LL-L "Lexicon" 2009.11.03 (01) [EN]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 03 November 2009 - Volume 01
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From: DAVID COWLEY <DavidCowley at anglesey.gov.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Lexicon" 2009.11.02 (03) [EN]

Yes Ron, I'm sure the bilingual situation after the Conquest was a key
 factor, and there would have been a lot of pressure for the more
wealthy/ higher status English who were left to Normanise (though the
exact degree to which bilingualism in English/ French went in the
general population is something of a moot point).

Once a leading social group makes particular ways of talking 'in' and
'cool', the older forms really can get sidelined and forgotten. (Its
interesting that the naming of children with OE names amongst common
folk tailed off in the 1200s - surely part of the same process.) How far
influence on an older tongue goes depends on the individual case;
Normans held sway in Wales and much of Ireland by the high Middle Ages,
and yet the degree to which Welsh and Irish took on French loanwords was
quite a lot less than was the case for English (both these Celtic
tongues at the time had their own high status groups too, with native
kings, lords, poetry and law). Even in Scotland (outside the Gaelic
Highlands/ west), the Northern form of English which was becoming Scots
kept a fair few OE words which got lost from standard English (such as
lith = joint, eme = uncle, thole = to endure/ suffer, 'ootgang' already
noted).

I wanted to highlight the loss of some really expressive words, and
wonder whether English's liking for borrowing might mean that some get
to come back into use again (like afterfollower, mouthroof, oathbreach
and others).

Best wishes
David

From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
 Subject: Lexicon

Hi, David!

Was this not at least in part because during the Norman period many
non-Normans in Britain became Norman speaking, i.e. switched to the
more
prestigious language at the time, and those that were bilingual allowed
or
encouraged their English to be Norman-influenced because of the
prestige
associated with it?

Besides, the two languages seem to have influenced each other. I assume
that
Old English (and Celtic?) substrata led to the development of
Anglo-Norman,
a British dialect group of Norman (a.k.a. "Norman French").

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron
Seattle, USA

•

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