Norman Conquest & English Language PDF

The Norman conquest. French influence upon the English language. Borrowings and calques. 1 1. INTRODUCTION Towards the close of the Old English Period an event occurred which had a greater effect on the English language than any other in the cour...

The Norman conquest. French influence upon the English language. Borrowings and calques. 1 1. INTRODUCTION Towards the close of the Old English Period an event occurred which had a greater effect on the English language than any other in the course of its history. This event was the Norman Conquest in 1066. What the language would have been like if William the Conqueror had not succeeded in making good his claim to the throne of England can only be a matter of conjecture. It would probably have pursued much the same course as the other Teutonic languages, retaining perhaps more of its inflections and preserving a preponderantly Teutonic vocabulary, adding to its word-stock by the characteristics of word-formation, and incorporating much less freely words from other languages. In particular it would have lacked the greater part of that enormous number of French words which today make English seem on the side of the vocabulary almost as much a Romance as a Teutonic language. The Normans were northern Scandinavians who settled along the northern coast of France in the 9 th and 10th centuries, founding the French dukedom of Normandy and raising it to a position of great influence, overshadowing at times the power of the king of France. They rapidly absorbed the elements of the French civilisation and, thus, became, one of the most advanced people in Europe. In fact, over time they assimilated into mediaeval European society, abandoned paganism, and upheld conventional Christian norms. The Norman Conquest not only changed the history of Britain, but also the whole course of the English language. An event of such far-reaching consequences must be considered in some detail. In doing so, we shall first offer a brief historical overview of the period before centring attention upon the major linguistic consequences that the conquest brought forth. Then, special attention will be drawn to the impact that the introduction of French in England had, as a result of the Norman Conquest, upon both the Middle English grammar (morphology and syntax, namely) and, especially on Middle English lexicon. Last, the inevitable aftermath resulting out will be highlighted, that is, the enrichment of the English vocabulary in the 14th and 15th centuries thanks to the happy mingling of Latin, French and native elements. To round off, some educational implications of the subject-matter will be brought to the fore before a final conclusion is drawn up. The present unit, thus, aims to provide a detailed account of the Norman Conquest and examine the influence of French on the English language, chiefly on its vocabulary but also in its grammar, in the form of loanwords and calques, that is, the process of borrowing. A process which significantly contributes to both plurilingualism and intercultural competence. These issues are deeply rooted in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR, 2001), its Companion Volume with New Descriptors (2020), and the official curricula for both the Compulsory –CSE– and Non-Compulsory –NCSE or Baccalaureate– stages of secondary education nationwide and in Andalusia: Royal Decrees 217/2022 and 243/2022 and Decrees 102/2023 and 103/2023, respectively. Actually, plurilingualism is described as both a key competence, and also a specific competence in the current foreign language curricula; whereas interculturality is the basis to increase international and cross-cultural tolerance and understanding between different languages. EN BENEFICIO DE TODOS Y DEL PROPIO AUTOR SE RUEGA NO FOTOCOPIARLO UNIT 42. Juan Manuel Ángeles Ruiz. The Norman conquest. French influence upon the English language. Borrowings and calques. 2 2. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Once the Roman troops left Britain around 410, the country was unprotected, giving barbarians the opportunity to make their way into it. By the 6th century, a different map emerged, with a series of small independent kingdoms which bore little relation to what the Romans had created. These centuries are called the Dark Ages –dark because a whole civilisation disintegrated, dark also because our knowledge of what actually took place is very fragmentary– and correspond to the Anglo-Saxon period. Times of turmoil came, with the Anglo-Saxons kings fighting for the land against the Vikings, from Norway, Sweden and Denmark. This period lasted up to the 10th century, the last of the Anglo-Saxon England. By the turn of the year 1000, a new wave of Vikings, the Norsemen, raided the country; this fact, first, and, afterwards, the death of King Edward the Confessor, the last Anglo-Saxon King, led to a struggle between candidates for the crown, again radically changing the country. Obviously enough, all these changes in ruling power and settlers led to major political, economic and religious variations and, above all, to the forming of a new way of life and mentality, conforming a new nation with a new language. During this period, English shires and counties took shape, a single currency was introduced, rulers became literate, the first written historical reports were issued –Anglo-Saxon Chronicles–, new words taken from the different barbarian languages were included. Although the Saxons were the dominant group, the new nation gradually came to be known as England as its language, English. 