3.5. French borrowings in English

The Norman Conquest of 1066 had an enormous effect on language development. The language, spoken by the Normans, known as Norman French became the language of the King’s court, the government and the new upper social classes. Norman French was therefore the language of honour, chivalry and justice. Such a context was favourable for the development of French-English bilingualism: many Normans learned English in their everyday contacts, while Englishmen learned French to gain advantage from the aristocracy. Indeed, Matthew of Westminster said, ‘Whoever was unable to speak French was considered a vile and contemptible person by the common people’ (1263).

There were three periods of French borrowings. The first, from about 1066 to 1250 represents the height of the Norman power. French was the language of the aristocracy and therefore also the language of prestige, government and polite social intercourse. English was the language of the common folk and menials. There were not many French borrowings at that time, since English was used largely in its own, low-level arenas and French and English speakers were kept separate.

The second period, roughly from 1250 to 1400 represents the period of the abundant influx of Norman French borrowings. According to D. Crystal (D. Crystal 1995, p.46) by the end of the thirteenth century, about 10,000 French words were borrowed into English, and about 75% of these words are still in use. These words were quickly assimilated into English; i.e., English suffixes, etc., were freely added to the borrowed French words; e.g., gentle, borrowed in 1225, is found compounded with an English word, gentlewoman, in 1230 (A. Baugh, T. Cable. A History of the English Language, London, 1993, 444 p.). They could be found in all domains, namely those, relating to:

1. Law and administration: accuse, advocate, arrest, attorney, constable, court, crime, deny, goal, jail, judge, justice, prison, punish, verdict.

2. Military affairs: admiral, arms, battle, camp, chivalry, combat, command, defence, destroy, enemy, navy, penalty, soldier, surrender, traitor, troops.

3. Political life: empire, government, policy, parliament, minister, state.

4) Titles and professions: baron, duke, duchess, prince, viscount, butcher, painter, tailor.

4. Religion: abbot, clergy, preach, sacrament, service, tempt, saint.

5. Cuisine: biscuits, boil, dinner, fry, jelly, pastry, pork, roast, soup, stew, sausage, veal.

6. Names of plants: cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, onion, radish, cucumber.

7. Names of precious stones: amethyst, diamond, emerald, pearl, ruby, sapphire, topaz, turquoise.

8. Fashion: luxury, coat, collar, lace, pleat, embroidery.

The third period of French borrowings is from around 1400 onwards. Its feature is that, unlike the loanwords of the first two periods, which expressed the core notions and became quite nativised (it takes some effort to imagine, that the words like arm, car, case, change, clear, dance, fine, line, finish used to be aliens in English). The later borrowings from French were more distant from the core, being more refined and sophisticated, with their evident ‘French flavour’; notice the spelling and pronunciation of some of these words: ballet, tableau, statuesque, cliché, , coup d’état, motif, format, trousseau, lingerie, hors d’oeuvre, rouge, vis-á-vis, etiquette.

Words that were borrowed from French into English after 1650, mainly through French literature, are not so numerous and many of them are not completely assimilated. These borrowings fall into the four broad categories:

1) Words relating to literature and music: belle-lettres, conservatorie, brochure, nuance, pirouette, vaudeville;

2) Words relating to buildings and furniture: entresol, chateau, bureau;

3) Words relating to military affairs: corps, echelon, fuselage, manoeuvre.

4) Words relating to food and cooking: ragout, cuisine;

French borrowings which came into English after 1650 retained their spelling, e.g. consonants p, t, s are not pronounced at the end of the word (buffet, coup, debris). Typically French word combination of letters ‘eau’ can be found in the borrowings:. Some of the diagraphs retain their French pronunciation: ch is pronounced as [k] , e.g. chic, chef, parachute; qu is pronounced as [k], e. g. bouquet, ou is pronounced as [u]:

It is evident, that this heavy borrowing from French had several effects on English. Firstly, native English words were replaced by the borrowed ones. Secondly, native and loanwords were retained with a differentiation in meaning (swine – pork, house – mansion, calf – veal, sheep – mutton, hearty – cordial).

Etymological twins (the borrowings from different languages which are historically descended from the same root) emerged. E. g.: senior (Latin), sir (French); captain (Latin), chieftain (French); canal (Latin), channel (French); secure (Latin), sure (French). Some of them originated from the same language, but where borrowed at different periods. E. g.: cavalry (Norm. French), chivalry (Par. French); travel (Norm. French), travail (Par. French), chief (Norm. French), chef (Par. French). Etymological twins may also be known as doublets, and may occur as triplets or more, as in: hospital (Latin), hostel (Norm. French), hotel (Par. French); right (Germanic), rich (Celtic), regalia (Latin), reign (Norm. French), royal (Par. French), real (Portuguese).

Finally, as a result of Middle English borrowing from French and Latin, Modern English abounds in synonyms of three levels: informal (English), literary (French) and formal (Latin), as in:

English French Latin

ask question interrogate

rise mount ascend

fire flame conflagration

holy sacred consecrated

end finish terminate

hatred enmity animosity

kingly royal regal

In general, as the examples cited confirm, the synonym from the Latinate strata tends to be used in more formal context, than the one from the Anglo-Saxon stratum.

French influenced not only the vocabulary of English but also its spelling, as far as documents were written by French scribers as the local population was mainly illiterate, and the ruling class was French. Runic letters remaining in English after the Latin alphabet was borrowed were substituted by Latin letters and combinations of letters, e. g.: the letter ‘v’ was introduced for the voiced consonant [v]instead of ‘f’ in the intervocal position (lufian – love), the diagraph ‘ch’ was introduced to denote the sound [t∫] (chest) before the front vowels where it had been palatalized, the diagraph ‘sh’ was introduced instead the combination ’sc’ to denote the sound [∫] (ship) etc. As it was difficult for French scribers to copy English texts they substituted the letter ‘u’ before ‘v’, ‘m’, ‘n’ and the letter ‘o’ to escape the combination of many vertical lines: sunu-son, luvu-love.