 2006). A significant event during this period was the Black Death of 1349-1350, which killed around one third of England’s population including a huge number of Latin-speaking clergy. This effect caused the growing social and economic importance of English-speaking citizens and the eventual collapse of the linguistic divide between the social classes. In 1362, the Statute of Pleading, although ironically written in French, reinstated English as the official language of the law courts (Mastin, 2011). This allowed for more internal language changes, for example, the reduction of demonstratives and strong verbs. Another change is the shift from the /m/ sound to the /n/ sound at the end of a word, which gradually led to schwa, as the /n/ sound got dropped and left an unstressed vowel. By the end of this period, the English language continued to develop with limited French influence.

Conclusion

Through exploration of the impact of French upon the English language between 1066 and 1466, it is evident that Old English transitioned into Middle English as a result of both internal and external changes that interacted. The Norman Conquest initiated such changes and although French greatly affected English in many ways, especially during the first half of the period, ongoing political, social, and cultural tension supported English in maintaining grammar and individual evolution.

Reference List

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