3. THE NORMAN CONQUEST By the middle of the 11th century, Normandy was essentially French, and the Normans were among the most advanced and progressive of the peoples of Europe. In turn, the kingdom of England was rich, civilised and… vulnerable as it had been created by the interactions of Viking invasions and Saxon resistance. There were rich farmlands and prosperous trading towns. The Church was affluent, well-organised and often learned. Local government was strongly based on customary law and popular consent. This situation caused the envy of Western Europe and this envy was easy translated into action. However, for some years before the conquest, the relations between England and Normandy had been fairly close. In 1002, Ethelred the Unready –King of the English from 978 to 1013 and again from 1014 until his death– had married a Norman woman. When he was later driven into exile by the Danes he sought refuge with his brother-in-law, the Duke of Normandy. EN BENEFICIO DE TODOS Y DEL PROPIO AUTOR SE RUEGA NO FOTOCOPIARLO UNIT 42. Juan Manuel Ángeles Ruiz. The Norman conquest. French influence upon the English language. Borrowings and calques. 3 In 1043, Edward the Confessor, his son, became King of England and was brought from exile in Normandy. He was known as the Confessor because of his patronage of the Church. The coronation of Edward meant the decline of the kingdom of England for several reasons: ▪ He did nothing to improve the laws and administration or to shore up the existing defensive positions ▪ His monastic ideals of chastity resulted in an unconsummated marriage which led to future problems of succession to the throne: Some Norman sources have suggested that Edward was a very religious man and took a vow of celibacy. Yet, modern historians believe that Edward refused to have children with Edith Godwin or Edith of Wessex, -Harold’s sister and the daughter of Godwin of Wessex, the most important nobleman in England- because of his hatred of his father-in-law. ▪ He promoted rivalry in his state as he had appointed Normans to important offices in his court, state, administration and church to the detriment of the English nobility, particularly those bound to Godwin of Wessex. When in January 1066, after a reign of twenty-four years, Edward the Confessor died childless, England was faced with the choice of a successor. At his succession, Edward had found England divided into a few large districts, each under the control of a powerful earl. The most noble of these was Godwin, earl of West Saxony or Wessex. He became Edward’s principal advisor. His eldest son Harold succeeded to his title and influence, and during the last twelve years of Edward’s reign exercised a firm and capable influence over the nation’s affairs. The day after Edward’s death, Harold was elected king. However, in the meantime, William, Duke of Normandy and second cousin to Edward, to whom Edward himself had promised the kingdom in 1051, was pondering upon the idea of becoming the next king of England. Only by force could William hope to obtain the crown to which he believed himself entitled, and only by force did he obtain it. He secured the support of those around him by offering substantial rewards should he become king. He established alliances with his former enemies on the continent and appealed to the Pope for the sanction of his enterprise and, eventually, received the blessing of the Church. In September 1066, William landed on the south coast of England finding no opposition as Harold was occupied in the North, trying to repel an invasion by the king of Norway Harald Hardrada, another pretender and claimant to the throne. Harold died on October 14th 1066 in the Battle of Hastings (an arrow pierced one of his eyes and died instantaneously). Although William was victorious, he was not yet proclaimed King of England. Not before he had burnt and pillaged the South-East of England. Finally, on Christmas day, 1066, he was crowned King of England. However, he realised that winning the battle was not the same as conquering the country, and until his death in 1087, he worked tirelessly to consolidate the victory. The Saxon noblemen and clergy were replaced by Normans, and when the dispossessed Saxons rebelled, he obliterated the uprisings mercilessly. He ordered strongly fortified castles, strongholds and fortresses, many of which, such as the Tower of London, are still in existence today. William’s attitude toward the Church was also one of strength. The Norman bishops he appointed had the double obligation of allegiance to the Pope and to the King, and this created the basis for a struggle of power and money between church and state which was to last for centuries. EN BENEFICIO DE TODOS Y DEL PROPIO AUTOR SE RUEGA NO FOTOCOPIARLO UNIT 42. Juan Manuel Ángeles Ruiz. The Norman conquest. French influence upon the English language. Borrowings and calques. 