Evolution and functioning of French borrowings in the English vocabulary in the field of fashion, food, clothes

The absence of equivalent words in the language to express new subjects or a phenomena makes people to borrow words. E.g. the words football, volleyball, pitchman in Uzbek; to economize the linguistic means, i.e. to use a foreign word instead of a long native expressions and others are called linguistic causes.

Borrowings enter the language in two ways through oral speech (by immediate contact between the people) and through written speech by indirect contact through books) Words borrowed orally are usually short and they undergo more changes in the act of adopter. Written borrowings are often rather long and they are unknown to many people, speaking the language.

The number of borrowings on Old English was meager. In the Middle English period there was an influx of loans. It is often contended, that since the Norman conquest borrowing has been the chief factor in the enrichment of the English vocabulary and as a result there was a sharp decline in the productivity and role of word-formation. Historical evidence, however, testifies to the fact that throughout its entire history, even in the periods of the mightiest influxes of borrowings, other processes no less intense, were in operation - word - formation and semantic development, which involved both native and borrowed elements. If the estimation of the role of borrowings is based on the study of words recorded in the dictionary, it is easy to overestimate the effect of the foreign words, as the number of native words is extremely small compared with the number of borrowings recorded. The only true way to estimate the relation of the native to the borrowed element is to consider the two as actually used in speech. If one counts every word used, including repetitions, in some reading matter, the proportion of native to borrowed words will be quite different. On such a count, every writer uses considerable more native words than borrowings. Shakespeare, for example has 90%, Milton 81%, Tennyson 88%. This shows how important is the comparatively small nucleus of native words. Different borrowing are marked by different frequency value. Those well established in the vocabulary may be as frequent in speech as native words, whereas other occur very rarely. The great number of borrowings in English left some imprint upon the language. The first effect of foreign influence is observed in the volume of its vocabulary. Due to its history the English language, more than any other modern language, has absorbed foreign elements in its vocabulary. But the adoption of foreign words must not be understood as were quantities change. Any importation into the lexical system brings about semantic and stylistic changes in the words of this language and changes in its synonymic groups.

It has been mentioned that when borrowed words were identical in meaning with those already in English the adopted word very often displaced the native word. In most cases, however, the borrowed words and synonymous native words (or words borrowed earlier) remained in the language, becoming more or less differentiated in meaning and use. As a result the number of synonymic groups in English greatly increased. The synonymic groups became voluminous and acquired many words rarely used. This brought about a rise in the percentage of stylistic synonyms.

Abundant borrowing intensified the difference between the word stock of the literary national language and dialects as well as between British English and American English. On the one hand a number of words were borrowed into the literary national language which are not to be found in the dialects. In a number of cases the dialects have preserved some Anglo-Saxon words which were replaced by borrowings in the literary language. On the other hand, a number of words were borrowed into dialects are not used throughout the country.

In spite of the numerous outside linguistic influences and the etymological heterogeneity of its vocabulary the English language is still, in essential characteristics a Germanic language. It has retained a ground work of Germanic words and grammar. A comparative study of the nature and role of native and borrowed words show that borrowing has never been the chief means of replenishing the English vocabulary. Word-formation and semantic development were throughout the entire history of the English language much more productive than borrowing. Besides most native words are marked by a higher frequency value. The great number of borrowings bringing with them new phonon-morphological types, new phonetic morphological and semantic features left its imprint upon the English language. On the other hand under the influence of the borrowed element words already existing in the English changed to some extent their semantic structure, collectability, frequency and word forming ability. Borrowing also considerably enlarged the English vocabulary and brought about some changes in English synonymic groups, in the distribution of the English vocabulary through sphere of application and in the lexical divergence between the two variants of the literary national language and its dialects.

English has gone through many periods in which large numbers of words from a particular language were borrowed. These periods coincide with times of major cultural contact between English speakers and those speaking other languages. The waves of borrowing during periods of especially strong cultural contacts are not sharply delimited, and can overlap. For example, the Norse influence on English began already in the 8th century A.D. and continued strongly well after the Norman Conquest brought a large influx of Norman French to the language.

An important imprint that the Normans left in England is their language. The language they brought with them when they disembarked on the English shore was Anglo-Norman, a dialect of French. Thanks to the exclusively Norman aristocracy that spread on the British Isle, Anglo-Norman was spoken and preserved for four centuries.

During the first decades of the settlement of the Normans in England, Anglo-Norman and English coexisted nearly without influencing each other. As Anglo-Norman had been introduced and was spoken by the nobility, it had a much higher prestige than English, which was only spoken by members of the lower classes. This difference of prestige determined the use of both languages: Anglo-Norman as a highly esteemed language was used in all written documents (alongside with Latin) and had the status of a language of court and administration. By contrast, English was mainly used in oral communication, and only by the lower classes.

As the Anglo-Norman nobility and the English population rarely mixed, language contact was at first too weak to initiate a real language change. But within fifty years, both ethnic groups began to intermingle. Norman soldiers who had been brought to England stayed there and married English women, and the English got accustomed to their rulers and reluctance to accept them faded. In this context, bilingualism became increasingly common. English servants had to speak the language of their Norman lords, children of bicultural marriages naturally spoke both languages.

