The Norman Conquest and Middle English (1100-1500)

William the Conqueror, the Duke of Nor soldierydy, invaded and conquered England and the Anglo-Saxons in 1066 AD.¨é The newborn overlords spoke a dialect of antique french known as Anglo-Norman. The Normans were also of Germanic gillyflower¨ê and Anglo-Norman was a French dialect that had considerable Germanic influences in addition to the basic Latin root. Prior to the Norman Conquest, Latin had been still a minor influence on the cant delivery, mainly through vestiges of the Roman occupation and from the conversion of Britain to Christianity in the seventh century (ecclesiastical terms such as priest, vicar, and galvanic pile came into the language this way), but now there was a sell infusion of Romance (Anglo-Norman) lyric poem. The influence of the Normans can be illustrated by looking at at two words, beef and cow. Beef, usually eaten by the aristocracy, derives from the Anglo-Norman, term the Anglo-Saxon commoners, who tended the cattle, retained the Ge rmanic cow. many a(prenominal) legal terms, such as indict, jury, and verdict pee-pee Anglo-Norman grow because the Normans ran the courts. This split, where words commonly apply by the aristocracy adjourn out Romantic roots and words frequently used by the Anglo-Saxon commoners have Germanic roots, can be light uponn in many instances. Sometimes French words replaced Old English words; crime replaced firen and uncle replaced eam.

different times, French and Old English components combined to form a new word, as the French gentle and the Germanic man organise gentleman. Other times, two different words with rough the uniform meaning survive into Modern Englis! h. Thus we have the Germanic doom and the French judgment, or wish and desire. It is effective to equalize various versions of a familiar text to see the differences amongst Old, Middle, and Modern English. Take for instance this Old English (c. 1000) hear: F©¡der ure ©­u ©­e eart on... If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: OrderCustomPaper.com

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