TOPIC 42. THE NORMAN CONQUEST.

THE INFLUENCE OF FRENCH ON THE ENGLISH

LANGUAGE. BORROWINGS AND CALQUES.

INDEX

1. INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................... 2

2. THE NORMAN CONQUEST .................................................................................................... 3

a) 1066-1204 English in decline............................................................................................. 3

b) 1204-1348 English in the ascendant ................................................................................. 4

c) 1348-1509 English triumphant .......................................................................................... 5

3. BORROWINGS AND CALQUES .............................................................................................. 6

4. THE FRENCH INFLUENCE ....................................................................................................... 6

5. CONCLUSION......................................................................................................................... 8

6. REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................... 9

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 1. INTRODUCTION

The unit I have chosen to write about is number 42 on the Norman Conquest, the

influence of French on the English language, and borrowings and calques. This topic

could be associated with others of this state exam syllabus such as 41 on Romanisation

and the influence of Latin on the English Language.

First, in order to contextualize the subject matter of this essay, a brief overview of

the current educational legislation and its links to this topic will be provided. Following

this, I will present the main historical events during the Norman period focusing on the

status of both English and French. This analysis will be performed by dividing the

period into three different stages: English in decline (1066–1204), English in the

ascendant (1204–1348), and English triumphant (1348–1509). The next section will

be devoted to the influence of the French language and will provide numerous examples

of loanwords. Finally, my conclusion will deliver my perspective on this fascinating

topic.

It should be noted that in the Canary Islands, Decree 315/2015 of 28th August

establishes the organization of Compulsory Secondary Education and Bachillerato, and

Decree 83/2016 of 4th July establishes the core curriculum for these educational

stages. As stated in the first foreign language curriculum, our subject contributes

directly to the acquisition of the Linguistic Competence (LC). We could establish a

link between this essay‟s topic -partly on borrowings and the aforementioned

competence. Learning loanwords and cognates will help our students build new

vocabulary, one of the dimensions of the linguistic component of the LC. The

historical context we will provide next could be associated with the sociocultural

component of the LC as well as with the Cultural Awareness and Expression

competence.

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2. THE NORMAN CONQUEST

a) 1066-1204 English in decline

As we have mentioned before, this topic will start with the Norman Invasion

of 1066, possibly the most cataclysmic event in English history. It was the last,

but the most thoroughgoing, invasion of the country by foreigners. It unified

England for the first time and it was the most important event in the history of

English language. Politically and linguistically it was a French conquest of

England but, ethnically, it represented the last of the great Germanic invasions of

England.

William I, the Conqueror, duke of Normandy was a descendant of Rollo, a

Viking who terrorized northern France and invaded the area which became

known as Normandy. The Normand gave up their language in favour of French

but it was highly influenced by their original Germanic dialect.

After his victory at Hastings in 1066, William subjugated the rest of the

country but it was not until 10 years later that he controlled the whole country.

Most of the Anglo-Saxon nobility was killed at Hasting or in the following

rebellions and the remaining accepted William‟s kingship. One of the reasons of

this acceptance was that William brought to the country peace and stability and,

it is true that he had subjugated them but it was just a business action, not a holy

war. William allowed the citizens to continue with their laws and customs once

they did not conflict with his own regulations.

William replaced Englishmen by Frenchmen because he did not trust them

and he wanted to avoid new rebellions and to reward his French followers for

the support. Even the scriptoria of the monasteries were taken over by French

speakers. He also imported the feudal system, the notion of state as a hierarchy

in which every member was directly responsible to the person above in that

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hierarchy. For that reason, English speakers had little opportunities to

communicate with those of other areas and dialectal differences appeared.

The linguistic situation in Britain was quite complex. French was the native

language of a minority, but a minor part that had all the control over the rest of

the population because they controlled the political, ecclesiastical, economic and

cultural life of the nation. The major part of the population spoke English but it

had no prestige. Latin was used in the written language of the church. Norse

was still spoken in those areas of Scandinavian settlements. Finally, Celtic was

spoken in areas such as Wales and Scotland.