This established a close contact between both languages, a condition under which language change could take place. This language change consisted mainly of English achieving a mixed vocabulary through borrowing Anglo-Norman words. In the period from 1066 to approximately 1120, when language contact was not intense yet, only 900 Anglo-Norman words entered the English vocabulary. When the English population began to intermingle with the Normans, a lot more loan words were borrowed into the English language: About 10,000 Anglo-Norman and Central-French words were taken over into the English language before the 15th century.

The areas covered by these loan words were those in which the Anglo-Normans exerted influence, such as religion, government, law, army, fashion, learning, culture, social life, art, cuisine and medicine. Some examples of former loan-words that are still in use today are religion, abbey, government, crown, duke, army, peace, battle, justice, crime, dress, fur, dinner, feast, taste, pain, stomach, pulse, painting, music, palace, mansion, poet, title, paper, pen, study, etc. In addition to isolated loan words, whole Anglo-Norman expressions were introduced into the English language. Some of those can still be found today: plenty of, because of, in vain etc.

As already said, Anglo-Norman and Central-French words penetrated the English language up to the 15th century. Considering that the Anglo-Norman language was only spoken by a minimal fraction of the English population, this may seem a very long time, and one may wonder how the Normans managed to protect and preserve their language in an all-English environment for several centuries. The prestige of this language is mainly responsible for this situation.

The members of the aristocracy simply did not want to learn English. Even the English kings did not speak English, the language of their subjects, fluently until the 13th century. Another reason were frequent immigration waves from France. Travelling from Britain to the continent and back was also common, as much among the nobility that often owned lands in Normandy, as among merchants who bought goods on the continent.

When the English crown lost Normandy in the 13th century, a decline of the Anglo-Norman language was, however, inevitable. In families of Norman origin, and even in the aristocracy, Anglo-Norman was not always the children's mother tongue any more. It had to be taught to them as a foreign language. Some manuals for teaching French from this time are still preserved and serve as a proof of this development. Furthermore, in the course of the 13th century, Central-French was increasingly regarded as the language of education and of culture. Anglo-Norman in contrast was merely considered a funny French dialect. As the former maintenance of Anglo-Norman had been due to its high prestige, its decline must have been very rapid when it lost it. Some Anglo-Norman loan words were replaced by more prestigious Central French ones. As shown in the following table, the Anglo-Norman and Central French words were quite similar:

The history of the English language, and its borrowings, is founded on three invasions: Teutonic; Scandinavian (Vikings); and, most importantly, by the Norman conquest of England by the Duke of Normandy in 1066. (Luckily, the Nazis never made it across the Channel.) The Teutonic and Scandinavian invasions obviously affected the native language. But it was the French-speaking Normans, led by William the Conqueror (Guillaume le Conquйrant), who introduced the greatest, most extensive and most permanent collection of borrowed or “loan” words, as Jespersen is fond of writing, to the English language upon their successful 1066 invasion of the island.

The Norman occupation lasted much longer than that of the Norse invasion and unlike the Scandinavians, who co-existed with the invaded, the Normans overwhelmed the English. The British status quo was tossed out as the Normans reconfigured the structures of England, from its legal system to its religions, by becoming the ruling masters of the island.

While the Normans brought their French to the British Isles, they, too, were also operating in a sense with borrowed words. If, as Greenough and Kittredge point out, French is simply Latin in a “corrupt form” then the conquered British inhabitants would have had to absorb two borrowed languages -- French and Latin. And the question for them, if they chose to ask it, is from which genesis the written or spoken words the Normans brought to the shores came from -- Latin or French.

The invading Normans also introduced a sort of language class warfare to the Britons. If a foreign language is thrust upon the conquered, one would think that it would spread from top to bottom through all strata of the inhabitants. The “losing” language would thus disappear. Yet, that did not happen after the Normans' arrival. The conquered nobles adopted the French model, but the peasants retained the Germanic tongue, setting up both a class and a linguistic divide that would remain until their languages, and borrowed words, blended into Middle English.

But morphing French words and phrases into the English language does not mean there was a certain borrowing snobbery. Writers, such as Chaucer, or diplomats, the royalty, high-ranking members of the military and businessmen who were familiar with French culture (and given the closeness of European borders, easily attainable), readily adopted and adapted words borrowed from the French into the English language. In many cases, the borrowing was not cavalier, but was a necessity to communicate.

The Norman Conquest forced the creation of an entirely new way of English life, influencing the language of its law, religion, medicine and arts. Since the French/Latin-speakers were the dominant power, the Britons had to borrow words in order to simply communicate with their new masters who “ousted” some of the local vernacular. These “newcomers” may have rid some of the centuries-old English synonyms, but they became ingrained because of their ties to the originals. The Anglo-Saxon king and queen survived the French influence, but with the Normans along came such titles as duke and duchess. Well, Britons would have to be able to understand what either of these two terms meant and, thus, they would assimilate these borrowed words into, if not every day use, their sometime use.

According to Jespersen, many British adopted borrowed French words not only to communicate, but because they felt it was the “fashion” to imitate their “betters.” Again, while some might perceive this as a form of snobbery, many of us do strive to improve our language skills. While saying someone tried to overthrow a government is basic and to the point, using coup d'etat as the phrase is instantly recognizable to many readers and, almost, puts more of a sense of urgency to the event. You could say a woman is stylish, which I am sure she would appreciate, but substituting the borrowed chic usually makes more of an impact. Obviously, our knowledge of borrowed words not only expands our vocabulary but enables us to converse with one another.

