5. French as the most important foreign influence on the English language

The victorious Normans made up the new aristocracy & the Anglo-Saxon people became their servants. The new masters were strangers in the country. They spoke a foreign tongue & the Anglo-Saxon peasants could not understand their speech. The Norman aristocracy spoke a Norman dialect of French, a tongue of Latin origin, while the Anglo-Saxons spoke English, a tongue of Germanic origin. The Normans looked upon English as a kind of peasant dialect, & continued to speak their own language. They despised anyone unable to speak their language.

Thus there were 2 different languages spoken in the country at the same time – England became a bilingual country. For almost 300 years French was the official language of administration: it was the language of the king’s court, the law-courts, the church, the army & the castle. The intellectual life, literature & education were in the hands of French-speaking people. French, alongside Latin, was the language of writing.

Inspite of all this, England never stopped being an English-speaking country. Most of the population held fast to their own tongue: the lower classes in the towns & especially in the countryside, they continued to speak English & looked upon French as foreign & hostile. As most of the people were illiterate, the English language was almost exclusively used for spoken communication.

At first the two languages existed side by side without mingling (не смешиваясь). Then, slowly & quietly, they began to permeate (проникать, пропитывать) each other. This mixed language was called Anglo-French or Anglo-Norman.

Anyway, the Normans remained masters of England for quite a long time to leave a deep ‘impress (отпечаток) on the language. The total number of French borrowings by far exceeds the number of borrowings from any other foreign language. By 1400 the number of loan-words had risen to 10,000.

The French borrowings of the ME period are usually described according to semantic spheres:

1. To this day nearly all the words relating to the government & administration of the country are French by origin: government; office; power, authority; parliament; country; nation; people;

2. 2. Close to this group are words pertaining to the feudal system & words indicating titles & ranks of the nobility: baron; duke; peer, count; prince, countess; feudal; noble. But very few words of these semantic groups are native (lord, lady, king, queen, earl, knight). These borrowings show that the Normans had a far more elaborate (сложную) administrative system & a more complex scale of ranks.

3. A large number of military terms adopted in ME are the result of the fact that military matters were managed by the Normans & that their organization of the army was new to the English: navy; soldier, battle; escape; captain; force; victory, army; lieutenant; war.

4. A still greater number of words belong to law & jurisdiction, which were certainly under the control of the Normans. Many of these words are used now in everyday speech: accuse; false; interest; justice; crime; judge; marry; property; damage; prove; just; money; poor; rent.

5. Many French words pertain to the church & religion, for in the 12th & 13th centuries all the important posts in the Church were occupied by the Norman clergy: abbey; procession; chapel; paradise; religion; charity; passion; sacrifice; vice, Bible; saint; virgin, miracle.

Besides these spheres, which reflect the dominant position of the Normans in Britain as conquerors & rulers, there are many others, which reveal the influence of the Norman way of life on the English.

6. From the loan-words referring to house, furniture & architecture, we see that the Normans introduced many innovations: chair; curtain; castle; chimney; cushion; palace; table, column; lamp; wardrobe.

7. Some words are connected with art: art; colour; figure; beauty; design; image; paint.

8. Another group includes names of garments (предметы одежды): boot; collar; dress; coat, jewel, costume; fur; gown.

9. Many French loan-words belong to entertainment, which is natural enough for the Norman nobles amused themselves with various pastimes: adventure; feast; cards; dance ; leisure; sport, chase; dice (игра в кости) ; tournament, contest ; ease ; pleasure.

10. We can also single out words relating to different aspects of the life of the upper classes & of the town life:

1. forms of address: sir, madam, mister, mistress, master, servant.

2. names of some meals: dinner, supper, (while “breakfast” remained native).

3. names of some dishes: here the words “beef, veal, mutton, pork, bacon, are absolutely different from the names of the animals from whose meat they are cooked (which remained native English words): ox, cow, calf, sheep, swine.

4. names of town trades bore French names while simple country occupations retained their native names:

French words	English words
butcher	Miller
Carpenter (плотник)	Shepherd
Draper (торговец мануф. товарами)	shoemaker
Grocer (бакалейщик)	Smith
painter	Spinner (прядильщик)
tailor	Weaver (ткач)

11. Finally, many French loan-words cannot be referred to a definite semantic sphere:

advice; comfort; excuse; letter; pale; air; cry; face; manner; pass; scissors, allow; firm; move; please; single, anxious; double; flower; necessary; previous; stupid sudden

autumn; eager; nice; tender, enjoy; hour; noise; river; treasure, change; enter; joy; remember; very, envy; large; occupy; satisfy; use.

Some adverbs (sure, certain(ly)), exclamations, oaths & swearings entered the language, because it became fashionable among the aristocracy to use them.

French influence led to different changes in the vocabulary.

Firstly, there were many innovations, i.e. names of new objects & concepts, which enlarged the vocabulary by adding new items.

Secondly, many native words were replaced by French equivalents, because they were synonyms.

Native words	French loan-words=new English words
Swiδe	very
Ea	river
Friδ	peace
Eaδe	easy
Beorξ	mountain
unhope безнадежность	despair
δolemodnes	patience
cyrran	to change

Thirdly, a lot of adopted words were synonymous to native, which however didn’t result in replacement. Both words survived as they differed in style, shaes of meaning or combinability (French loan-words preserve a more bookish, literary character). This influx (наплыв, прилив) of French words is one of the main historical reasons for the abundance of synonyms in ModE:

commence-begin, search-look for, odour-smell, desire-wish, existence-life, language-tongue, felicity-happiness, enter-come in, continue-go on, solar activity-sunglasses, maternal unkle-motherly love.

As a result of the Conquest, the English language changed greatly under the influence of the French language. The two languages gradually formed one rich English language, which already in the 14^th century was being used both in speech & in writing. Gradually the Normans mixed with the Anglo-Saxons & the Danes & from this mixture the English nation finally appeared.

Borrowings from French.

The influx of French words continued in the late 15^th & in the late 17^th c. These French borrowings mainly pertain to diplomatic relations, social life, art & fashion. French remained the international language of diplomacy for several hundred years; Paris led the fashion in dress, food & in social life & to a certain extent in art & literature; finally, the political events in France in the 18-19^th c. were of world-wide significance.

Examples of diplomatic terms are: attaché, communiqué, dossier;

social life: ball, café, coquette, hotel, picnic, restaurant;

art: ballet, ensemble, essay, genre;

military terms are: brigade, maneuver, marine, police;

fashions in dress & food: blouse, corsage, cravat, champagne, menu, soup.

Words of miscellaneous character are: comrade, detail, entrance, fatigue, garage, machine, moustache, progress, ticket.

Most of these words haven’t been assimilated in English, retaining their spelling, the sounds & the position of the stress.