How the Language Changed

1) Many French words came into the language. Under the influence of French the pronunciation of the people changed. Some French words could not pronounced by the Anglo-Saxons, so some of the Norman-French sounds were substituted by more familiar sounds from Old English. There appeared many new long vowels (diphthongs) in their native language. This newly formed pronunciation was nearing that of Modern English.

2) The spelling did not correspond to the pronunciation. The Norman scribes brought to England their Latin traditions. The Anglo-Saxon letters p, th for the sounds [] and [] were runes. The Normans replaced these letters by the Latin t+h=th.

3) What was particularly new was the use of French suffixes with words of Anglo-Saxon origin. For instance, the noun-forming suffixes –ment (government, agreement) and –age (courage, marriage), giving in abstract meaning to the noun, and the adjective-forming suffix –able (admirable, capable) were used to form new words. Examples of such hybrids, as they are called, are:

fulfilment bondage readable

bewilderment cottage unbearable

bewitchment stoppage drinkable

4) The French prefix dis- was used to make up words of negative meaning: distrust, distaste.

5) The indefinite article was coming into use.

6) The struggle for supremacy between French and Old English words went on in the following way:

a) If the French word meant a thing or idea for which there was no name in English, then the French word came into the language. Such words were those relative to government, church, court, armour, pleasure, food, art.

b) If the object or idea was clearly expressed in English, then the English word remained.

c) If both words remained, then it was because of a slight but clear-cut difference in the meaning. An interesting example is to be found in the first chapter of “Ivanhoe” by Sir Walter Scoot. Wamba, a Saxon serf, tells the swineherd Gurth that his swine will be turned into Normans before morning. The Anglo-Saxon word “swine” means the living animal, while the French word “pork” is the name of the food. Other examples are:

calf-veal, ox-beef, sheep-mutton.

7) As a result of this process there appeared a large store of synonyms. Each of them has its own shade of meaning. The use of one or other of these synonyms makes all the difference between the following verbs; those of Anglo-Saxon origin are used in the conversation, while the verbs of French origin are used in formal speech:

to give up – to abandon

to give in – to surrender

to give over – to surrender

to come in – to enter

to begin –to commence

to go on – to continue

The history of English literature shows us how the popular tongue became the language of the educated classes because it was spoken by the majority of the population, by those who tilled the soil, sowed and reaped, by those who produced the goods and struggled against the foreign oppressors.

Norman-French and Anglo-Saxon were moulded into one national language only toward the beginning of the 14^th century when the Hundred Years’ War broke out. The language of that time is called Middle English.

The First Universities, Oxford and Cambridge. Before the 12^th century people thought that books and any kind belonged to the Church only, and that common people who were not priests or monks had no business to meddle with books. But with the development of such sciences as medicine and law, corporations of general study called “universitas” appeared in Italy and France. A fully developed university had four faculties: three superior (higher) faculties, that of Theology (the study of religious books), Cannon Law (church laws) and of Medicine; and one inferior (primary) faculty, that of Art, where seven subjects were studied: Latin Grammar, Rhetoric (the art of expressive speaking), Logic, Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy and Music.

Paris was the great centre of high education for English students. In the middle of the 12^th century a controversy on the study of Logic arose among the professors. A group of professors were expelled. Followed by their students, they went over to Britain and in 1168 founded schools in the town of Oxford which formed the first university. A second university was formed in 1209 in Cambridge, to which a large group of students migrated from Oxford.

The graduates were awarded degrees: Bachelor, Master and Doctor.

Toward the end of the 13^th century colleges where other subjects were studied appeared around the universities.

It became the custom for students to go about from one university to another, learning what they could from the most famous teachers in each place.