4 The system of land holdings with the king being the ultimate lord of the whole country, formed the basis of the feudal system. On the death of a lord, the land would pass onto his son, but only if fees were paid to the crown. The monarch could abuse the system by raising payments. As a result of all this, between 1066 and 1340, there were no more than fifty years of peace. In 1087 William died, but the consolidation of the conquest continued with varying degrees of success until the 13th century when Normandy was lost by King John. As we have seen, it was not a pacific succession, but a matter of conquest. Therefore, it had its consequences as such: ▪ Firstly, Old English nobility was substituted by Norman noblemen, and for several generations the important positions were held by Normans or people of foreign blood. ▪ Secondly, also the important positions of church were held gradually by Norman prelates. ▪ Thirdly, a strong military force control was established as the number of Norman troops was constantly rising. ▪ And, fourthly, many Normans who came with William remained in the island, and many more, merchants and craftsmen, came to settle in England. The Normans arrived in England bringing their language with them. French became the prestigious language in England, the one spoken by the elite. However, despite the fusion of Norman and English people, the masses continued speaking their languages, the so-called Old English, a blend of Anglo- Saxon dialects. 4. THE LINGUISTIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE NORMAN CONQUEST The members of the new ruling class continued to use their own language. This was natural enough at first, since they knew no English; but they continued to do so for a long time, picking up some knowledge of English, gradually, but making no effort to do so as a matter of policy, and this continued being so for 200 years after the Norman Conquest. At first, those who spoke French were of Norman origin, but soon, through intermarriage and association with the ruling class, numerous people of England must have found it to their advantage to learn a new language. The language of the masses, on the other hand, continued to be English. English was now an uncultivated language, the tongue of a socially inferior class. The fusion of Normans and English was rapid, and after the loss of Normandy and the growing antagonism toward France the union of all the inhabitants of England was complete. The fact that English was the language of the greater part of the population made it likely that many of the upper class would acquire some familiarity with it, the result being that a knowledge of English was not uncommon at the end of the 12th century among those who habitually used French; and among those whose activities brought them into contact with both the upper and the lower classes the ability to speak both languages was quite general. Thus, in the period preceding the loss of Normandy there were some who spoke French only, some who were bilingual and many more who had some understanding of both languages, while speaking only one. EN BENEFICIO DE TODOS Y DEL PROPIO AUTOR SE RUEGA NO FOTOCOPIARLO UNIT 42. Juan Manuel Ángeles Ruiz. The Norman conquest. French influence upon the English language. Borrowings and calques. 5 If the English had permanently retained control over the two-thirds of France that they once held, French might have remained permanently in use in England. But shortly after 1200 conditions changed. England lost an important part of her possessions abroad. The nobility gradually relinquished their continental estates. A feeling of rivalry developed between the two countries, accompanied by the Hundred Years’ War (1340s to 1450s with long periods between battles). During the century and a half following the Norman Conquest, French had been not only natural but more or less necessary to the English upper-class. In the 13th and 14th centuries its maintenance became increasingly artificial. In the 14th century English won its way back into universal use and in the 15th century French disappeared. But if during the 13th century English was beginning to replace spoken French at almost all levels of society and in many official and unofficial social institutions, written French not only continued to be used well into the 15th century but became even more widespread as the medium for social correspondence. It was not until the late 14th century and the first quarter of the 15th century that the final shift towards English as an official and unofficial national written language occurred. Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales in English. Letter-writers began to switch back and forth between French and English. Official documents and records began to appear in English rather than French. Richard II and Henry IV were probably the first English monarchs completely fluent in English. Henry IV, in fact, was probably monolingual. By the middle of the 15 th century only the House of Lords and the Law Courts were still bound to French. The Lords would switch to English in a few decades, but the courts would continue with some of their “Law French” until the 18 th century. 5. FRENCH INFLUENCE UPON MIDDLE ENGLISH (1150- 1500) Middle English was a period of momentous changes in the English language; changes more extensive and fundamental than any previous or subsequent one. These would have gone on even without the Norman Conquest, but they took place more rapidly because the Norman invasion removed from English those conservative influences that are always felt when a language is extensively used as a cultivated standard variety in books and is spoken by an influential educated class. The strongest French influence took place during the 13 th and 14th centuries. These two centuries were the ones when French vocabulary invaded English language massively. On the other hand, the French literature of the period was at its peak in the whole of Europe, so influencing other literatures and languages. The changes in grammar reduced English from a highly inflected language to an extremely analytic one. In vocabulary, the changes involved the loss of a large part of the OE word stock and the addition of thousands of words from French and Latin. At the beginning of ME period, English had to be learned as a foreign language; at the end, it was Modern English. EN BENEFICIO DE TODOS Y DEL PROPIO AUTOR SE RUEGA NO FOTOCOPIARLO UNIT 42. Juan Manuel Ángeles Ruiz. The Norman conquest. French influence upon the English language. Borrowings and calques. 