Mihalache 1

Raluca Mihalache

Professor Gabriela Nistor

Elaboration of Scientific Papers

14 January 2019

The French Influence On The Middle English Language

While researching texts written in the Middle English, I couldn't help being struck by the

influence of the French Language so I documented even more. The English language has

undergone tremendous changes over the years of its development from Old English to the

Modern English as it is known today. During that time, especially during the Middle English

period, several other languages exerted a significant influence and were therefore partly

responsible for the changes brought to English over the years. The three languages with most

impact were Latin, French and Old Norse. This paper will focus on the influence of the French

language on Middle English, brought on by the Norman Conquest through William the

Conqueror. First there will be an explanation of the historical events, which preceded the

developments in the England. Afterwards the focus of this paper will rest on the effect of the

French language on the Middle English vocabulary, spelling and phonology. During the course

of this paper it will be proved that the French language was one of the main influences, which

affected the English language during the Middle Ages.

Historical Context

Unlike languages that developed within the boundaries of one country (or one distinct

geographical region), English, since its beginnings 1,600 or so years ago, evolved by crossing
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boundaries and through invasions, picking up bits and pieces of other languages along the way

and changing with the spread of the language across the globe.

The Norman Invasion

The Norman Conquest was a traumatic event and a vein of bitterness against the

conquerors can be discerned throughout the twelfth century in the works of English writers.

(Williams 1)

The historical event, which led to the English language becoming interspersed with

French elements occurred at the end of the Old English period and is widely known as the

Norman Conquest in the year 1066. In that year, after the death of Edward, King of England, the

need to find a suitable successor arose. The choice fell on Harold, son of Godwin, the Earl of

West Saxon, who had been Edward’s principal advisor. However, his election did not find

agreement from all sides. William, Duke of Normandy, had been assured by Edward that he

would succeed him as King of England. Therefore, in September 1066, he decided to claim the

throne by force and invaded England from its south coast.

Although unprepared, the English forces went to defend their country, which resulted in

the Battle of Hastings, where the current regent, Harold, was killed. After the battle was won,

William continued to plunder and burn the southeast of England, until the inhabitants of London

gave in and capitulated. William was crowned King of England at Christmas in 1066.1

1
For more information on this topic, it's largely explained in Albert C. Baugh, A History of the English L anguage
(London: Routledge, 1991)
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How did it influence language and literature? The Norman impact on culture, like its'

impact on social structures, varied. In some areas, the Norman Conquest brought only limited

change, especially on the long terms. in other areas, particularly language, it had profound

effects, the consequences of which remain important even in the twenty-first century. (Thomas

119)

The probably most significant consequence of the Norman Conquest, and also the one

with the most noticeable effect on the English language, was the appointment of a new nobility

by William. Important positions in the church, military, and other institutions were also newly

assigned. As a result of the majority of the upper class in England being replaced by Normans,

French became the dominant language at court and among the ruling class. However, the

language of the majority of the population remained English.

This new order, which had been established after the Norman Conquest, was gradually

accepted by the English people in the following years. What followed was a blending between

the English people and the Normans:

Now that the English and Normans have been dwelling together, marrying and giving in

marriage, the two nations have become so mixed that it is scarcely possible […] to tell who is

English, who of Norman race. (Baugh 119)

The influence on the contrary, compensated by quality in its deficieny of quantity. But the

Norman influence, in virtue of being that, not of barbarism, but of a civilization, and

especially of a civilization still in all the radiant bloom and buoyant pride of youth, never

could have ever been directly destructive; from the first moment of their actual contact it must

have communicated to the native civilization something of new life. (Craik 9)

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Later, around the end of the twelfth century, the two languages were just as interwoven as

the people who spoke them. Members of the upper class had often gained knowledge of the

English language, while French was frequently found in the lower social classes as well. What

consequences this merging of people as well as languages had for the Middle English language

will be discussed in the following chapters.

Influence on the Vocabulary

As a result of the Norman Conquest, the French language, brought to England by the

Norman aristocracy, started to exert a strong influence on English. Affected were the English

vocabulary, as well as spelling and sound, or phonology. Since the effect of French is most

noticeable in the vocabulary, the focus of the explanation will be on this sphere. However, the

way French influenced the other two areas will be examined as well.2

Borrowing and Loanwords

The influence of French is especially obvious in the Middle English vocabulary, because

"[w]here two languages exist side by side for a long time […], a considerable transference of

words from one language to the other is inevitable."(Baugh 167) As a result, a large amount of

French words found their way into the Middle English vocabulary, in a process that lasted

several centuries, with varying degrees of intensity.

2
The explanations and examples are based on Albert C. Baugh, A History of the English Language (London:
Routledge, 1991)
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The borrowing of French words into English took place in two stages, before and after

1250. In the first stage, only few words were borrowed, and most showed signs of Anglo-

Norman phonology. They came, for example, from the military, like "assault, captain, fortress."

In the second stage, however, a great number of common, mostly Central French, words

used by the upper class were introduced into English. They were from every area of life:

government, administration, church, military and legal terms, as well as words that describe

fashion, food, art, medicine, among others, for example: "medicine, physician, surgery", or

"court, […] fashion, dress."

Borrowed words are adapted phonetically, grammatically and semantically. The lasting

nature of phonetic adaptation may be observed in the comparison of Norman French borrowings

with later ones. Thus, words such as table, plate, courage and chivalry bear no phonetic traces of

their French origin. By contrast, words as valise, mantinee, café, ballet still sound suprisingly

French.

