6. French as the most important foreign influence on the English language.

Norman Conquest (1006) made up the new aristocracy – Anglo-Saxons became servants. They spoke Norman dialect of French – AS did not understand them (AS – English, German origin) => bilingual country. For 300 years French was the official language of administration (the king’s court, the law-courts, the church, the army & the castle, the intellectual life, literature & education). Lower classes in towns&countryside – English (only to spoken communication). Firstly without mingling but slowly began to permeate. 1400 loan words – 10000.

The French borrowings of the ME period are usually described according to semantic spheres:

1. government & administration of the country are French by origin: government; office; power, authority; parliament; country; nation; people;

2. feudal system & words indicating titles & ranks of the nobility: baron; duke; peer, count; prince, countess; feudal; noble. But very few words of these semantic groups are native (lord, lady, king, queen, earl, knight). These borrowings show that the Normans had a far more elaborate (сложную) administrative system & a more complex scale of ranks.

3. military terms adopted in ME are the result of the fact that military matters were managed by the Normans & their organization of the army was new to the English: navy; soldier, battle; escape; captain; force; victory, army; lieutenant; war.

4. law & jurisdiction, which were certainly under the control of the Normans. Many of these words are used now in everyday speech: accuse; false; interest; justice; crime; judge; marry; property; damage; prove; just; money; poor; rent.

5. church & religion, for in the 12th & 13th centuries all the important posts in the Church were occupied by the Norman clergy: abbey; procession; chapel; paradise; religion; charity; passion; sacrifice; vice, Bible; saint; virgin, miracle.

6. house, furniture & architecture, we see that the Normans introduced many innovations: chair; curtain; castle; chimney; cushion; palace; table, column; lamp; wardrobe.

7. art: art; colour; figure; beauty; design; image; paint.

8. names of garments (предметы одежды): boot; collar; dress; coat, jewel, costume; fur; gown.

9. entertainment, which is natural enough for the Norman nobles amused themselves with various pastimes: adventure; feast; cards; dance ; leisure; sport, chase; dice (игра в кости) ; tournament, contest ; ease ; pleasure.

10. the life of the upper classes & of the town life:

a. forms of address: sir, madam, mister, mistress, master, servant.

b. names of some meals: dinner, supper, (while “breakfast” remained native).

c. names of some dishes: here the words “beef, veal, mutton, pork, bacon, are absolutely different from the names of the animals from whose meat they are cooked (which remained native English words): ox, cow, calf, sheep, swine.

d. names of town trades bore French names while simple country occupations retained their native names:

11. definite semantic sphere:

advice; comfort; excuse; letter; pale; air; cry; face; manner; pass; scissors, allow; firm; move; please; single, anxious; double; flower; necessary; previous; stupid sudden

autumn; eager; nice; tender, enjoy; hour; noise; river; treasure, change; enter; joy; remember; very, envy; large; occupy; satisfy; use.

Some adverbs (sure, certain(ly)), exclamations, oaths & swearings entered the language, because it became fashionable among the aristocracy to use them.

Thirdly, a lot of adopted words were synonymous to native, which however didn’t result in replacement. Both words survived as they differed in style, shaes of meaning or combinability (French loan-words preserve a more bookish, literary character). This influx (наплыв, прилив) of French words is one of the main historical reasons for the abundance of synonyms in ModE:

commence-begin, search-look for, odour-smell, desire-wish, existence-life, language-tongue, felicity-happiness, enter-come in, continue-go on, solar activity-sunglasses, maternal unkle-motherly love.

Borrowings from French

The influx of French words continued in the late 15th & in the late 17th c. These French borrowings mainly pertain to diplomatic relations, social life, art & fashion. French remained the international language of diplomacy for several hundred years; Paris led the fashion in dress, food & in social life & to a certain extent in art & literature; finally, the political events in France in the 18-19th c. were of world-wide significance.

Examples of diplomatic terms are: attache, communique, dossier;

social life: ball, cafe, coquette, hotel, picnic, restaurant;

art: ballet, ensemble, essay, genre;

military terms are: brigade, maneuver, marine, police;

fashions in dress & food: blouse, corsage, cravat, champagne, menu, soup.

Words of miscellaneous character are: comrade, detail, entrance, fatigue, garage, machine, moustache, progress, ticket.

Most of these words haven’t been assimilated in English, retaining their spelling, the sounds & the position of the stress.