French Element

Unlike their Viking predecessors, the Normans did not assimilate with the local population and had nothing but scorn for local customs and language. They entered England as a ruling class and they brought with them not only Norman soldiers to garrison their castles but Norman merchants and craftsmen to provide them with goods and services.

For two centuries after the Norman Conquest the language of the governing class was French and for more than three centuries all the kings of England spoke French. It was not until Henry IV, who came to the throne in 1399 (one year before the death of Chaucer) that England had a king whose mother tongue was English.

Since the government, the military, the church – and therefore education – were all dominated by French-speaking Normans who regarded the English as boors and louts and their language as a barbarian tongue, it is not surprising that the written language fell into a decline during the XII century. What literature was produced in England – poetry, history, romances, prose works – was all set down in French. Only the monks at Peterborough continued to record the events of English history in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle begun by King Alfred two and a half centuries earlier.

Yet inevitably the mere fact of proximity on a small island produced in time a fusion of the two peoples. Men who came into contact with both the ruling classes and the ruled – local officials such as stewards, and bailiffs and parish priests – eventually became bilingual. Meanwhile many of the more in trade or military service began learning French.

Save for the court itself and the upper strata of the nobility, the fusion of the population progressed so rapidly that by the end of the twelfth century the two nations have become so mixed that it was scarcely possible to tell who is English, who of Norman race.

During the initial 150 years of the Norman occupation, the infiltration of French words into the English language progressed slowly. Prior to the XII th century only about 1000 French loan words entered the English language. Of these, the largest number (and the first to be introduced) were of ecclesiastical character. They included such words as: preach, pray, prayer, relic, friar, clergy, parish, baptism, sacrifice, orison, homily, honour, glory, chaplain, procession, nativity, cell, miracle, charity, archangel, religion, sermon, virtue, vice, crace, evangelist, passion, paradise, sacrament, saint, chaste, covet, desire, pity, discipline and many more, all bearing witness to the Norman devotion to the church.

Other major categories of loan words from this period include those pertaining to:

Government: court, crown, council, counsel, empress, legate, govern, reign, realm, sovereign, country, power, minister, chancellor, authority, parliament, exchequer, people, nation, feudal, vassal, liege, peer, baron, viscount, marquis, duke, prince (but not king, queen and knight, English words which the Normans did not supplant).

Law: just, justice, judge, jury, suit, sue, plaintiff, defendant, plea, plead, summon, cause, assize, session, attorney, accuse, crime, felony, traitor, damage, dower, heritage, property, real estate, tenure, penalty, injury, case, marry, marriage, oust, prove, false, heir, defend, prison, robber, rich, poor, poverty, money, interest, kent.

Art and Architecture: art, beauty, colour, image, design, figure, ornament, paint, arch, tower, pillar, vault, parch, column, aisle, choir, transept, abbey, cloister, palace, castle, manor, mansion.

Pleasures: pleasure, joy, delight, ease, comfort, flower, fruit, falcon, quarry, scent, chase, leisure, sport, cards, dice, ace, deuce, trey, partner, suit, trump.

Cooking: sauce, boil, fry, roast, pastry, soup, sausage, jelly, feast, cuisine.

In this category it is interesting to observe that words connoting such items of meat as beaf, veal, mutton, pork, bacon, venison are all French words, while the living animals from which they are derived (ox, cow, calf, sheep, pig, swine, boar, deer) retain their English names. Equally provocative is the fact that dinner and supper are French words, while breakfast is English.

In the period between 1250 and 1400, the year of Chaucer’s death, an estimated 10000 French words slid unobtrusively into English speech; of these 75 % are still in common use today. Of the poetic vocabulary of Chaucer of approximately 8000 words slightly more than 4000 are of Romance origin.

In his description of the Prioress in the Prologue to The Cantebury Tales Chaucer revealed not only his recognition of the decline of Norman French as a national tongue, but his amused awareness of the difference between the authentic speech of continental France and the kind of French heard in England:

… And French she spak ful faire and fetisty,

After the scole of Stratford ate Bowe

For French of Paris was to hir unknowe

When hundreds of French words were circulating in common use, the English language has employed its special power for creating compounds. As a result, a vast number of hybrid words combining elements of both languages came into being.

One of the earliest examples of the process is found in the French word gentil, which was adopted by the English and was widely used by 1225. Before many decades had passed the English wordmakers had combined gentil with the Anglo-Saxon man and woman to form gentleman and gentlewoman; not long afterwards they added the suffixes –ly and -ness to create gently and gentleness. Such familiar Anglo-Saxon suffixes as –ly, -ness, -less, -ship, -ful, -dom were attached to French words to produce countless bilingual compounds: e.g. nobly, princely, courtly, faintly, easily, naively, richness, poorness, faintness, closeness, simpleness, faithless, artless, colourless, fruitless, courtship, companionship, scholarship, clerkship; artful, beautiful, dutiful, powerful, dukedom, martyrdom.

More rarely, the word-minters combined Anglo-Saxon stems with French endings. The French suffix –age gave rise to acreage, leakage, breakage, cleavage, roughage, shortage. From the French –ess (the feminine –esse), we have goddess, shepherdess, seeres; from –ment, we get endearment, enlightenment, fulfillment; and from –ance we derive hindrance, forbearance, furtherance. But incomparably the most versatile French suffix now added to Anglo-Saxon stems is the adjectival ending –able. It flourishes today in the modern English lexicon in thousands of hybrid words such as: bearable, liveable, likeable, kissable, readable, eatable, drinkable, suitable, answerable, unmistakable, understandable, unutterable.

Another small building-block of French which has been fitted into the edifice of English is the verbal participial ending “E” (as in aime, trouve, and the like). In English this has become the suffix –ee, attached to nouns defining a person on the receiving end of some transaction. Originally entering the language through legal terminology (as in legatee, appelee, trustee), its use been extrapolated beyond the vocabulary of Law, so that today we also have such words as nominee, referee, presentee.

English owes many of its words dealing with government and administration to the language of those who for more than 200 years made public affairs their chief concern. The words Government, govern, administrater introduce a list of such words. It would include such fundamental terms as crown, state, empire, realm, reign, royal, prerogative, authority, sovereign, majesty, tyrant, usurp, oppress, court, council, parliament, assembly, statute, treaty, alliance, record, repeal, adjourn, tax, subsidy, revenue, tally, exchequer. Intimately associated with the idea of government are also words like subject, allegiance, rebel, traitor, treason, exile, public, liberty. The word office and the titles of many offices are likewise French: chancellor, treasure, chamberlain, marshal, governor, councilor, minister, viscount, warden, castellan, mayor, constable, coroner. Except for the words king and queen, lord, lady, and earl, most designations of rank are French: noble, nobility, peer, prince, princess, duke, duchess, count, countess, marquis, baron, squire, pace as well as such words as courtier, retinue, and titles of respect like sir, madam, mistress. Words like manor, bailiff, vassal, homage, peasant, bondman, slave, servant also have a political or administrative aspect.