6 5.1. GRAMMATICAL AND SYNTACTIC CHANGES 5.1.1. DECAY OF INFLECTIONAL ENDINGS The changes in grammar may be described as a general reduction of inflection. Endings of the noun and adjective marking distinctions of number and case and often of gender were so altered in pronunciation as to lose their distinctive form; hence, such grammatical distinctions as they formerly expressed were no longer conveyed. This levelling of inflectional endings was due partly to phonetic changes, partly to the operation of analogy. Traces of these changes are found in OE manuscripts as early as the 10 th century. By the end of the 12th century they seem to have been generally carried out. 5.1.2. THE NOUN The inflectional endings of nouns were seriously disturbed in this period differently in the diverse areas in the isle. As a way of illustration, in early ME only two methods of indicating the plural remained fairly distinctive: the –s or –es from the strong or vowel declension (vowel ending in the Germanic stem) in most parts of England, and the –en from the weak or consonant (consonant ending in the Germanic stem) in the South. In the course of the 14th century –s had definitely been accepted all over England. Its spread may have been helped by the early extension of –s throughout the plural in Anglo-Norman, but in general it may be considered as an example of the survival of the fittest in language. 5.1.3. THE ADJECTIVE In the adjective the levelling of forms had even greater consequences than in the noun. Partly as a result of the sound-changes, partly through the extensive working of analogy. All the cases were reduced to nominative singular and plural, which in the weak declension were identical, as some of the adjectives of the strong declension. Thus, by about 1250 only certain monosyllabic strong adjectives ending in a consonant in OE (glad [sg.] glade [pl.]) kept this singular/plural distinction. The endings in the adjective had lost their grammatical meaning. 5.1.4. THE PRONOUN The complex demonstrative system of Old English was reduced to its present forms. However, in the personal pronouns the losses were not so great. There was a greater need to separate forms for the different genders and cases, and accordingly, most of the distinctions that existed in OE were retained. 5.1.5. THE VERB The principal changes in the verb during the ME period were the serious losses suffered by the strong conjugation –irregular verbs. New verbs formed from nouns and adjectives or borrowed from other languages were regularly conjugated as weak (by adding a dental sound to form the past tense and past participle). After the Norman Conquest, the loss of native words further depleted the ranks of the strong verbs. Those that survived were exposed to the influence of the majority, and many have changed over in the course of time to the weak inflection, and those that have survived have seldom come down to the present day in the form that would represent the normal development of their principal parts in OE. EN BENEFICIO DE TODOS Y DEL PROPIO AUTOR SE RUEGA NO FOTOCOPIARLO UNIT 42. Juan Manuel Ángeles Ruiz. The Norman conquest. French influence upon the English language. Borrowings and calques. 7 5.1.6. LOSS OF GRAMMATICAL GENDER One of the consequences of the decay of inflections was the elimination of grammatical gender. The gender was indicated mainly by the concord of the strong adjective and the demonstratives, which were the gender-distinguishing words. With the disappearance of grammatical gender, the idea of sex became the only factor in determining the gender of English nouns, as it is nowadays. 5.1.7. MIDDLE ENGLISH SYNTAX As a result of the levelling of inflections, syntactic and semantic relationships that had been signalled by the endings of words now became ambiguous. It became necessary to depend less upon formal indications of gender, case and number and to rely more upon juxtaposition, word order and the use of prepositions to make clear the relation of words in a sentence. The process of development from a synthetic language to an analytic one can be seen in The Peterborough Chronicle (1070-1154). This text of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle spans the period from OE to early ME. In it, it is possible to trace first a significant loss of inflections and afterwards, a corresponding rigidity of word order, making clear the direction of cause and effect. 