Normans And Middle English Essay Research Paper

Normans And Middle English Essay, Research Paper

The year 1066 had a resounding impact on the course of English history. William

the First, Duke of Normandy, conquered England and took it as a stronghold in

his reign. The French rule over England lasted for several centuries and brought

about innumerable changes to the English state, language, culture and lifestyle.

William imported French rulers to take over English government and religious

posts. The French were not only the new aristocracy in England, but the new

society. The English amended their language and their culture in an effort to

more resemble the French and to communicate with their new lords. The English

language was more changed by the Norman Conquest than by any other event in the

course of English history. Middle English is defined as the four hundred year

period between the Norman Conquest and the time the printing press was

introduced to England in 1476. This essay will explore the specific effects that

the French had on Middle English morphology, phonology, syntax, semantics and

lexicon. During the period of French rule in England the standing of English as

a valid language dropped substantially as French took over as the status

language. Because so much of the French influence has been nativized by

present-day speakers, many do not realize the impact that our language took in

the years following 1066. Not one aspect of English life went untouched by the

Norman presence in England, notably, its language. Phonology In addition to

introducing new words into the English language, the Normans also introduced

some new sounds. The English had previously had no phonemic distinction between

/f/ and /v/; /v/ was merely an allophone of /f/ that occurred between vowels.

However, with the influx of French loans which began in /v/ and contrasted as

minimal pairs in English, this distinction made its way into Middle English:

French loans English vetch fetch view few vile file The French also influenced

the adoption of several new diphthongs into English. Diphthongs are two vowel

sounds which are pronounced as one. Diphthong Old French Old English /eu/ neveu

neveu (nephew) /au/ cause cause /Ui/ bouillir boille (boil) point point / i/

noyse noise choisir chois (choice) The new English diphthongs were not exactly

like they were in French – they were modified by existing English vowels to

create brand new diphthongs. The stress pattern of Old French words differed

from that of Old English words, and often both stress patterns were present.

Germanic languages, such as English, tends to place primary stress on the first

syllable, unless that syllable is an unstressed prefix. French, on the other

hand, prefers to stress the heavy syllable (one containing a coda) closest to

the end of the word. Middle English loans from French often retained their

native stress pattern, however, in Present-Day English, the majority of these

borrowed words have conformed to the Germanic pattern. Lexicon Irrefutably, the

largest influence that the Normans had on the English language was on its

vocabulary. From the time William usurped the English throne until the end of

the Middle English period, our language was inundated with French vocabulary

terms. In fact, of the 2,650 words in the epic English poem .Sir Gawaine and

the Green Knight,. at least 750 are estimated to be of French origin. Even in

Present-Day English, some of our most commonly used words are of French origin;

table, tax, religion, trouble and pray are all derived from French words

borrowed into Middle English. Hardly one syntactic category was left untouched

by French loan-words during Middle English, although the majority of English

words borrowed from Old French tended to be nouns, verbs and adjectives. The

following is a very brief sample of some now-common words which had recently

joined English in the Middle English period: Adjectives: inequales .inequal,.

principalis .principal,. naturales .natural. Verbs: strive, please,

waste, join, cover Prepositions: French contributed to the constructions of

according to and during Interjections: gramercy .thank you. Nouns: ancestor,

cellar, dinner, garment, kennel, music, noun, plague, statute The French gave

the English language many specialized words, such as those used in culinary or

legal situations. Because the Normans had taken over judicial and aristocratic

roles, their high-prestige vocabulary was passed on to the lower-class English

who acted as their clerks and servants. Thus, many cooking terms such as broil,

goblet, and beverage were passed on by masters to their servants. The French

influence on the lexicon was nearly nonexistent in areas where the French

masters would have had little or no contact with their servants, for example, in

the field. Orthography The Present-Day English writing system is notorious for

being a p

Внимание, отключите Adblock

Вы посетили наш сайт со включенным блокировщиком рекламы!
Ссылка для скачивания станет доступной сразу после отключения Adblock!

Скачать