Linguistic consequences of the Norman Conquest

England and Anglo-Saxon were conquered in 1066 by Normans. Under Norman rule the official language in England was French or rather its variety called Anglo-French. It was also the dominant language of literature.

As a result, after the Norman invasion, many Anglo Saxon words narrowed in meaning to describe only the cruder, dirtier aspects of life. Concepts associated with culture, fine living and abstract learning tended to be described by new Norman words. Thus, many new doublets appeared in English that were stylistically marked: cow/beef, calf/veal, swine/pork, sheep/mutton, deer/venison, sweat/perspire.

Consequently, the Norman invasion initiated a vast borrowing of Latin-based words into English. Entire vocabularies were borrowed from Norman French:

1) governmental: count, heraldry, fine, noble, parliament.

2) military: battle, ally, alliance, ensign, admiral, navy, aid, gallant, march, enemy, escape, peace, war (cf. guerilla).

3) judicial system: judge, jury, plaintiff, justice, court, suit, defendant, crime, felony, murder, petty/petit, attorney, marriage (Anglo-Saxon wedding), heir.

4) ecclesiastical: clergy, altar, miracle, preach, pray, sermon, virgin, saint, friar/frere.

5) cuisine: sauce, boil, filet, soup, pastry, fry, roast, toast.

6) new personal names: John, Mary (Biblical Hebrew and Greek names) and Norman French (Charles, Richard)

The Norman French influence was so extensive that even the grammar of English was affected. The changes were mainly confined to the borrowing of derivational affixes. All native prefixes dropped out or became unproductive during this time; the few that survive today are non-productive: be - in besmirch, or for - in forgive, forstall; they were replaced by Latin: ex-, pre, pro, dis, re, anti- inter. Many Norman French suffixes were borrowed: - or vs. -er; -tion, -ment, -ee, -able as a suffix.

By the late 1300's when Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales, more than half of the English vocabulary consisted of Norman French words. Curiously enough, Norman French borrowings into English haven't changed in pronunciation for 800 years, whereas the French pronunciation changed. Old Norman French borrowings have [ch]: Charles, choice, check; more recent French borrowings have [sh]: champagne, machine. Thus, when new words were borrowed into English from French over the past few hundred years, still more lexical doublets were created: chief/chef.

The period of Middle English came to a close by about 1450, by the time the two languages of Norman and Anglo-Saxon had merged into a single linguistic form. Actually, what happened was that the more numerous Anglo-Saxon speakers triumphed over the Norman French, who came to adopt English in place of French. But the English of 1500 contained a tremendous number of Norman French words.