5.2. FRENCH INFLUENCE ON VOCABULARY: BORROWINGS CALQUES. While the loss of inflections and the consequent simplification of English grammar were thus only indirectly due to the use of French in England, French influence is much more direct and observable upon the vocabulary. Where two languages exist side by side for a long time and the relations between the people speaking them are as intimate as they were in England, a considerable transference of words from one language to the other is inevitable. As is generally the case, the interchange was to some extent mutual. A good many English words found their way into the French spoken in England, but their number was not so large as that of the French words introduced into English. All the same, English, representing a culture that was regarded as inferior had more to gain from French, and there were other factors involved. The number of French words that poured into English was incredibly great. There is nothing comparable to this in the history of the language. Although this influx of French words was brought about by the victory of the Conqueror and by the political and social consequences of that victory, it was neither sudden nor immediately apparent. Rather it began slowly and continued with varying tempo for a long time. Indeed, it can hardly be said to have ever stopped. The large number of French words borrowed during the Middle Ages had made it easy for the English language to go on borrowing, and the close cultural relations between France and England in all subsequent periods have furnished a constant opportunity for the transfer of words. But there was a time in the centuries following the Conquest when this movement had its start and a stream of French words poured into English with a momentum that continued until toward the end of the Middle English period either in the form of a borrowing or a calque. EN BENEFICIO DE TODOS Y DEL PROPIO AUTOR SE RUEGA NO FOTOCOPIARLO UNIT 42. Juan Manuel Ángeles Ruiz. The Norman conquest. French influence upon the English language. Borrowings and calques. 8 Following D. Crystal, borrowings are “linguistic forms being taken over by one language or dialect from another; such borrowings are usually known as “loanwords”, and several types have been recognised.” Calques, on the other hand, are, according to Crystal, “a type of borrowing, where the morphemic constituents of the borrowed word or phrase are translated item by item into equivalent morphemes in the new language.” This type of borrowing was more prolific in OE, when French and Latin influence was not so prominent. Other authors, nevertheless, consider calques as those borrowings which have not undergone any change: advertise, air, balance, bracelet, chalice, garage, honour... 5.2.1. FIRST STAGE (THE PERIOD UNTIL 1250) The borrowings of this stage are much less numerous and more likely to show peculiarities of Anglo- Norman phonology. Before 1250, roughly nine hundred words came into English. Many of them were such as the lower classes would become familiar with through the contact with the French-speaking nobility and therefore, were related to the new social hierarchy: baron, noble, dame, servant, messenger, etc. Others (story, rhyme), were introduced through literary channels. But the largest single group among the words that came in early was associated with the church and the new religious order (religion, sermon, baptism, cardinal, clerk, prior, miracle). The borrowings of this stage are from Anglo-Norman or Anglo-French, as can be observed in the differences in spelling and pronunciation with modern French. Anglo-Norman was a French dialect spoken in England, which differed from Central French in many respects. As the time went on, and the use of French became more artificial in England, a larger share of English borrowings came from Central French. This was the case in the 15 th century, when most borrowings were from literature and translations. 5.2.2. SECOND STAGE (FROM 1250-1400) After 1250 the influence on vocabulary becomes really great. It rises to a climax at the end of the 14 th century. By 1400 the movement has spent its force. A sharp drop in the 15 th century has been followed by a gradual tapering off ever since. The conditions are now different and a new factor appears: those who have been accustomed to speaking in French are turning increasingly into the use of English. Whether to supply deficiencies in the English vocabulary, or in their own imperfect command of that vocabulary, or merely perhaps due to a natural impulse to use a familiar word, the upper classes carried over into English an astonishing number of common French words. In this way, they transferred much of their: ▪ Governmental and administrative vocabulary: administer, govern, government, crown, state, tax, parliament, empire, sir, madam, royal, reign, tax, realm, revenue, alliance, tyrant… ▪ Ecclesiastical, legal and military terms: religion, confession, clergy, crucifix, lectern, divine, devout, preach, pray, virgin, saint, repent, justice, equity, peace, sue, arrest, adultery, accuse, enemy, lieutenant, sergeant, captain... ▪ Familiar words of fashion, food and social life: fashion, coat, taste, pork, almonds, banquet, jewel, brooch, leisure, dance, music, appetite, plate, cushion, curtain, towel, couch… ▪ The vocabulary of art, learning and medicine: painting, sculpture, image, cathedral, poet, chapter, prose, medicine, surgeon, ointment, anatomy, plague... EN BENEFICIO DE TODOS Y DEL PROPIO AUTOR SE RUEGA NO FOTOCOPIARLO UNIT 42. Juan Manuel Ángeles Ruiz. The Norman conquest. French influence upon the English language. Borrowings and calques. 9 In general, in the first period the words introduced were such as people speaking one language often learns from those speaking another; in the second, there were also such words as people who had been accustomed to speaking French would carry over with them into the language of their adoption. Hence, striking though it might seem, as far as surviving records show, the introduction of French words into English follows closely the progressive adoption of English by the upper classes. 