In 1077 William the conquerer ruler of

Normandy in England ordered the

construction of a special building.It
was to be part Palace part Treasury part
prison and part fortres. It was the
White Tower on the banks of the Thames
in London and it was a powerful symbol
of the way that the Normans were
imposing themselves on this conquered
country. They hadn't just brought armies
and architecture to mark their authority
that also brought their language .The
French vocabulary of power forced its
way into the English language crown and
court were both French words so a castle
and tower and the Barons who built them
and so our obedience and justice treason
and prison the anglo-saxon Kings had
governed using the old English language
now the Normans used French and Latin
English had become the third language in
its own country it would take over 300
years to emerge from the shadows

In the years following the arrival of

Williams army at Pevensey the Normans
tightened their grip on England .Now part
of a kingdom that extended across the
channel across the land Williams men
took over every position of power in the
state and in the church within 60 years
the monk and historian William of
Moultrie could write no English one
today is an earl or bishop or abbot the
newcomers Nord the wealth and guts of
England or is there any hope of ending
the misery he wrote in Latin written
English which had managed to establish
itself so boldly before the conquest was
now dying it breathed its last here now
Peterborough Cathedral in the mid 12th
century part of Peterborough Abbey
mnemonic is met him two oxen formed to
the king and he yaw him but a blockage
around the country monks had been
recording the great events of the last
six hundred and fifty years in books
known as the anglo-saxon chronicles they
were written in the language of the
people
English and there was nothing like them
anywhere in mainland Europe Arkansas
suave Amazon and that talk and that
spawn and Lewis Albert since the Norman
conquest of 1066 these unique accounts
had been abandoned one by one the
Peterborough Chronicle was the last
survivor in 1154 a monk recorded that
the abbey had a new abbot a man with a
very French name of William de zhua
Tamira chosen author of yourself named
of out of you
His car good care and good mark and
flair haven't begun he has made a good
beginning the monk rice christus in
water Christ grant that he may end as
well with this last entry six and a half
centuries of written history came to an
end old English had ceased to be the
language of record in the land but that
didn't mean that it was going to go away
since the conquest English in varying
dialects had remained the language
spoken by 90% of the population from the
south coast to the uplands of southern
Scotland just a few miles north of here
even further north in Scotland and
Wesley Wales the culture and language
were still Celtic Old English had
continued to develop and change partly
as a result of contact with the language
of the days particularly here in the
north the grammar was becoming simpler
more plurals were being formed by adding
an S nah man for example the old english
plural of name became nom s which would
become our names prepositions were
performing more of the functions of the
old word endings and word order was
becoming more fixed despite being the
officially ignored language English
would continue to evolve and change and
it would endure resisting and absorbing
the invaders language until the time
came free to resume centre stage as a
nation's language
the Peterborough chronicle of 1154 also
recorded that in nature the people of
England acquired a new king count Henry
oppose you grandson of William the
Conqueror and the first of the
Plantagenet Kings a lover of learning he
spoke fluent Latin as well as French but
no English and the English acquired a
new Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine the
daughter of William the tenth of
Aquitaine Henry ii was crowned here in
Westminster Abbey in a lavish ceremony
the clergy was silk vestments that were
more costly than anything ever seen
before in England the king and queen and
the great barons were silk and brocade
robes the luxury was fitting it was
thought for an occasion that Solomon
eyes the bringing together of so much
land and wealth
Henry brought his inheritance of William
the Conqueror's land in England and
northern France
Ilana the greatest heiress in the
Western world brought with her a great
sway that what is now France from the
Loire to the Pyrenees from the Rhone to
the Atlantic
this was a huge Kingdom the greater part
of it made up of french-speaking lands
across the channel as it grew the
English lands and the English language
became an ever less significant part of
it French and Latin were even more
firmly entrenched as the languages of
the court and government of the country
yet after their coronation Henry and
Eleanor rode in procession along the
Strand and it's reported that the people
shouted was hail and vibe at Rex wishing
them long life in English and in Latin
English was still alive in the streets
in the court and royal palaces new ideas
from across the channel were in the air
and new words to express them words
which sang of Corte sea and honor
questing and damsels justing and
tournaments French words everyone the
macabre romance and chivalry was heard
in England not on ours whose blood see
our two friend Nell benkei was well
Chios we Del Mar so free
if ways lamellas numb where are done
turning on smells a Blanca part tommy
goldman's Alana England's new queen was
considered the most cultured woman in
Europe it was she more than any other
who patronized the poets and troubadours
