How a Germanic language was simplified and given a French vocabulary. Tn 1066 the Normans hud brought their variety of Frenoh wits them t0 England. This was not the pure French of Pars, known as Francie, buta rusted lect subsequently’ known as Anglo- Nerman One ffeconce between the two varetios of French can be seen inthe kw! Sound. Francin avoids this sound but Anglo-Norman ses it generously giv us Modern English words like quarter question an quit. Ol! English hae writ {eo thissound as ew. Anlo-Norman also ‘gave Enalish the sound ai which hid not exited befor’. Words such as. choice cloister. employ, noise, val and vovage were ‘introduced in thit period Interestingly, Anglo-Norman also gave us the word second previoualy English ord nal nombers had been frst, other hid fouath, 2 The (wo types of French influenced Enlish in two separate waves Anglo ‘Norman giving? words mainly in the 12° Century and Francie inthe 13° and 14° (hen Anglo-Norman fad lst a lot of prestige). Asa result we have a number O€ paired. words: one from Angle Norman. the other from Fragcien Examples are Anglo-Norman Francien tattle chattel wil sue ‘warren suarantee warden! suardian rewant regard sol jail a oe ae oe oa ete Site the se before =the it mas lest in Fraaien (giving ur Anca, forest and Od: English eventually* absorbed food, fasion andthe arts 85% of Ano Saat words pare lot a0 era frequent uscd words come from Old Ena English Survives While French was the language ofthe ruling class English almost” completely ‘dhappeared trom writen tens, However, the majority of the population of England spoke Engish. As a spoken ngusge with ao prestige centre, Engish began to diverge into regional dialects and when Engh writen, spelling® varied wildly (even within the seme text by the same author Moreover, sace the language was left 13 the common people miny of the more intricate elements of Old English were lost ‘making the langtage more funcional, Gender* slowly disippeared,conjugations and declensions” went into decline. For ‘example the aumber of possible adetive inflections fell from eleven to two STMT in engishe is (singular and plural)» ‘As words hecime less inflected, word order became more rigid for example, adjectives had to precede nouns. Once word ower became fixed it was possible to exploit this face 10 change the fusction of words (eg. a hammer soul be used oa verb, to hammer, to hunt was B sed x scx, « hr ‘As infleetions declined noun plural became almost exclusively formed. by adding ses, aa innovation taken fom the Norther English alee, Atthe sone time; the Souther genitive ending ~es was zeneriseé, giving us the following ‘development: Old Midale Modern English English English speres—speres— spear” sper speres—_ spears FFew old Saxon plerals have survived but tey include joct-feet, goosegecse, Jouselce, mowsesmice, ox'-oxes, tooth- teeth. The Northern dialect also gave us the third person singular eading -es (or as) which eventually became sinply = This replaced the previous standard form ethSpelling Enly Middle English retuned three runs". However, (called “eth") and # (called “thom”) were gradually placed by “th” (whieh can sl be pronoun eiher 18) (eg in thi’) of "hin" The symbol & (called ss al slowly ibttated by “gh op "Asa resi, a word ike card came be written “Uough™ and E became much less itmidsting! Runes Analy disappeared rom Engish with he activa of priein Old Engish did not have beginning ¥- and slmos ll the madera English words that hein with (ike French (amd Latin) at this time Hooweve, tn all postions i com cated in Middle Ene hecatse and ~¥ were interchangeable (thoagh v was preferred at the bepinning of words and a> inthe mide). So, in Chaucer for example you can find cer. “very” writen very” and “asi” seriten wry. This pave 910 he pos biliy of confsion when -w- appeared botmee wo towel, 30 =n pose ee cere coe ee ceeeen oe ‘Te The eof Bh) Te he Tas of Cntr Serene rae poco te wee ee Reet eT ae oe eee a ae fe genie — 2eehes.. Sia coves tion was doubled (nialy written an, later -m-*, The u-sound at the end of Words was also written =m, Furthermore seribes* wrote many short uesounds -/4/~ a a when stoke coa- Sonanis (e4. m1, x, ¥) were next to it hecause so many loops” became difficult to read when hand.witten, As « result the folowing changes were instigated: Old English Middle English inf ove That is why -o in these wordsis stil Prono ced with short u-sound =a Pronunciation As inlecivns decined ll those that mained” tended to be proaounced as 9/ (called "schwa") aad waten aye, Erentualy this nal ~ stopped being esc "rami cect ts Heiko an Zitage erp {teak aerery moment *Teopls at tht tine were coniciun f these scence In coun tn «fe! pose) tis Not Th eat ‘ted fers Seo Eas: Neer sp td Sober Engel ny be won ena _ etotdeonan ay a ae ‘Tander—fcoine, feminine or neuter Ee cre, ie oo ‘ntti a Se spa LMM ee ut aay In Middle English “whict Pronounced at all and began tobe used to Iengthes® the preceding vowel sound (Cog, hat vs hate kits. kite). As this hap ened the doubied consonant begat 10 be used to “protect” the preceding vow ‘om the ending -e or otherwise" This g8Ve us such pairs as “coma” 9 comma”, “diner vs.“diner Grammar ] ‘The maia change in grammar over the Middle Exglsh period, the draste | ‘eduction in inflections has ready been entioned. However, 3 few other pointe | ae abo ot interes | "te seco pen sigur ponous | thoutheethythine survived io the Early Modern English period only siving way to you/you'youryoursin the Tater centuries. The process began in | the 13° Contury in imitation of the French use of wous (instead of ta) as 8 polite second person singular. /nmpein Ot English) couldbe used fr people and. things. You can stil sionally hear such | ‘Our father which rein heaven Ossi, “my” was used before s consonant sound and “mine” before a vowel sound (ust like “a” and | an” are wed ia. modem Engl). 1 sti posible (0 find this use in some lymne® (eg nve.sen te is oe cua a a "8, Ol Eafe became ate Nile Eglin ‘Pitan ap sa fete ofthe ecom amin ate Sia tee ‘thre Fecha Tas iy nay domi dete, {incre sted Sethe de, spin “i ceed and ies ht a cach cer (ep asta tes) ae TE te cocci “teri (6 hi tense ange ach “an tte er — puso i heap US esas “ore nae a Pn gue of “ef Maden Enli ae “hyo = ite nd egos ome