While it is understandable that the Britons would borrow words that did not exist in their native language, such as majesty and mayor, it is somewhat mystifying why they would replace their swin with the French porc. That is unless you consider how the English farmers and French aristocrats dealt with livestock. With these two related words, the Germanic swin is more down-to-earth while the French porc was considered more refined. Swin evolved into the present-day swine, which is what English peasants would have been raising, while the porc or pork would have been what the upper-class French would eat. It is “animal versus food” and, again, the borrowings would elevate the perceived social standing of the English man or woman who used the French word. And as Greenough and Kittredge illustrate, sometimes the foreign word, such as divide, becomes more popular than the inhabitants' cleave. Also, one word can crowd out another, with the native being the one shunted aside as in what happened to the local ey which was replaced by the Scandinavian egg.

The French language-influence on the English presented them with more abstract words than what the Britons might have considered to be their clear and concrete definitions of their native words. The English child as opposed to the borrowed French infant, or the English freedom compared to the French liberty are examples.

The amazing thing about the transformation and evolution of the English language is the extent to how receptive the country's inhabitants were to outside languages, particularly French and Latin. It is almost as if an invader could plant a language seed and the Britons would cultivate it. But unlike the French who most likely would stay with that one language plant, the English (perhaps because of their love of gardening) seemed intent on growing as many synonymous words as possible. And, continuing with this somewhat silly gardening analogy, Jespersen points out that many times “the English soil has proved more fertilizing than the French soil” for transplanted words. Why offer one native word, as the French seem to enjoy, when you can convert a multitude of borrowed words and multiply them into synonymous bits of language as the English seem wont to do? Or, as the University of Minnesota's professor and author of Word Origins and How We Know Them, Dr. Anatoly Liberman³ asks in his lecture, A Coat of Many Colors, is it “better to have two nostrils or one?” With a multitude of similar words, the English at least, seem to have embraced the “two nostrils” theory, sometimes using both the native and the borrowed words side-by-side

This borrowing has also helped inflate the size of English dictionaries. The voluminous English dictionaries, as compared to French, German or Dutch dictionaries for example, can credit their size to the borrowings of foreign words the British adopted. If the English were originally concerned that their native language was not up to snuff with the French or Latin tongues, the Britons' borrowings might give new meaning to “size matters.”

While I have mainly focused on the Norman Conquest and the seismic language shift 1066 created in the linguistic world, there were others that might have been subsequently involved in English-word borrowings -- if they had arrived in time. Among them are Spanish and Italian, but as Greenough and Kittredge point out, while their influence upon English literature has “been very great, but upon (English) vocabulary these languages have had no appreciable effect.” That is because the Normans made the goal first and the English had basically borrowed all the words and phrases they needed.

England's emergence as a superpower brought it, in a sense, border expansion because of colonialism. This also introduced its people to sights they had never seen and for which they would need descriptive words. The Britons could only borrow them as there was no native term to express what they encountered.

There were no such things as boomerangs or kangaroos in England, so when the Britons came upon them instead of creating entirely new words to define them, the easier alternative was to borrow the Australian words. Elephants, leopards and panthers also were not native to England and, again, these animal names would have to be borrowed for Britons to describe them to one another. Even the tomato, unknown in the country until its introduction from the New World, would have to be named. Borrowing from the Spanish tomate, the British settled on tomato.

Heavy borrowing from French occurred in two phases:

066-1250. About 900 words were borrowed during this phase, with most of them showing the effects of Anglo-Norman phonology. Examples from this source are:

Social: baron, noble, dame, servant, messenger, feast, minstrel, juggler, largess.

Literary: story, rime, lay, douzepers.

Church: The largest number of words were borrowed for use in religious services since the French-speaking Normans took control of the church in England.

1250-1400. The heaviest borrowing from French occurred in this period because after about 1250 there were more French speakers who began speaking English--remember the loss of Normandy in 1204. The words borrowed during this phase are found in many areas.

Government and Administrative: govern, government, administer, crown, state, empire, royal, majesty, treaty, statute, parliament, tax, rebel, traitor, treason, exile, chancellor, treasurer, major, noble, peer, prince, princess, duke, squire, page (but not king, queen, lord, lady, earl), peasant, slave, servant, vassal.

Ecclesiastical: religion, theology, sermon, confession, clergy, clergy, cardinal, friar, crucifix, miter, censer lectern, abbey, convent, creator, savior, virgin, faith, heresy, schism, solemn, divine, devout, preach, pray, adore, confess.

Law: justice, equity, plaintiff, judge, advacate, attorney, petition, inquest, felon, evidence, sue, accuse arrest, blame, libel, slander, felony, adultery, property, estate, heir, executor.

Military--Army and Navy: (Much of the fighting during this time was done in France. Many now-obsolete words for pieces of armor, etc., were borrowed at this time.) army, navy, peace, enemy, arms, battle, spy, combat, siege, defence, ambush, soldier, guard, mail, buckler, banner, lance, besiege, defend, array.

Clothing: habit, gown, robe, garment, attire, cape, coat, collar, petticoat, train, lace, embroidery, pleat, buckle, button, tassel, plume, satin, taffeta, fur, sable, blue, brown, vermilion, russet, tawny, jewel, ornament, broach, ivory, turquoise, topaz, garnet, ruby, pearl, diamond.