5.2.3. ENRICHMENT OF VOCABULARY (FROM 1400-1500) Paradoxically it was probably the very resurgence of English in the 14th and 15th centuries that led English to adopt, with the thousands of French words it borrowed, thousands of Latin words as well. As English became more and more a language felt to equal French, indeed preferable to it in virtually every form of written expression, more and more translators set to translating Latin works into English, as had already done in French. Having no Anglo-Saxon synonym available and having apparently lost the productive means to generate new compounds for abstract words, late ME translators had to anglicise Latin words. Accordingly, the richness of English in synonyms is largely due to the happy mingling of Latin, French and native elements. It has been said that English has a synonym at each level –popular, literary and learned: English French Latin rise mount ascend ask question interrogate The rebirth of classical learning ultimately led to a new intellectual tradition in England as vigorous as it was anywhere in the Renaissance: the vogue for Latin and French diction finally reached excessive proportions. As might be expected the wholesale borrowing from Latin and French was opposed by those who believed that English, after struggling back towards linguistic respectability, was able to express whatever it had to express in native English words without the help of foreign intruders. Although a good deal of the opposition was on purely practical grounds, others objected to such borrowings in principle. This led the English to develop their own language on the basis of the Old English Grammar. The language had undergone much simplification of its inflections, but its grammar was still English. They had to face, once more, the problem of their vocabulary. They had to enrich it either by means of borrowings or by means of composition and derivation. The result was that English adopted many French, Latin or Greek prefixes and suffixes that they combined with already coined words by means of grammatical rules. On the other hand, when borrowings entered English, they adapted them to their pronunciation and orthography. EN BENEFICIO DE TODOS Y DEL PROPIO AUTOR SE RUEGA NO FOTOCOPIARLO UNIT 42. Juan Manuel Ángeles Ruiz. The Norman conquest. French influence upon the English language. Borrowings and calques. 10 6. EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS Understanding the historical relationship between French and English will make our students gain insights into the evolution of the English language over time. The influence of French –and, as a result, Latin– on the English language may be approached in the teaching of languages from several perspectives: ▪ First, from a linguistic standpoint. Because of the nature of loanwords, pupils will be dealing with lexis and its morphology (word-formation and its processes, being borrowing one of them); but, also, with the relationship among word meanings between words at a paradigmatic level: homonymy, synonymy, and antonymy. In this sense, as Read (2000) puts forward, we must not forget that lexical knowledge is central to communicative competence and to the acquisition of a second language since no grammar or other type of linguistic knowledge can be employed in communication or discourse without the mediation of vocabulary. That is the chief reason why language teachers today generally recognise the importance of vocabulary learning and are exploring ways of promoting it more effectively. ▪ Second, from a social point of view, since the semantic choice between words tends to emphasise the importance of different groups of users −the choice of semantic meaning implies social and cultural relationships dealing with power and status. ▪ Third, a historical approach to the development of events that brings the influence of French words up to nowadays. Students are required to know about the culture and history of the foreign language they are studying. So, French influence is easily approached by means of lexical analysis through loanwords since they are the result of a mixing of cultures which once took place in England, in particular the three-fold distinction which took place after the Norman Conquest between French, Latin and English so as to differentiate social status. The Spanish Educational System states that there is a need for learning a foreign language in order to communicate with other European countries, and a need for emphasising the role of a foreign language which gets relevance as a plurilingual and pluricultural identity. As sufficiently stated, exposure to French has been sustained throughout much of the recorded history of English, and it is this that helps give the language its European flavour, in that many of our words are quickly recognisable to speakers of French, Italian and Spanish. This exposure has been pervasive enough to give rise to some popular notions and stereotypes about parts of the English lexicon. Speaking in words of one syllable appeals to the Anglo- Saxon element (monosyllabic quality, the loss of inflections); talking like a book, to the more learned, polysyllabic quality derived from the Romance languages as French. In fact, these associations have an important stylistic trait in the language we know today since French loanwords are common in domains associated with power and prestige (i.e., French ‘request’ and Latin ‘interrogate’) rather than the Anglo-Saxon ‘ask’). Within this context, students are expected to carry out several communication tasks with specific communicative goals within specific contexts. EN BENEFICIO DE TODOS Y DEL PROPIO AUTOR SE RUEGA NO FOTOCOPIARLO UNIT 42. Juan Manuel Ángeles Ruiz. The Norman conquest. French influence upon the English language. Borrowings and calques. 