Jahangirnagar University

Department: Title#

BA (Hons.) Part II Assignment for Final

Final Examination
Examination E201
English 2019

Old and Middle English

Literature

Course No.# Course

Student:
Name of the Rajia Akter
792

Class Roll No. #

181159

Examination Roll No. #

46787

Registration No. # Academic

2017 - 2018
Session #

09
Total number of written pages in the assignment #
Date of Submission: 21.08.2021

Instructions:

1. Don’t copy from other’s assignment. Copying from others will be punished
severely.

2. The student must submit the assignment online (Google classroom).

 3. You must use your name# your EXAM ID only for naming your submitted
file.
4. If you do not have an exam roll, leave the space blank.
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Table of Contents

Introduction

Who were the Normans?

Norman Conquest and its impact

English as the third language

Regaining the Prestige

Conclusion
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What are the influences of Anglo Norman French on the

development of English language?

The reason why the Norman Conquest is particularly important in the history of the English
isles is that it was England's shift into a new era. It marks the transitional point from where
Middle English is traditionally believed to have started. Middle English marks the transition
between English as 'Old Germanic' language and English as we know it today. King Edward
I of England used the language until his death. After the succession of William the
Conqueror the history of England changed significantly as well the event later influenced
English language and culture tremendously. English as a language is heavily influenced by
both Germanic and Romance branch of Indo-European language family.

Normandy is situated in France's northern coast, separated by English Channel, just across
from England. It was named after a group of North-men or Norse men descendants of Viking
settlers originally from Scandinavia who moved there in the course of 9th and 10th centuries.
The Seine provided a convenient route into the country. The Northmen's claim to occupy this
area of France was recognized in year 912 by King Charles the Simple. By the eleventh
century, at the time of the Norman Conquest, the Normans were among the most advanced
and progressive of the peoples of Europe. But they abandoned their own language and
learned to speak French with a convenient amount of Old Norse influence as well embraced
the French culture and customs with a blend of their own. Also another major point is that
they left their religion which is Norse Paganism and accepted Christianity. They began
constructing the massive Norman churches that continue to inspire modern architects.
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Photo source: Routledge A History of English Literature

The Normans brought the French language and culture with them to the mainland England.
The two centuries following the Conquest were a time of consolidation of the two languages.
Since the two languages battled to integrate: bilingualism was common, with French being
widely read and written by the upper and ruling class in England from the twelfth until the
late fourteenth centuries. Anglo-Norman French became the language of monarchs and
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nobles of England which was also employed in court, administration, and culture, while the
peasants and lower classes continued to speak English.
The Middle English period was a time of rapid expansion in the number of words . A
distinctive stylistic feature of the period was the rapid actually the expansion of vocabulary.
Middle English vocabulary contains many groups of words, each having a different origin
and communicating roughly the same meaning but with varied usage patterns. These words
were frequently imported from Latin because Latin was used for religious purpose. But by far
the majority of imports were French. Old English-derived vocabulary items are more
common and more colloquial in English, and they are more central and core to the language;
Latin-derived terms are more formal, scholarly, and bookish in their use; French words are
thought to be more literary in function. It's also worth noting that French terms give words in
the domestic and culinary realms a more elevated manner. England was a trilingual land:
Latin was used in the Church, French was used in noble culture and government, and English
was used by the common people. However, the language was able to not only survive, but
even to assess itself, because of the infusion of French terms. After it was established that
French functioned as a layering, English had a long way to go before becoming one of the
most widely spoken languages in the world.

French terminology also found their way into areas of cultural and political supremacy,
including as law and administration, heraldry, the arts, fashion, and hunting. Middle English
is sometimes referred to as the blend of Old English and Anglo-Norman. The English
language was influenced by Norman French terms, and the use of French-names rather than
the Anglo-Saxon names was another evidence. Male names like William, Robert, Richard
were quickly becoming more prevalent; feminine names were progressively changing. The
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invasion of Norman had very little effects on the placenames following Scandinavia's
previous invasions.
The Norman effect is thought to have added ten thousand terms to many areas such as law,
cookery, art, architecture, building, learning, medical, military issues, and the list goes on.
The Normans were powerful; therefore, it was only natural that they would utilize French as
their official language. These terms did not all appear at the same time, but with time and
with growth, they all found their way into the English language. Terms like ‘battle,'
‘conquest,' ‘sword,' ‘armour,' ‘court,' ‘justice,' ‘jury,' till words like ‘courtesy,' ‘honour,'
‘damsel' that arrived once with the ‘romance' and ‘chevalry,' or generic nouns like
‘adventure,' ‘people,' and ‘honesty.' Kitchen illustrates an intriguing phenomenon, in which
humans still use language to identify creatures. Old English terms (ox, sheep, pig, deer) are
used to refer to the raw meat, whereas French words such as "beef," "mutton," "pork," and
"venison" are used to refer to the cooked flesh. Perhaps predictably, many of them related to
matters of crown and nobility (e.g. crown, castle, prince, count, duke, viscount, baron, noble,
sovereign, heraldry); of government and administration (e.g. parliament, government,
governor, city); of court and law (e.g. court, judge, justice, accuse, arrest, sentence, appeal,
condemn, plaintiff, bailiff, jury, felony, verdict, traitor, contract, damage, prison); of war and
combat (e.g. army, armour, archer, battle, soldier, guard, courage, peace, enemy, destroy); of
authority and control (e.g. authority, obedience, servant, peasant, vassal, serf, labourer,
charity); of fashion and high living (e.g. mansion, money, gown, boot, beauty, mirror, jewel,
appetite, banquet, herb, spice, sauce, roast, biscuit); and of art and literature (e.g. art, colour,
language, literature, poet, chapter, question). Curiously, though, the Anglo-Saxon words
cyning (king), cwene (queen), erl (earl), cniht (knight), ladi (lady) and lord persisted.1