Food: feast, repast, collation, mess, appetite, tart, sole, perch, sturgeon, sardine, venison, beef, veal, mutton, port, bacon, toast, cream, sugar, salad, raisin, jelly, spice, clove, thyme.

Social: curtain, couch, lamp, wardrobe, screen, closet, leisure, dance, carol, lute, melody.

Hunting: rein, curry, trot, stable, harness, mastiff, spaniel, stallion, pheasant, quail, heron, joust, tournament, pavilion.

Art, Learning, Medicine: painting, sculpture, music, beauty, color, image, cathedral, palace, mansion, chamber, ceiling, porch, column, poet, prose, romance, paper, pen, volume, chapter, study, logic, geometry, grammar, noun, gender, physician, malady, pain, gout, plague, pulse, remedy, poison.

Common words and expressions include nouns--age, air, city, cheer, honor, joy; adjectives--chaste, courageous, coy, cruel, poor, nice, pure; verbs--advance, advise, carry, cry, desire; phrases--draw near, make believe, hand to hand, by heart, without fail (These are loan-translations).

Many of the above words differ from Modern French in form and pronunciation because of phonological changes such as the following:

French /s/ was lost before other consonants in the 12th century, so OF feste became MF fкte (MnE feast). Cf. forest--forкt, hostel--hфtel, beast--bкte.

In the 13th century the French `j' came to be pronounced `zh', and `ch' became `sh'. Early borrowings (i.e., before the 13th century) thus have the `ch' and `j' pronunciations: charge, change, chamber, chase, chair, chimney; just, jewel, journey, majesty, gentle. Later borrowings (i.e., after the 13th century) have the `zh' and `sh' pronunciations: chamois, chaperon, chiffon, chevron, jabot (last trim on the front of a dress), rouge.

The Anglo-Norman dialect was also different from the dialect of Paris, which was Central French: AN retained the initial ca-, which became cha-, chie- in CF, e.g.: MnE caitiff, not CF chaitif. English contains words borrowed from both dialects at different times, e.g.:

cattle < AN catel catch < AN cachier

chattel < CF chatel chase < CF chacier (MF chasser)

CF also showed an early dislike of w-, but the northern dialects did not, e.g.: warden from AN and guardian from CF. CF also dropped the /w/ in qu- (i.e., AN /kw/, CF /k/), so MnE has quarter, quality, question, etc., pronounced /kw-/. (cf. MF qualitй, etc.)

Vowels also show some differences. For example, AN retained the ei diphthong, but in the 12th century it became oi in CF, so:

MnE leal < AN leial MnE loyal < CF

MnE real < AN reial MnE royal < CF

Some 10,000 French words were borrowed into Middle English, and about 75% (7500) 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.

This heavy borrowing from French had several effects on English:

Native words were replaced:

OE aeрele -- F. noble

OE aeрeling -- F. nobleman

OE here -- F. army

OE campa -- F. warrior

OE sibb -- F. peace

English and French words were retained with a differentiation in meaning:

hearty--cordial

ox--beef

sheep--mutton

swine--pork

calf--veal

house--mansion

The Old English word-forming powers were reduced, with less use of prefixes and suffixes and fewer compounds.

Latin Borrowings. In a sense the French words were Latin borrowings since French developed from Vulgar Latin--as did all the Romance languages. The borrowings that came directly from Latin tended to be more learned in character--e.g., allegory, index, magnify, mechanical, private, secular, zenith. Aureate terms--direct borrowings from Latin--were a stylistic affectation of the 15th century Scottish Chaucerians such as James I, Henryson, and Dunbar. Some of these words have been dropped from English (or never really made it in) while others have survived, e.g., diurnal (daily or daytime), tenebrous (dark), laureate, mediation, oriental, prolixity.

It has been pointed out that as a result of Middle English borrowing from French and Latin, Modern English has synonyms on three levels: popular (English), literary (French), and learned (Latin), as in rise--mount--ascend; ask--question--interrogate; fire--flame--conflagration; holy--sacred--consecrated.

After this there is little or no direct influence of French on English but the language remained fashionable and the practice of borrowing words from the continental language continued well into the 15th century. The Central French period (during which influence from the region around Paris dominated) can be taken to cease gradually with the introduction of printing at the end of the 15th century and the general resurgence in interest and status of English.

Map №1

The difference between Anglo-Norman and Central French loans in English is to be seen in famous pairs of words like catch and chase, both of which go back originally to Latin captiare, which itself furnished English with the later loan `capture'. The main differences between Anglo-Norman and Central French are outline in the tables below.

Anglo-Norman	Central French
/k/	/t?/
cattle /k-/	chattels /t?/
pocket /-k-/	poach /t?/
/t?/	/s/
catch /-t?/	chase /-s/
launch /-nt?/	lance /-ns/
pinch /-nt?/	pincers /-ns-/

The borrowing of words in the Middle English period is related to changes with French itself. For instance an /s/ before /t/ was lost in French but many loans in English were made before this took place, hence one has estate but йtat, forest but forкt in Modern French. In the case of hostel and hotel, the /s/ in the first word shows that it is an older borrowing from the same root, cf. Modern French hфtel (the accented vowel in the French examples here indicates that previously an /s/ followed the vowel).