whose verses and songs created the
romantic image of the Middle Ages as the
age of chivalry a glorious vision that
was never realized outside the pages of
medieval literature a hundred years
before the word chiavari formed around
the word for horse had simply meant
cavalry
it was the fierceness of the mounted
warriors that had carried the day for
the Normans at Hastings and since then
many English peasants had come to know
the mounted Norman soldiers as little
more than thugs and bullies who run the
country by force
but now mounted warriors had become
Knights and the word chivalry came to
mean a whole model of ideals and
behavior infused with honor and altruism
one that prescribed how to act towards
one's liege lord ones friends and
enemies and of course firth cruel ladies
ideas had shifted and words with them
it was in Eleanor's reign that French
writers brought the stories of Arthur
and his Knights out of the history books
and into poetry cultivating a language
far richer and subtler than the one that
the first Norman settlers had spoken and
written the poet's rhapsodize about
Eleanor celebrating her as the most
beautiful woman in the world pouring out
the impossible longing for the perfect
woman that was at the heart of the cult
of courtly love the poetry of affairs of
the heart
had come to England singing a pain and
joy and beginning a line in literature
that runs through Shakespeare's sonnets
and the great Romantic poets to the
day's three-minute pop lyrics
Oh
Oh
Oh
[ __ ]
meanwhile England's native inhabit that
song was first recorded in 1225 making
it one of the early species of English
that's still recognizable today there's
not a single French word in it words
like summer come so see and you can be
traced right back to the flatlands of
Frisia
spring and wood can be found in the
anglo-saxon poem Beowulf and Mary sing
and loud in the works authorized by
Alfred the Great there's a pure line of
old English vocabulary here in a song
that comes from the peasants and the
land at the opposite end of the social
scale from the troubadour songs the
French language of the Grand Lord hasn't
penetrated down to the common people
certainly the native English and the
fresh overlords live very different
lives William the Conqueror had
introduced the system of feudalism into
England and they're evolving it still
defined all economic and social
relations expressed in French words like
villain and vassal laborer bailiff and
factor
in the country where 95% of the
population lived the English were
essentially serfs another French word
not technically slaves but tied for life
to their Lords estate which they worked
for him and at a subsistence level for
themselves while the english-speaking
peasants lived in small cottages or huts
their french-speaking masters live
privileged lives in their castles our
modern vocabulary still reflects the
distinction between them English
speakers tended the living cattle which
we still call by the old English words
of ox or cow French speakers ate the
prepared meat which came to the table
which we call by the French word beef in
the same way the English sheep became a
French mutton calf became veal deer
venison and pig pork English animal for
french fries in every case
the English laboured the French feasted
where English underlings and French
masters lived and worked together the
boundaries between their languages
inevitably wore away and the vocabulary
zuv courted countryside mingle for
example a local man would have been
involved in the training and flying of a
nobleman's forks and some now common
words have come to us from for canary
the word Falcon itself comes from French
as there's a leash which refer to the
strip of material used to secure the
bird and block on which the bird stood
our word
Kaja comes from the often elderly man
who assisted the falconer by carrying
the Hawks on a cage or cage bait
described the bird beating its wings and
trying to fly away check mate at first
refusing to come to the fist
how idea comes from a Lada device still
used in training and recalling the hawk
Quarry was the reward given to the
Falcon for making a kill when a bird
melted she was said to Moo and from that
hand the name of the buildings where
Hawks were kept Mews today that name can
still be seen attached to streets were
estate agents rather than hawks hunt
their quarry
we've just heard nine French words that
came into English from warn activity
alone steadily French vocabulary was
pouring over English the French
influence on the English language as a
whole is enormous in terms of vocabulary
not in terms of grammar but in terms of
a cabarets unmatched by any other
language for example fruit replaces the
old English wisdom pretty quickly at
within a space of about 40 or 50 years
Weston simply isn't used but the
majority of words don't replace the old
English they stand side by side with
them so we have word like apple in Old
English meant any kind of fruit whereas
what happens is because fruit comes in
and is basically expresses that Apple
starts to mean a very specific sort of a
fruit I think it's not true to say that
generally speaking French words came
into the language and Elstad the old
english words out of it Jenny what seems
to happen is that the the Old English
were simply narrows in meaning
it was now almost 150 years since the
Norman Conquest though the people at the
top had changed the ascendancy of French
was still absolute written English that
triumphant achievement of Alfred and
English scholars was dead and spoken
English was being progressively
colonized throughout society by French
words but the balance of power and of
languages was about to shift