Within a short time after the Conquest, there was a fair amount of

bilingualism in England. It is true that the kings did not learn that language but

the nobles had to in order to give orders to their underlings and to receive

reports. Sometimes the French kings did not marry English women but the

nurses who took care of their children were English so they learnt a second

language. From the beginning, English speakers became familiar with terms

such as tax, state, duty and pay. English household learned French words like

table, serve, dine or boil. The English clergy learnt terms as religion, saviour,

pray and trinity.

b) 1204-1348 English in the ascendant

King John of England lost in 1204 all of Normandy except the Channel

Islands and, as a result, landowners who had possessions in both France and

England were forced to give up their properties in one of the two countries.

The result of the loss of Normandy was a decline of interest in France and

French among those Anglo-Norman landholders who had decided to remain in

England. This lack of interest was exacerbated by the fact that the language they

spoke, now a different dialect called Anglo-French, was ridiculed by speakers of

the rising standard French based on the Parisian dialect.

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 Also, there were other reasons by which French became less important in

England as the increasement of communication among English speakers of

different regions. This new communication had as a consequence the elimination

of the dialectal differences and the beginning of a new Standard English, based

on the London dialect with features of all dialectal areas.

By the 13th and 14th century children no longer learned French as a native or

second language and it had to be taught by imported teachers. French was used

to teach Latin, but some time later it was replaced by English. The decline of

French could be seen by rules requiring the use of French and by the appearance

of books designed to teach it.

c) 1348-1509 English triumphant

French remained the official language of England until the second half of the

fourteenth century, but two events sealed its fate and guaranteed the resurgence

of English: The Black Death and the Hundred Years War.

The Black Death originated in Asia and soon spread into Europe and arrived

to the British Isles but this term was not used until the late 17th century. The first

known case in England was a seaman who arrived at Weymouth, Dorset, from

Gascony in 1348. One-third of the people in England died of this pandemic.

Because of this high mortality, surviving workers demanded higher pay for their

labour and the ruling classes were forced to respect the lower classes because

they needed them so badly. This respect increased the prestige of English, which

was the only language of those lower classes.

The second event was The Hundred Years War, in which England had

notable success but the French, commanded by Joan of Arc, defeated the English

and they lost all their possessions except the Port of Calais. Once England had

no possessions in France they considered it was not necessary to continue

learning or using French.

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3. BORROWINGS AND CALQUES

The next section of this topic will move on to discuss the influence of French on

the English language, as well as borrowings and calques. In order to avoid

misunderstanding, it would be necessary to define these concepts.

- Borrowing is the term used in comparative and historical linguistics to refer to a

linguistic form taken by one language or dialect from another; such borrowing

are usually known as „loanwords‟. Restaurant, citizen or chapter are examples

of borrowing which have come into English from French. According to Einar

Haugen in “The Analysis of Linguistic Borrowing” there are five different types

of lexical borrowing: Loanword (the word and the meaning are borrowed. For

example, pizza), calque (a literal word-for-word translation. For example, free

verse from vers libre), loan-rendition (the translation vaguely captures the

original meaning), loan-blend (one part of the compound is borrowed, the other

is translated), and semantic-loan (only the meaning is borrowed).

- Calque, as we have seen above, is a type of loanword that is a translation of a

word or expression in another language.

Now we have explained both terms we can set that the main difference is that a

loanword is not translated into English (pizza in Italian is pizza) whereas a calque is.

Sometimes it is a whole phrase or compound noun where each component word is

literally translated.

