The Normans & The English Language

When the Normans* invaded England, the process of incorporating hundreds of Norman French words into English started. Many, but certainly not all, of our more complex terms come from Norman French (some were also borrowed later from "continental" French), but nearly all of our most commonly used words are still from Old English; that is, Anglo-Saxon. It has been said "by some," that when Winston Churchill gave his famous defiant speech against the Nazis in 1940, he deliberately used "almost" all words derived from Old English in the part about, "We shall fight on the beaches," etc. Anyway, the French dialect carried to England by the Normans is commonly referred to as "Anglo-Norman," rather than as "French."

The victory of William, Duke of Normandy, over the English brought about a natural change to the ruling structure of England, as William, then as king and known as King William I, ruled with Norman officials, as English nobles were removed from such positions; that is, those English nobles who were not killed. The site of William's major victory over the English near Hastings, in southeastern England, was given a Norman French name, "Battle," a word which became part of the English language, but which also showed how English was under pressure from words imported by the Normans. William ordered the building of an abbey at the battlefield location as a memorial to the dead there, and to comply with the Pope's admonishment for the Normans having killed so many people to complete their takeover of England. This takeover went on for a few years and the Normans literally laid waste to large areas of England. Many English people were slain, while others died from disease or starvation as a result of the destruction of their farms and towns. The abbey was not completed until after William had died, but it is still in existence. While set more than a century later, the book and the movie "Ivanhoe" does convey the very contentious relationship between the  the Norman rulers and their English subjects.** Some of this animosity is also shown in the film, "Becket," which covers the historical feud between the Christian church, represented in England by Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and King Henry II, the great grandson of William the Conqueror.***   

The Normans brought something else to England... the castle (Norman French: "castel"). In order to administer the country, the Normans built numerous castles to also provide some sense of safety from the still hostile English population. "Castle" was another word imported into the English language and it also was used to describe fortified towns. Words having to do with Norman nobles and rule came into English: "baron," "duke" and "govern." Likewise, some words of a military nature also were taken into English from the Normans: "archer" (although the English synonym "bowman" survives to this day), "soldier" (from Norman French "soudeour/soudier," although its spelling with the "l" was directly influenced by Latin), "army" (French: armée).

As part of their rule in England, the legal system showed the tremendous influence of Norman French upon the English language, with such basic words as "justice" and "judge" being borrowed into English, but there were many more, although some of the words may have been borrowed more directly from Latin, with reinforcement from Norman French, as Latin was also used in legal proceedings in England by the Normans. The word "legal" itself was borrowed by English (Old French "légal"). 

Last, but not least, there was the Norman influence on words about food. English retained many of its words for kinds of animals, but the Normans brought their own terms for the animals when used for food: modern English forms of the words: "cow, pig/swine, deer, calf, chicken, sheep," and the Norman terms for the food products: "beef, pork, venison, veal, poultry, mutton." 

*The Normans were originally North Germanic speakers, being what most folks commonly refer to as Vikings. They sailed up the rivers along the Atlantic coast, raiding inland, even near Paris. The Frankish (see note at end of this paragraph) king, in an effort to stop the raids, gave these folks land in the northwestern part of his kingdom. The people called the raiders "Northmen," as they came from Scandinavia, and the term stuck, although it was contracted into "Normans," and the area given to them by the king came to be called "Normandy." They quickly adapted to the local (majority) population, as their children and grandchildren grew up speaking the local dialect of "French," which was somewhat different from the French dialect of the Paris region. NOTE: The Franks were a large Germanic tribe, probably formed by the inclusion of many smaller Germanic tribes. The main elements of the Franks conquered much of Gaul, eventually giving their own name to the territory, “France,” and to the people and language, “French.” Interestingly in German, the word for France is “Frankreich;” that is, “empire of the Franks.” Gaul (named after the Celtic people, “the Gauls”) had been a Roman province for centuries by the time the Franks arrived, and the population spoke various dialects of Latin. Ever so gradually over a few centuries, the conquerors became the conquered, so to speak, as the Frankish language essentially was absorbed into the existing and more widespread Latin dialects. Frankish, however, did give many words to the “new” French language before it disappeared as a truly separate language in that area.

** This is the link to my article about "Ivanhoe:" http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2017/02/ivanhoe-robert-taylor-in-title-role.html  

*** "Ivanhoe" is set in the time of King Richard I, the son of Henry II. 

**** French is a Latin-based language, with a number of Germanic influences, including some vocabulary, primarily from its namesake language, Frankish, a Germanic language that was absorbed into the Latin dialects of the area we now call France (named after the Franks) in the time leading up to the Norman Invasion. A good number of German dialects today trace their heritage back to Frankish, including the dialect of Lorraine (Lothringisch), Luxembourg (Lëtzebuergesch), the Nuremberg area (the area is called "Franken" and the dialect is "Fränkisch") and several others. Not only these dialects, but the Dutch language comes from Frankish.

WORD HISTORY:
Manor-This word, related to "mansion" (a Latin-derived word borrowed from French), goes back to Indo European "men," which had the meaning, "to stay," also in the sense, "dwell." This gave Latin "manere," meaning, "to stay, to dwell." This passed into Latin-based Old French as "maneir," which then became "manoir," and both forms retained the Latin meaning. "Manoir" also became a noun meaning, "dwelling place, home," but also later, "main home of a lord or noble on his property holdings." This was carried to England by the Normans in their dialect as "maner," and it was borrowed into English in the second half of the 1200s.