Generally, borrowing is caused either by the necessity to fill a gap in the vocabulary or

by a chance to add a synonym conveying an old concept in a new way. Nevertheless, the process

of borrowing is not always purposeful, logical and efficient. Sometimes a word may be borrowed

“blindly” and such accidental borrowings are generally rejected by the vocabulary. Interestingly,

other borrowings manage to take root by the process of semantic adaptation. The adjective large,

for instance, was borrowed from French in the meaning “broad, wide”, although English already

had the word ‘wide’; moreover, the adjective large did not add any shades of meaning to the

native ‘wide’. And yet it was not rejected, entering another synonymic group with the general

meaning ‘big in size’. At first the word was applied to objects characterized by vast horizontal
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dimensions, thus retaining a trace of its former meaning, and now, although still bearing some

features of that meaning, is actually competing with big. Used figuratively, large implies

broadness, generosity and comprehensiveness (take the large view), big suggests importance and

impressiveness but often in contrast to genuine worth.

Phonetics and Spelling

The introduction of too many French words into English brought about some changes in

the sound system of the language. In Old English, there were the phonemes /f/ and /s/ which had

respectively the allophones [f] and [s] which were used initially and finally, and [v] and [z]

which were used medially between voiced sounds. However, the introduction of a number of

Norman French loans such as veal, victory, zeal and zodiac with initial [v] and [z] introduced [v]

and [z] into the contexts where they had not previously appeared. Therefore, [v] and [z] became

separate phonemes. Moreover, the English adopted the French diphthongs /!i/and /ui/ which were

used in the French loan words.3

In the middle of the thirteenth century, once more English emerged as a written language.

And the churchly writers started to copy texts in English. These writers, who had studied in

France and were familiar with French, gradually changed the Anglo Saxon forms of Latin letters

and replaced them with French ones. The change was not great, as most of the French letters

were nearly the same as those previously in use in Old English.

3
For more details concerning this topic chek April McMahon, An Introduction to English Phonology (Oxford
University Press, 2002)
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The useful Old English letter <æ > was first dropped from the English alphabet. æfter,

æsc, græs are examples of the Old English words. In Old English, the letters <þ> and <δ> were

used to denote the sounds [θ] and [δ] indiscriminatingly. The letter <δ> had almost disappeared

before 1300; and <þ > denoting either sounds, was used much longer. Towards the end of the

Middle English period, around 1400 <th> was gradually introduced.

In French language <g> and <j> were pronounced /d ろ/ initially (gentil, geste, juge)

which caused ambiguity since in a few words <g> had the value /g/ before front vowels. To

solve this problem <gu> was devised; thus, Old English gild and gest changed to guild and guest.

The digraph <gg> replaced Old English <cg> which represented /d ろ/ in medial and final

positions, later it was written as <dg(e)> as in modern edge. This sound didn't occur initially in

Old English until French loans introduced it.

The French people didn't pronounce the letter at the beginning of a word. Under the

influence of spelling, some of the French loan words with initial were pronounced with or

without /h/ in Middle English. However, gradually came to be pronounced in all but a few

words, such as honour, honest, hour and heir. In England hotel is pronounced with and without

/h/.

The result of the English tendency to pronounce the words in French fashion is that the

pronunciation of the late borrowings is not fixed. Some like garage is pronounced in different

ways, as['gæ ra:d ろ], ['gæ ra:ろ], [gə'ra:d ろ] and [gə'ra:ろ] which retain the aspects of French

pronunciation with variant syllable stress, and ['gæ rid ろ] the anglicized form, which has
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followed the pattern of village['vilid ろ]. This tendency had also a queer effect in changing the

pronunciation and spelling of a number of old-established and naturalized words. Thus, biscuit

which in the form bisket is found as an old English word, has recently changed to accord with

French spellings, although its pronunciation has not yet been changed. For the same reason, the

accent of some old words have been changed. Police and marine are old English words whose

pronunciation changed owing to French influence.4

Conclusion

As we have seen French had a great influence on the English language. Thousands of

French words entered English. The spelling system of Old English changed. Some new French

phonemes came into English sound system. A large number of French affixes replaced most of

the Old English ones. Moreover, French accelerated the grammatical simplification of English.

One wonders whether all of these changes were inevitable and the result of the circumstances

which the English people were involved in, or the English people's tendency to use this

prestigious language has brought about most of these changes. However, it is not the unique

characteristic of the English people to borrow foreign words and expressions. We can find

instances of it all through the history of languages. What makes a nation borrow words from

another language has been clearly stated by Dr. J.A. Sheared (1962), "The acquisition of loan

words from another language shows that the borrower feels that there is something superior in

the foreign language, or in the people who use it, for we may suppose that no reasonable being

4
John McWorther, Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English (Avery, 2009)
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would deliberately make use of foreign words if he felt that his own language possessed words

which did the job better." (p. 26-27)

Works Cited

Williams, Ann, The English and the Norman Conquest, Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 1997

Thomas, M. Hugh, The Norman Conquest: England after William the Conqueror, Rowman &

Littlefield, 2008

Baugh, C. Albert, A History of the English Language, London, Routledge, 1991

Craik, George Lillie, A Compendious History of English Literature, and of the English

Language, from the Norman Conquest, Vol. 1, 1864

McMahon, April, An Introduction to English Phonology, Oxford University Press, 2002

McWorther, Josh, Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue: The Untold History of English, Avery, 2009