Impact of French upon English Language After 1066

Introduction

French had an immense impact upon the English language during the four hundred years between 1066 and 1466. Although this impact was clearly connected to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, available evidence on the topic continues to inspire different interpretations of not only the types of French influences, but also to which extent these influences occurred. During the four hundred years after the Conquest, ongoing political, cultural, and social instability caused the gradual transition from Old to Middle English, which prevailed between the Old and Early Modern English periods. This essay will explore the impact of French upon the development of the English language by examining the relevant internal and external linguistic changes, which encompasses variation in phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics.

Internal and external linguistic changes

Languages are dynamic systems of constant evolution. Hickey’s (2012) assertion that speakers account for such progress is strongly valid, as variations in speech often begin with individuals and slowly spread amongst communities. This process is referred to as an epiphenomenon because of its unintentional and unpredictable nature. Consequently, studies mainly track how languages change rather than focus on why they do due to limited available evidence that can effectively support claims for causes of linguistic change.

Like with all languages, the development of English between 1066 and 1466 was driven by what is widely accepted as internal and external linguistic changes. Internal changes involve structural elements within a language system that produce regularity in the grammar, as one alteration can lead to an imbalance and provoke a further alteration (Hickey, 2012). For instance, a modification in the pronunciation (i.e. the act of producing the sound of words) can influence the morphology or most basic structure of a language. In Old English, the loss of inflections led to the loss of grammatical gender in Middle English. Van Gelderen (2006) explains that this omission of inflections on verbs and nouns, and subsequent reliance on words like “of”, “for”, and “have” was caused by a Germanic shift in stress towards the root of a word, which made inflections phonetically less prominent. Although internal changes may be motivated by ease of articulation, Labov, as noted by Van Gelderen (2006) explores vowel shifts that complicate speech, so it is important to note that there are various and highly debatable reasons for linguistic change.

In contrast to internal changes, external changes involve all aspects outside of a language system, which include political, geographical, and social factors (van Gelderen, 2006). A key example of an external change is the addition of words from one language to another, which often results from contact through migration, trade, and conquest (Kemmer, 2013). These additional words are known as loanwords or borrowings. During the four hundred years after 1066, approximately over 10,000 loanwords from French entered English (Durkin, 2014).

Despite the distinction between internal and external linguistic changes, the two can often interact with each other and complicate the analysis of change. A clear example of a linguistic change with different interpretations is the Great Vowel Shift, which resulted in the raising pronunciation of long vowels by one level and the diphthongisation of the two high vowels, /i:/ and /u:/. While Kazmierski (2015) identifies this shift as internally motivated for its structural nature, Hickey (2012) notes it as externally motivated because of no apparent inner cause. Such contrasting views reinforce Hickey’s (2012) argument that the labels ‘internal’ and ‘external’ should not be understood as creating a mutually exclusive binary, but instead as referring to two possible sources of language change. So by using this idea, French can be seen as an external force, which inspired internal changes within the English language, as it maintained its own grammar instead of adopting French grammar.

Issue of dating the development of English

Dating the transition from Old to Middle English, upon which French had an impact, is difficult, as the rate of any language change occurs steadily. Internally, a main difference between Old and Middle English is that Old English involves many inflections on nouns and verbs whereas Middle English contains more grammatical words, like articles, auxiliaries, and prepositions (van Gelderen, 2006). This reliance on grammatical words eventually resulted in the early modern English subject-verb-object word order. Blake (2008) notes a traditional view that Middle English began in 1066 with the Norman Conquest and ended in 1485 with the succession of Henry VII, the first Tudor monarch. Although both dates represent important political events, which may influence the development of English in the longer term, their accuracy in marking major linguistic progress is unreliable. Subsequently, this uncertainty supports van Gelderen’s (2006) view that Middle English started around 1150 because texts, such as the last entries of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, demonstrate the use of grammatical words rather than inflections, and that the language ended around 1500 since the Great Vowel Shift increased the intensity of language change. Much of today’s understanding of Middle English derives from the work of Geoffrey Chaucer who is renowned as the ‘Father of English Poetry’. In the following sections of this essay, French influences upon the development of English will be analysed in two time periods, which roughly group different significant language changes.

French impact upon English from 1066-1266

During the two centuries after the Norman Conquest, French had a relatively strong effect upon English compared to its effect during the two subsequent centuries. Before examining such French impact, it is essential to note the continued use of Old English because of no widespread massacre of the Anglo-Saxons, which helped modern English remain as a Germanic rather than a French or Romance language. Both English and French evolved in parallel. The new Norman regime altered the English language through French influence, as well as the uses of languages in England. With the replacement of the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy and church with Norman equivalents, French became the language of the upper class, and also of the law courts due to the use of interpreters for legal matters (Wilson, 1943). Early French impact upon English can be seen through religious loanwords like “angel” (Bodkter, 1909). Although, English was most likely the natural language as suggested