In the course of time the difference between the two strands of French -- Norman and Central -- became more and more diffuse. Certainly there is no question nowadays of speakers being able intuitively to distinguish between the two.

As a generalization one can say that the French loans are to be found on higher stylistic levels in English. With the later Central French borrowings this is obvious given the sectors of society where the loans occurred (see next section). The general split is between colloquial native words and more formal Romance terms and can be seen clearly in word pairs like forgive and pardon. Other examples are begin : commence; hearty : cordial; happiness : felicity; help : aid; hide : conceal; meal : repast (only literary nowadays).

But for later English the etymological source of words is irrelevant and any two words can form a pair distinguished on a colloquial -- formal axis as one can see in notice : perceive, both of Romance origin or even in the pair present : gift where in fact the Romance term is by far and away the more common in spoken English.

Semantic differentiation has frequently developed which may have neutralized any previous distinction in register: wedding : marriage, ask : demand.

The areas of the English lexicon in which the influence of French was to be felt reflect the spheres of life in which the French predominated in the early Middle English period. The following lists are intended to give a brief impression of the richness of the this Romance influence on the Germanic stock of English vocabulary.

Geography: country; coast; river; valley; lake; mountain; frontier; border; city; hamlet; village; estate Noble titles: emperor; duke; duchess; duchy; prince; count; countess; baron; squire; noble(man/woman); gentle(man/woman); dame; damsel

Terms referring to sections of the community: peasantry; people; subjects; burgesses; nobility; gentry; knighthood; chivalry;

Terms for administration and administrators: sovereign; crown; sceptre; ruler; power; policy; government; administration; court; office; chancery; treasury; parliament; counsel; administrator; governor; ambassador; wardon; mayor; charter; seal; accord; agreement; covenant; treaty; alliance; curfew; duty; reign; civil; empire; nation; tyrant; oppression

Legal terms: justice; privilege; statute; ordinance; judge; chief; crime; fraud; trespass; transgression; accusation; coroner; plaintif; defendant; client; claimant; executor; notary; process; appeal; bail; evidence; decree; divorce; exile; heir; heritage; prison; jail; dungeon; arrest; plead; punish; banish; treason; release

Military terms: peace; war; armour; artillery; fortress; host; army; warrior; archer; soldier; chief; captain; admiral; enemy; conqueror; victor; robber; expedition; resistance; banner; battle; besiege; destroy

Ecclesiastical terms: charity; chastity; chaplain; abbot; abbess; dean; friar; confessor; person/parson; preacher; evangelist; saint; fraternity; chapel; Closter; abbey; faith; bible; chapter; commandment; divine; service; prayer; sermon; absolution; procession; parish; baptize; praise; glorify

Terms for emotional states: ease; disease; joy; delight; felicity; grief; despair; distress; courage; folly; passion; desire; jealousy; ambition; arrogance; despite; disdain; malice; envy; avarice; certainty; doubt; enjoy; despise; furious

Trades and crafts: barber; butcher; carpenter; carrier; draper; forester; fruiterer; grocer; mason; mercer; merchant; Spicer; painter; tailor; victualler; apprentice; surgeon; physician; bargain; fair; merchandise; price; money; coin; dozen; double; measure; gallon; bushel; purchase; profit; pay; usury; debt; prosperity; barrel; bottle; basket; vessel

Clothing and ornamentation: blouse; chemise; cloak; coat; frock; garment; gown; robe; veil; cotton; fur; boot; ornament; brooch; jewel; pearl; button; scissors; brush; mirror; towel; carpet; curtain; blanket; couch; cushion; table; chair; fashion

Food and cooking: boil; fry; roast; mince; dine; dinner; supper; appetite; flour; grease; sugar; spice; vinegar; bacon; victuals; lard, pork; beef; mutton; veal; venison; sausage; sauce; gravy; jelly; salad; juice; cabbage; cream; biscuit; fritter; cider; cucumber; onion

Assorted loanwords: age; aid; affair; action; air; baggage; beauty; branch; cage; cable; cattle; chance; change; choice; company; consent; coward; couple; cry; cure; damage; danger; delay; demand; departure; difference; difficulty; error; example; exception; exercise; experience; face; fate; favour; fence; fool; force; foreign; fountain; guide; honour; labour; leisure; marriage; piece; pencil; possession; question; language; wages able; ancient; brief; certain; clear; considerable; cruel; different; difficult; easy; familiar; famous; favourable; feeble; faint; fine; general; gentle; glorious; poor; safe; sure achieve; arrive; appear; approve; approach; assemble; assist; attend; advertise; affirm; await; blame; catch; cancel; carry; cease; chase; cry; change; consent; consider; count; cover; demand; deny; depart; deserve; discover; disturb; finish; employ; encourage; enjoy; enter; excuse; escape; increase; examine; force; fail; form; grieve; marry; refuse; perish; suffer; paint; perform; propose; save; touch; travel; tremble

The fact that for many of the above words Germanic equivalents already existed in English and continued to exist led to a stylistic splitting of the vocabulary of English. Thus a word like work is a Germanic word and the normal everyday word whereas labour is a Romance loanword which is regarded as being on a higher level, cf. `I have some work to do now', `The value of labour in our society'. In other cases the Romance loanword has come to have a slightly different meaning to the Germanic base word, cf. ask and demand where the latter (Romance) word has the implication of insisting on something.