11 The CEFR (2001) and, in particular, the Spanish Educational System within the framework of the Educational Reform (LOMLOE, 2020), envisage vocabulary knowledge of second language learners within the six skills (writing, reading, listening, speaking, interacting and mediating) as both necessary and reasonably straightforward since words are the basic building blocks of language. When it comes to verbal skills, lexis is somewhat easier because much less is required for listening and speaking than for reading and writing. In fact, vocabulary acquisition is an incremental process, and teachers must concentrate not only on introducing new words, but also on enhancing learners’ knowledge of previously presented historical events. 7. CONCLUSION Words do not exist in a vacuum —they are shaped by the culture and history around them. Through French and Latin, students —especially the oldest ones— will also take a deep dive into history and politics, and see first-hand how the etymology of each word has morphed over time into the language we use today. The Norman Conquest is a momentous event in the history of the English language as it shaped English to such an extent that can be said that, qualitatively speaking, transformed it in a largely different kind of language if compared to the English language before 1066. The linguistic influence of this period of French rule took time to be felt but it becomes increasingly evident in the English manuscripts of the 13th century. Moreover, this impact was, to a large extent, confined to the word stock. The new French words were quickly assimilated and fused, easily and naturally, the native element in English. In these pages we have attempted to offer an overview of the Norman Conquest from both a historical and linguistic perspective in so far as it largely modelled the English language to the form it is today. Attention has been drawn to the impact that the introduction of French in England had upon both the Middle English grammar and, especially on Middle English vocabulary. Then, the linguistic consequences which turned out of it were also highlighted, especially the enrichment of the English vocabulary in the centuries following the conquest; finally, some educational implications were considered to bring students into contact with, most likely, the most remarkable event in the history of England and its language, English. As evinced, much of the English language stems from French (and Latin). These origins go beyond vocabulary and include grammatical rules, too. Regarding linguistic consequences, we may affirm that French borrowings establish a relative similarity between English and Spanish, which may be useful for learning the target language. After all, language students find it much easier to learn a language whenever there exists a resemblance between mother tongue and the second/foreign language. It is also true that borrowings have led to current misunderstanding when false friends enter the scene: preservative, carpet, large…Yet, students should be encouraged to have a go at the language, i.e., take risks and try to convey the meaning of those cognates by making reference to their first language. As a matter of fact, the number of true friends in English: communication, information, institution, commerce, elephant, refrigerator… outnumber the cases of false friends. EN BENEFICIO DE TODOS Y DEL PROPIO AUTOR SE RUEGA NO FOTOCOPIARLO UNIT 42. Juan Manuel Ángeles Ruiz. The Norman conquest. French influence upon the English language. Borrowings and calques. 12 It must be borne in mind that an adult Spanish student generally perceives that there is a great distance from Spanish to English, but the realisation of the large number of words that there exist in common between current Spanish and present-day English can offer them a bridge to the new language. It is useful for teachers as well, to recognise that this perceived distance between Spanish and English is not as great as they might believe. With this information, teachers can help students lessen their fear of this perceived distance and the learner may be open to use English with far more confidence as far as its lexis is concerned. This knowledge will also make him/her understand the links between languages and the connection of vocabulary in the global world of today. 8. BIBLIOGRAPHY ABRAMS et al.: The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 10th edition. 2018. BAUGH, A.C. & T. CABLE: A History of the English Language. Routledge. 6th edition. London. 2012. CHURCHILL, W.: History of English-Speaking People. New York. Bloomsbury Academic. 2015. CRYSTAL, D.: A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. Blackwell. 2011. JESPERSEN, O.: Growth and Structure of the English Language. Basil Blackwell, 1983. MILLEN, M, L. REVELL & A. MOORE: The Oxford Handbook of Roman Britain. Oxford. OUP. 2014. MORGAN, K.O.: The Oxford History of Britain. Oxford. OUP. 2021. READ, J.: Assessing Vocabulary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2000. EN BENEFICIO DE TODOS Y DEL PROPIO AUTOR SE RUEGA NO FOTOCOPIARLO UNIT 42. Juan Manuel Ángeles Ruiz.