The Normans

[...] It is impossible to understand the effect of the influence of French in the Middle English period without knowing the historical and social conditions operative at the time, the relations between conquerors and conquered, the language used by the two races, their respective stand­ards of culture. Moreover, the question of dominant and submerged races, of superior and inferior cultures, is an important factor in the way one language may influence another, and so this factor must of necessity be considered in this particular case, where the effect is so obvious.

In spite of Latin, Celtic, and Scandinavian influence, the general character and vocabulary of Old English in the middle of the eleventh century was essentially what it had been five centuries before, but in 1066 came the Norman Conquest, an event which had more influence on the Eng­lish language than any other from outside... [...] There is an important difference between the influence now to be examined and the earlier foreign influences. The native language was not completely driven out, leaving little impression on the language of the conquerors, as had happened when the Angles and Saxons conquered the Brit­ons, nor modified by a related language, as in the case of the Scandinavian invasion, but instead a second lan­guage was established in the country, in use side by side with the native language. The comparison may be carried further; Scandinavian first came into, and influenced chiefly, the north and north-east, whereas French was most influen­tial in the south and south-east, a fact which became of increasing importance as a standard English language gradu­ally developed in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Scan­dinavian modified the existing language through related words and constructions, but French introduced entirely new words. Scandinavian made its way into the everyday speech of the people, whereas, although many French words eventually became part of our everyday speech, and can hardly be recognized today as foreign loan-words, the French ele­ment was in the main composed of words reflecting a high state of culture, and influenced at first chiefly the lan­guage of the upper classes. Or we may look at the question from another angle: English had held its ground easily against the competition of the native Celtic of the subject race; it had had little competition from Latin, as a spoken language; it had been but little affected by the closely-related Scandinavian, the language of a conquering people, probably because the conquest did not last long and was closely followed by another conquest, and also because the peoples and languages were closely related. But now we find English facing the competition of an entirely different language, that of a conquering people who were able to maintain their position as distinctly foreign rulers for a comparatively long period. [...]

English, which before the Conquest had been the offi­cial language of the country, used by all classes of people, and in which an important literature had been written, became merely the language of a subject lower class. In addition, the knowledge of French gave access to a rich literature. For nearly three centuries much of the literature written in England was written in French, translated from French, or strongly influenced by French models, and so it is not strange that the literary language was enriched by many French words, and these gradually made their way into familiar speech, so that today a large part of our vocabulary consists of words introduced from French in the four centuries following the Conquest. The influence which French exerted on our language is seen in all aspects of life, social, political, and religious, and hardly any walk of life was unaffected by it. Had the Conquest not taken place it may be that English would have developed along entirely different lines, keeping in the main its Germanic characteristics, particularly as regards vocabulary, much as the German and Scandinavian languages have done, and therefore lacking the tremendous number of Romance words which are now an accepted part of our language. [...]

...it may be interesting to consider the general impli­cation of such a large adoption of French loan-words into English. The first point to be emphasized is that here we are not dealing with completely new ideas introduced from a different type of civilization and culture, but rather the imposing by a dominant race of their own terms for ideas which were already familiar to the subject race. Such a state of affairs obviously means that there will arise pairs of words, the native and the foreign term, for the same idea, and a struggle for survival between the two, so that one of the words was eventually lost from the language, or else survived only with some differentiation of meaning.

Let us first take examples of native words replaced by French words; it is possible to compile a very long list, so here we must confine ourselves to a few, merely by way of illustration... .cynelic was replaced by royal, cynestol by throne, cynehelm by crown. [...] Dema was replaced by judge, firen by crime, rihtoew by justice, sacu by (law) suit. [...] Much of the loss of Old English vocabulary can be accounted for by the influx of French words for the same or a similar idea in the Middle English period.

Sometimes both the words have survived side by side, but in that case there has usually been some differentia­tion of meaning. [...] Although dema had given way to judge we still use the verb deem [...], the unmutated form related to dema — judge, and deman — tojudge. [...] There are many examples of these pairs of words, one a native word, the other a Romance loan, originally of either identical or similar meaning, with some distinction made today, such as [...] freedom and liberty, happiness and felicity, help and aid, hide and conceal, [...] love and charity, meal and repast, wedding and marriage, wish and desire [...], and we should find that the native word has a more emo­tional sense, is homely and unassuming, whereas the loan­word is colder, aloof, more dignified, more formal. Some­times, though very rarely, the native word may have the higher tone, as in deed and act or action. An obvious example to illustrate this point is the native stink and stench alongside perfume and scent [...].

Sometimes the word may have disappeared from the standard language and yet have survived in regional dia­lect. OE earn was replaced by uncle, yet erne still survives in Scots dialect; flitan disappeared from the standard lan­guage, but some dialects retain flite — to struggle, contend, especially with words.

This large-scale adoption had two other effects on our vocabulary. We saw that in the Old English period many ideas new to the English were expressed by a native form derived from a combination of native material, such as bocerе, sundor-halza, prowung, and many others. Another characteristic of Old English had been its ability to form many derivatives from a single root, thus extending the vocabulary at will by forming noun, verb, adjective or adverb, once the basic root was available. The adoption of these numerous French words in the Middle English period marks the beginning of the decline of these two native characteristics. In spite of the wholesale change in the character of the vocabulary, this change in the nature of the language is perhaps the greatest effect of French, and later Latin, influence. We have an entirely new ap­proach to language, which is now expanded chiefly by borrowing, not creating. [...]