Changes that occurred in English Language after Norman Conquest
The Norman Conquest changed the whole course of
English language. French became the language of social prestige and status. French
words entered the English lexicon. More than 10000 French words found their way
into English words associated with government, law, art, literature, food, and
many other aspects of life.
English language gradually disappeared as a written
language, which resulted in the removal of borders on development of language; grammar
became simplified as people started finding the simplest way to talk with
people, who did not speak English as their first language.
The pronunciation
of English changed to some extent under the influence of French, as did the
spelling. E.g. the old English ‘cw’, ‘sc’ and ‘c’ became ‘qu’, ‘sh’ and ‘ch’. The
spelling of cwen changed into queen, scip to ship and scolde to should, English
grammar took on a few French structures
, such as putting in adjectives after nouns in some expressions – attorney general,
secretary general, surgeon general, . Since, Englishmen became desirous of
learning the language of the ruling class, a large number of them learned French
or Latin.
However, the Normans conquers on the other hand, had
to learn English and translate it into Latin, since there was the need to
understand English law , as a result , this period saw an upsurge in the translations of English
Material n to Latin.
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