Among the various types of changes which took place in the period in which Middle English borrowed from French through direct contact, are those which led to a mixing of Germanic and Romance elements. Thus one has cases of assimilation in which an English word was created on the basis of a similar sounding French word. Here one has an instance of the French form complementing the English one. For example, the English verb choose obtained a noun choice on the basis of a borrowing of French choix.

In some cases one can no longer decide whether the Germanic or the Romance form of a word has survived into Modern English. Thus in the case of the adjective rich one cannot tell whether it is a continuation of the Old English rice or the later French borrowing riche. However, one can in many cases see a contamination of the morphology of words due to French borrowing. With the previous adjective one can see the Romance suffix in the noun formed from it: richess as opposed to Old English richdom with the Romance ending -ess.

The form of a word may have been changed without its meaning having been affected. With the Old English word iegland / iland (cf. German Eiland) one arrives at the later spelling island under the influence of French isle. Note that the s here is unetymological, i.e. was never pronounced in English. Some French loanwords were influenced by changes later than Middle English. This is for example the case with Old French viage which was borrowed into Middle English but where the later French form voyage was borrowed into English and adapted in its pronunciation. The same is true of the Middle English noun flaute which was changed under the influence of later French flute.

The form of many French loanwords can be used to date borrowing. As mentioned above there are two strands of French influence, an early Anglo-Norman one and a later Central French one. These can be identified phonologically as can be seen in the word pairs catch and chase or cattle and chattels (from captiare and capital in Latin respectively). In the first word one sees Middle English cacchen which was borrowed from North French cachier as the retention of the /k/ before /a/ was a feature of Norman French.

After 1250 the influence of Central French was predominant in England. In this variety of French the original /k/ retained in Norman French was shifted to /t?/ which is reflected in the writing where c was changed to ch. Thus we have the Central French verb chacier being borrowed into Middle English as chacen, Modern English chase. Note that the later borrowing did not replace the earlier one in keeping with the principle that if two variant forms come to be distinguished semantically their continuing existence in the language is as good as guaranteed. Not so with a number of other Norman French borrowings which were replaced by the later Central French ones: calice, carite, cancel; chalice, charite, chancel.

The Central French /t?/ underwent the further change to /?/ in the course of the post-Middle English period and later loans reflect this. Thus we have change and chief as Middle English loans from Central French with /t?/ but words like chef and champagne with /?/ are of a later origin.

Similar differences in pronunciation can be used to date other loanwords from French. For example the relationship of /dћ/ and /ћ/ shows the relative chronology of borrowing. The older loans such as siege, judge, age show the affricate /dћ/ whereas newer loans from the Early Modern English period have the simple fricative typical of Modern French as in rouge /ru:ћ/; with the word garage there still exist two alternative pronunciations /?gжr?d?/ and /g??r?:?/.

One can also recognize later borrowings by the vowel quality when the stress is found on the final syllable: memoir (cf. the earlier loan memory), liqueur (cf. the earlier form liquor).

The orthography of Modern English reflects in a fairly exact manner the pronunciation of Late Middle English. In some respects it can be seen to have adopted practices of French spelling which, while justified in the latter language, were superfluous in English. A case in point is the orthographic treatment of Middle English /u:/. In Old English this vowel was represented simply as u as in OE hus `house'. In the course of the Middle English period it came to be written as `house'. This spelling is based on the use of the digraph ou to represent the vowel /u/ in French. In the latter language the simple u grapheme stood for a phonetic /y/, cf. Modern French vu /vy/ `seen' and fou /fu/ `mad'. In English, however, the digraph ou was not necessary because /y/ had been unrounded in the Early Middle English period (with the exception of the West Midlands area), cf. OE юymel (ME thimble) `thimble'. It was nonetheless used so that by Late Middle English the /u:/ of Old English had come to be written with ou (OE /y/ being written simply as i), cf. out, now (the latter with the variant ow at the end of a word). Later loanwords in English do not have the spelling ou for the /u:/ vowel, irrespective of their origin. Thus one has, for example, chute from later French and acute from Latin, both with u for /u:/.

Other instances of Frence influence on English spelling are: h > gh, ю, р > th, ж > a, cw > qu, i > j (partly), u > v at the beginning, u in the middle of a word, sc > sh [?], c > ch [t?], cg, gg > dg [d?].

French scribal practice is behind the spelling -ough which in Middle English indicated the pronunciation /-u:x/ or /-oux/. Because of later phonetic developments this spelling came to be one of the most notorious cases of incongruence between pronunciation and orthography in Modern English as it can represent at least seven different sound sequences as seen from the following random set: plough /-au/, cough /-?f/, although /-??/, hiccough /-?p/, thorough /-?/ (unstressed), through /-u:/, rough /-?f/.

Another feature of French spelling which affected Old English words was the use of final -e. This was added to English words to show that the vowel of the previous syllable was long, as in ice (from OE is). This `discontinuous sequence' is used very much in Modern English to keep original short and long vowels apart graphically, e.g. pan and pane, ban and bane. Note that due to the Great Vowel Shift (which only affected long vowels) the difference is nowadays one of vowel quality and not just quantity. The major changes involved in this shift are given in the following table.