of course early 13th century English
society consisted of more than English
peasants grubbing the land and
french-speaking nobility lording it in
their castles trade was on the increase
the wall trade in particular made part
of England rich on the proceeds grand
churches were built evening modest
villages like this one at North leach in
the Cotswolds services would of course
be conducted in Latin
towns were growing sometimes French and
English towns together as at Norwich and
Nottingham
then as now London was the magnet its
population would double in the course of
the 13th century as feudalism loosened
its grip English speakers would flood in
from the country looking for
opportunities a better life
already established with the
french-speaking court officials
administrators lawyers and merchants but
also craftsmen who gave us the French
names for some tools of the trade
measure mallet chisel pulling bucket
trowel
his is petit France in London it's name
shows that it originally housed a
community of French immigrants in the
early Middle Ages there were areas like
this in many English towns home to
craftsmen and Merchants who'd come here
from Normandy English and French
speakers met and mingled in these places
and the English middle classes picked up
French words by the thousand merchants
money price discount bargain contract
partner embezzled the English didn't
just borrow French vocabulary they took
their names then as now names were a
matter of fashion and the fashion in the
early 13th century was for French so out
went the good old English ethel births
elfric sand ethel stains Dunstan's wolfe
stones and wool freaks and in gained the
newfangled Richards and Roberts Simons
and Stephens Jones Jeffries and most
popular of all Williams it seemed that
everywhere French was the name of the
game
If this process had continued well by
French percolated and penetrated into
every area of English society then
French could eventually have engulfed
English that didn't happen why not one
critical reason was that because of
particular historical events French
speakers in England became cut off from
their cultural and linguistic roots in
1204 the reigning monarch John King of
Normandy Aquitaine and England lost his
norman lands in a war with a much
smaller kingdom of France the Norman
dukedoms ancestral lands of William the
Conqueror and cultural homelands were
part of another Empire now
as long as the French nobility and
middle classes who live in England kept
contact with their homelands in Normandy
as long as they thought of themselves as
French and married within French
families their identity and language
were secure when they lost their
connections across the channel their
language began to lose its grip on
English one thing that happened was that
French speakers even within the noblest
families began to look for wives not
from across the channel but in England
they married English speakers and in
doing so they married as it were into
the English language as well it said
that the hand that rocks the cradle
rules the world
it's likely that by the middle of the
thirteenth century many children in
families which would previously have
been french-speaking were learning
English from their mothers or nurses
with fogarty song oh good morning chest
wind is blessed and where does throng
Hey
what this need is long and each with a
long sword and now that many of the
children of anglo-french marriages grew
up bilingual perhaps speaking one
language to the servants in the castle
kitchen and another at dinner in the
Great Hall by twelve fifty there's even
some evidence that children of the
nobility were having to learn French
from a written primer grappling with the
vocabulary of what was becoming
effectively a foreign language by the
middle of the thirteenth century more
and more French speakers throughout
society with themselves beginning to
speak English becoming bilingual the
result was that while French itself
became more of a foreign language French
vocabulary French words continued to
stream into English many more words are
recorded after 1250 than before Abbey
attire sensor defend figure malady music
parson plea sacrifice scarlet spy stable
virtue Marshall Park rain beauty clergy
cloak country fool
and because French was the international
language of trade it acted as a conduit
for words from the markets of the East
Arabic words that gave to the English
saffron mattress hazard camphor alchemy
lute amber and syrup our phrase
checkmate comes through French from the
Arab Charlotte the king is dead as we've
heard very often the imports didn't
replace existing English words but
settled down with them each word
adopting a slightly different meaning
the same thing had happened with English
and Old Norse this layering effect so a
young English hair came to be named by
the French word elaborate English sworn
French signet a small English axe is a
French hatchet asked English and demand
from French have slightly different
meanings as do bit and morsel wish and
desire might and power room and chamber
on the surface some of these words
appear to be interchangeable and
sometimes they are but more
 interestingly there are fine differences
that's the beauty of it answer is not
quite respond begin isn't always
commenced liberty isn't always freedom
shades of meaning representing new
shades of thought were massively
absorbed into our language at that time
the range of what I would call almost
synonyms became one of the glories of
English contributing to the languages
precision and flexibility allowing its
speakers and writers over the centuries
to select very precisely the right word
rather than replace English.