While humble trades retained their Anglo-Saxon names (e.g. baker, miller, shoemaker, etc),
the more skilled trades adopted French names (e.g. mason, painter, tailor, merchant, etc).
While the animals in the field generally kept their English names (e.g. sheep, cow, ox, calf,
swine, deer), once cooked and served their names often became French (e.g. beef, mutton,
pork, bacon, veal, venison, etc). Sometimes a French word completely replaced an Old
English word (e.g. crime replaced firen, place replaced stow, people replaced leod, beautiful
replaced wlitig, uncle replaced eam, etc). Sometimes French and Old English components
combined to form a new word, such as the French gentle and the Germanic man combined to
formed gentleman. Sometimes, both English and French words survived, but with

1
https://www.thehistoryofenglish.com/history_middle.html
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significantly different senses (e.g. the Old English doom and French judgement, hearty and
cordial, house and mansion, etc).2 In some cases, French words completely replaced English
ones; the English word “firen” was replaced by the French word “crime.”

As French became increasingly popular and desirable among Englishmen, the number of
French terms and language units that entered English speech and vocabulary increased
naturally. Furthermore, whole new terms were created by combining existing French and
English ones. Sometimes, both French and English words would be combined to create new
words. French scribes changed the common Old English letter pattern "hw" to "wh" The
pronunciation of hwaer became where, hwaenne became when and hwil became while.
Sometimes French and Old English components are merged to produce a new term, such as
gentleman, which combines the French gentle and the Germanic man. In other cases, both
English and French terms persisted, though with drastically different meanings.

During the Norman ruling era, when English had no official status, it had risen to become the
third language in its own nation. It was mostly a spoken language, and it essentially
descended to the level of a patois or creole. It's difficult to determine how long the language
situation described above would have lasted if the conditions under which it arose had
remained the same. As long as England held its continental lands and the nobility of England
was bound to the continent by ties of property and family, there was a legitimate reason for
the use of French among the island's ruling elite. If the English had held control of two-thirds
of France, French might have remained in use in England indefinitely. However,
circumstances changed shortly after 1200, when England lost Normandy. English as a
language reclaimed universal use in the 14th century, whereas French nearly died out in the
15th.

Following the Norman Conquest, Northern French was the spoken language of monarchs and
the ruling class of the society. In the twelfth century, Parisian French was the preferred
language of the English court. It was perceived as more prestigious than Anglo-Norman or
other variants. French was the language of instruction in English schools until the second half
of the fourteenth century. There was a rise of nationalism among English people at the end of
the 13th century. The 13th century saw a transition in the importance of England's main

2
https://www.thehistoryofenglish.com/history_middle.html
E201/2021/Page 8 of 9
languages. Social customs, as well as corporate and governmental conventions, helped
French become a dominant language. Meanwhile, until the 17th century, English maintained
consistent progress throughout the decade. The Vikings and Norman invasions in particular
destroyed up to 85% of Anglo-Saxon vocabulary. Two hundred years after the Norman
Conquest it was English, not French, which developed into English's official language.
Another crucial point in the history of Europe when Black Death of 1349 - 1350 killed one
third of the English population. This left a major impact on the English society since Church
were run by Latin speaking priests and monks. The Hundred Year War against France (1337 -
1453) had the effect of branding French as the language of the enemy. By 1385, English had
become the language in schools. Chaucer’s writing in vernacular English was a crucial
turning point although a voluminous amount of his words is of French origin.

In conclusion, the Norman conquest of England was not simply a physical invasion by
William the Conqueror; it also had linguistic consequences, significantly altering the English
language's destiny. William had brought far-reaching consequences with his English crown.
Many people still spoke Old English throughout the country at the time of the conquest. After
William the Conqueror's conquest in 1066, Old English appeared in writings produced in
English monasteries for at least a century. Today English is one of the world's most widely
spoken languages. It is the official language of about thirty countries, and many more claims
English as their second language. Before the conquest, the language was known as Old
English, and after the conquest, it was known as Middle English.
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References

1. Carter, Ronald, and John McRae. The Routledge History Of Literature In English.
Routledge, 2002.
2. Baugh, A. C, and Thomas Cable. A History Of The English Language. Routledge,
Taylor & Francis Group, 2013.
3. Blake, N. F. A History Of The English Language. Palgrave, 1996.
4. https://www.thehistoryofenglish.com/history_middle.html