2.2 Functioning of French borrowings in Modern English

Modern English began around the 16th Century and, like all languages, is still changing. One change occurred when the suffix of some verb forms became s (loveth, loves; hath, has). Auxiliary verbs also changed (he is risen, he has risen).

Norman French is the 11th century language of France and England. It is an Indo-European language.

In 1066, the Norman king, William the Conqueror, invaded England. Many Norman French words entered the language after this. In general, the Normans were the nobility, while the native English were their servants. The names of domestic animals and their meats show this relationship. The animal name is English ("cow", "sheep", "pig") while the names of the meats derived from these animals is French ("beef", "mutton", "pork").

Many words have been borrowed from Norman French. These can be grouped into several types:

legal terms ("adultery", "slander"),

military words ("surrender", "occupy"),

names of meats ("bacon", "venison"),

words from the royal court ("chivalry", "majesty").

the non-metric unit of volume (the "gallon") is Norman French.

There are many other words.The Normans introduced the QU spelling for words containing KW ("question").

There are the following semantic groups of French borrowings:

a) words relating to government : administer, empire, state, government;

b) words relating to military affairs: army, war, banner, soldier, battle;

c) words relating to jury: advocate, petition, inquest, sentence, barrister;

d) words relating to fashion: luxury, coat, collar, lace, pleat, embroidery;

e) words relating to jewelry: topaz, emerald, ruby, pearl;

f) words relating to food and cooking: lunch, dinner, appetite, to roast, to stew.

Words were borrowed from French into English after 1650, mainly through French literature, but they were not as numerous and many of them are not completely assimilated. There are the following semantic groups of these borrowings:

a) words relating to literature and music: belle-lettres, conservatorie, brochure, nuance, piruette, vaudeville;

b) words relating to military affairs: corps, echelon, fuselage, manouvre;

c) words relating to buildings and furniture: entresol, chateau, bureau;

d) words relating to food and cooking: ragout, cuisine.

Other reasons for the reassertion of English are:

the Normans in England belonged to the Capetian dynasty spoke Norman French; this became non-prestigious in France as the variety spoken by the Angevian dynasty in France, Parisian French, became the prestige variety; because Norman French was seen as socially inferior, it was less difficult to abandon it in favour of English;

subsequently, England became at war with France in the Hundred Years War (1337-1453).

French borrowings

Word	Meaning	Notes
accuse		One of many legal words from Norman French.
adultery
archer		One of several military words from Norman French.
arson		Crime of deliberate burning.
assault
asset	enough
bacon		Cured pig's meat. One of many names for meats from Norman French.
bail	to take charge	Security for a prisoner's appearance.
bailiff	carrier	Officer who executes writs.
beef		Meat of ox or cow.
butcher	seller of goat flesh	A dealer in meat.
button
chivalry	horseman	One of many words used in royal life from Norman French.
comfort	strengthen
courtesy
cricket		A ball game played in the UK, Caribbean, parts of Africa and Asia, Australia, New Zealand.
crime	judgment
curfew	cover fire	Period to be off the streets.
custard		Baked mixture of eggs and milk.
defeat
dungeon		Underground prison.
duty
eagle		Large bird of divy.
elope	run away
embezzle	ravage
enemy	non friend
error
evidence
exchequer		A national treasury.
fashion	make
felony		A serious crime.
fraud
gallon	jug	A unit of liquid volume (= 4.546 Ч 10-3 m3 in UK; = 3.785 Ч 10-3 m3 in USA)
goblin
gourd
grammar	art of letters
grease	fat
grief
grocer		Food dealer. Originally "one who deals in the gross".
gutter	drop	Track for water.
haddock		A type of fish.
havoc
hogmanay		Now a Scottish festival at New Year.
honour
injury	wrong	Wrongful action or damage.
jettison	throw overboard
joy
judge	right speaking
jury	swear
justice
larceny		The crime of theft.
lavender		Perfumed shrub.
launch	hurl
lease	leave
leisure	allowed	Free time.
lever	to raise
liable	may be bound
libel	little book
liberty	free
liquorices	sweet root	Originally from a Greek root, "glico riza".
mackerel		A type of fish.
majesty
mangle
manor	remain
marriage
matrimony		From the same root as "matriarch" (mother).
mayhem
mutton		Meat of sheep.
noble
noun	name
nurse	nourish
occupy	seize
odour	smell
parliament	speaking	Ruling council in countries like UK.
pedigree	crane's foot	From "pe de gru". Because bird's feet marks resemble a family tree.
penthouse
perjury		False statement under oath.
pinch		As in "grip tightly".
platter	big plate
pleasure
pocket	small bag
pork		The meat of the pig.
prison	lay hold of
profound	deep
purloin	put away
purveyor		Supplier of food.
push
quarter		The Normans introduced the QU spelling for the KW sound.
question
quiet
quiver		The arrow case.
rape	take by force
reason
rebuke		Originally "to cut down wood".
rebut
recover
remedy	to heal
renown	to make famous
rent		The same root as "render".
repeal
reprieve	send back
reprisal
retail	piece cut off
reward
river
robe
royal
rummage
salary	salt	Soldiers used to be paid with salt.
salmon		A type of fish.
scavenger	tax collector
scullery	maker of dishes
search
sermon
sewer		Originally a channel to carry off overflow from a fishpond.
share
shop	cobbler's stall
sir		From "sire".
slander
soil
sovereign
spawn
spy
squirrel	little shadow tail
stubble	grain stalks
subsidy	support
suitor
surname		Family name.
surplus
surrender
survey
survive	over live
syllable
tally	mark on a stick	Tally sticks were used to record financial transactions.
tax	to charge
toil	stir
treason
treaty
uncle
usher	door keeper
valley
veal
veil
venison	to hunt	Deer meat
vicar	assistant
vice
view
virgin
vulture		Large bird of divy.
wafer
waive
warden		Same root as "guardian".
wicket	gate	Wooden sticks used in the game of cricket.
wreck

Norman French is the native language of the nobility.