4. THE FRENCH INFLUENCE

By 1400, the nature of the English language had been transformed by the

influence of the French loanwords. For the first hundred years after the Conquest,

the rate at which the French loans entered English seems to have been relatively

slow for two reasons. 1. It took several generations of bilingualism for English

speakers to feel comfortable using French words and, 2. The lack of texts in English

before 1200, if we do not have texts, it is impossible to know if French words were

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being used. Books as “The Ormulum” and “Layamon’s Brut”, both written in

English about the year 1200 have few French loans, which is very surprising in the

case of the Brut because it is a translation of a French work. On the other hand,

“The Owl and the Nightingale”, written at approximately the same time, has several

French loans. Different words have permeated the English language such as legal

terms, humbler words and adjectives. It seems that they were not limited to specific

semantic fields.

At the beginning of the 13th century the appearance of loans started to increase,

they crested during the 14th century and began to decline at the end of the fourteenth

century. Nowadays, thousands of French words are still used by English speakers

and it has been possible to identify a dozen broad semantic areas.

 Relationships: aunt, uncle, cousin.

 House: porch, cellar.

 Food: dinner, taste.

 Fashion: dress, garment.

 Sports: amusement, recreation.

 Art: art, painting, sculpture.

 Education: study, science, university.

 Medicine: cure, contagious.

 Government: state, country.

 Law: judge, jury.

 Church: chapel, choir.

 Military: enemy, battle.

With this great amount of French loanwords it is surprising to discover that are

part of English life that remained untouched by French influence. These areas are:

shipping and seafaring (in which we can find loans from German and Dutch) and

farming and agriculture. In the last area, the reason was that the French nobility

allowed English workers to work the fields by themselves so farming terminology

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remains native English. It is also important to say that most of the earliest French

loanwords came from Norman French, but by the fourteenth century, were from

Central or Parisian French which was probably the most prestigious dialect in

France.

Talking about the French influence upon the English language, it is necessary to

point out that their major contribution were nouns, verbs or adjectives but they

contributed little or nothing to English grammar. We have no pronouns from

French, just a few of our prepositions and conjunctions (in spite of, because, during,

regarding, in case) are French but, they came into our language as nouns or verbs

but they were converted to function words.

Nowadays, French continues to influence the English lexicon more heavily than

any other living language, and it has contributed hundreds of loanwords to Present-

Day English.

5. CONCLUSION

To conclude, we could point out that English speakers may not be famous for

being au fait with foreign languages, but they do use words taken from other
languages every day. In the previous sentence “au fait” is an obvious example but

“famous”, “foreign” or “languages” are also borrowed words. Knowledge of what

has been borrowed, and from where, provides an invaluable insight into the

international relations of the English language. Within the context of our secondary

classes, students will be able to benefit from knowing such relations to consolidate

and enlarge their vocabulary. In addition to present the advantages of loanwords and

cognates to our students, we should expose the learning obstacles of “false friends”.

After this thorough analysis of the French influence on English, we should bring

this essay to an end by stressing that for the first time in history, English may be a

lender rather than a borrower. Who knows how this situation will evolve? Only time

will tell.

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 To finalise my presentation, I would like to make a comment on how English

teachers should approach this topic when teaching the target language. According to

Decree 315/2015, 28th August, which establishes the organization of Compulsory

Education and Bachillerato, and the Decree 83/2016, 4th July, which establishes the

core curriculum for these educational stages, one of the goals is the knowledge of

the most relevant cultural aspects of the target language. Grasp on the history of

English language will help students to familiarise with different cultures and to

identify wide range of French lexicon. As an example activity, I would like to

suggest the comparison of English language during the period after the Norman

Conquest with the Spanish language. It can be presented as a speaking activity

requiring the participation of all the students, so that they can compare the foreign

language they are learning with their own language.

6. REFERENCES

Durkin, P. (2014). Borrowed Words: A History of Loanwords in English. Oxford:

Haugen, E. (1950). The Analysis of Linguistic Borrowing. Language, 26, 210–

Millward, C. M. & Hayes, M. (1989). A Biography of the English Language.