Probably not a great deal of bilingualism

Small numbers of French loans enter English: legal, administrative and military terms.

French is the cultivated, divstige language.

There is a diagnostic situation, with French the high-divstige, English the low-divstige variety.

Norman French has lost its status, and Parisian French as the divferred norm.

Large numbers of French loans enter English.

English becomes the dominant language, but French remains dominant in literature and at the court.

Increasing evidence of imperfect knowledge of French.

Norman French chronology

1334-1453 The Hundred Years' War with France.

1348-9 The Black Death.30% mortality. Labour shortage, wage rises, increasing importance of the English-speaking classes

1386 English accepted in the courts ('Statute of Pleading')

Two major English poets at the end of the 14th century:

Gower writes mostly in French (but composes one long work Confessio amantis, in English)

Chaucer writes almost entirely in English.

Evidence of private letters:

1350: French is the rule.

After 1400: English becomes common.

After 1450: English is the rule.

Use of English in schools.

The influence of French on English in the early modern period

Influence on English phrasing

Aside from borrowing and word formation, French considerably influenced English phrasing. The loan translations range from polite turns of speech, such as at your service, do me the favour, to engage somebody in a quarrel, to make (later: pay) a visit, to idiomatic phrases like by occasion, in detail, in favour of, in the last resort, in particular, to the contrary.

ME pronounciation

The English language of the middle ages is different from the modern one. Here are two extracts from Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales to compare:

From the General Prologue Whan that April with his showres soote The droughte of March hath perced to the roote, And bathed every veine in swich licour, Of which vertu engendred is the flowr;

Whan Zephyrus eek with his sweete breeth Inspired hath in every holt and heeth The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne Hath in the Ram his halve cours yronne, And smale fowles maken melodye That sleepen al the night with open yл - (So priketh hem Nature in hir corages) - Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages, And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes To ferne halwes, couthe in sondry londes;

And specially from every shires ende Of Engelond to Canterbury they wende, The holy blisful martyr for to seeke, That hem hath holpen whan that they were seke.

The Wife of Baths Prologue and Tale from The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer, performed by Elizabeth Salter, from Geoffrey Chaucer: The Wife of Prologue and Tale (Cambridge University Press ISBN 0521635306) (p) 1976, 1998 Cambridge University Press. All Rights Reserved. /© Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Other domains that became enriched with French loanwords include:

Government: parliament, chancellor, government, country, crown

Finance: treasure, wage, poverty

Law: attorney, plaintiff, larceny, fraud, jury, verdict

War: battle, army, castle, tower, siege, banner

Religion: miracle, charity, saint, pardon

Morality: virtue, vice, gentle, patience, courage, mercy, courtesy, pity

Recreation: falcon, covert, scent, chase, quarry

Art, fashion, etc.: apparel, costume, gown, art, beauty, colour, image, design, cushion, tapestry

Cuisine: stew, grill, roast,... (compare these with AS-based terms like bake), bacon, mutton, pork, veal, venison (compare these with AS-based terms like boar, calf, cow, deer, ox, sheep, swine)

Household Relationships: uncle, aunt, nephew, cousin (form from OE: father, mother, brother and from Scandinavian sister)

The domination of the French language in England came to an end in the source of the 14^th c. The victory of English was predetermined and prepared for by previous events and historical conditions. Little by little the Normans and English drew together and intermingled. In the 14^th c. Anglo-Norman was a dead language; it appeared as corrupt French to those who had access to the French of Paris through books, education or direct contacts. The number of people who Knew French had fallen; Anglo-Norman and French literary compositions had lost their audience and had to be translated into English.

Towards the end of the 14^th c. the English language had taken the place of French as the language of literature and administration. English was once more the dominant speech of all social classes in all regions. It had ousted French since it had always remained the mother tongue and the only spoken language of the bulk of the population.

It may be interesting to mention some facts showing how the transition came about. In 1362 Edward 3 gave his consent to an act of Parliament ordaining that English be used in the law courts, sine `French has become much unknown in the realm'. This reform, however, was not carried out for years to come: French, as well as Latin, continued to be used by lawyers alongside English until the 16^th c. Yet many legal documents which have survived from the late 14^th and 15^th c. are written in English: wills, municipal acts, petitions. In 1363, for the first tome in history, Parliament was opened by the King's chancellor with an address in English. In 1399 King Henry 4 used English in his official speech when accepting the throne. In 1404 English diplomats refused to conduct negotiations with France in French, claiming that the language was unknown to them. All these events testify to the recognition of English as the state language.