The Norman Conquest& Lexical Alternatives

in English

2007130629 Park Seongwoo2007130776 Kim Bedeul

Contents

The Norman Conquest The Norman The Norman Conquest Consequences

Lexical Doubleness of English Verbs, adjectives, adverbs Nouns – Cuisine vocabulary

Conclusion

The Norman Conquest

The NormanThe Norman ConquestConsequences

The Norman

In 911, French ruler Charles the Simple allowed a group of Vikings to settle in northern France, a region that was experiencing extensive Viking resettlement.

Their settlement proved successful, and the Vikings in the region became known as the Northmen(i.e. Norman) from which the place name Normandy is derived.

The Norman Conquest

Edwardthe con-fessor

HaroldGodwinson

William

HaraldHardada

The Norman Conquest

Harold Godwinson

the second most powerful man in Eng-land and an advisor to Edward.

With this kingly en-dorsement, the Witan (the council of royal advisors) unanimously selected Harold as King.

The Norman Conquest

William the Con-queror

Duke of Normandy William justified his

claim through his blood relationship with Edward and by stating that some years earlier, Edward had designated him as his successor.

The Norman Conquest

The Norman Conquest

Stamford Bridge Battle

Hardrada of Norway struck first. In mid September, Hardrada's invasion force landed on the Northern English coast.

Defeated by Harold Resting after his victory, Harold received

word of William's landing near Hastings.

The Norman Conquest

Hastings Battle

King Harold fell as did the majority of the Saxon aris-tocracy.

William's victory was com-plete.

On Christmas day 1066, William was crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey.

Consequences

Elite replacement Near-total elimination of the old English

aristocracy. Loss of English control over the Catholic

Church in England. Natives purged from high governmental

and ecclesiastical office, replaced by Normans.

Consequences

Language Introduction of Anglo-Norman (a northern

dialect of Old French) as the language of the ruling classes, displacing OE.

A large proportion of the words in the English language had disappeared and been replaced by French words.

Resulted in linguistic division between the nobility and the commoners.

VerbsAdjectivesNounsNouns – CuisineOthers

Lexical Doubleness

Verbs

die < ME dien, deien < Old Norse deyja (“to

die, pass away”) < Proto-Germanic dawjanan, diwanan (“to die”)

perish < ME perishen < OF periss-, stem of

certain parts of perir < Latin perire (“to pass away, perish”)

ask/interrogate, start/commence, own/possess

Adjectives

deep < OE dēop

profound < Late Anglo-Norman profound < OF

profont < Latin profundus (“bottom; foundation”)

hearty/cordial, godly/divine,

Adverbs

often < OE oft

frequently frequent + ly < OF frequent < Latin frequens

(“crowded, crammed, frequent, re-peated, etc.”)

Nouns

smell < ME smellen, smyllen, smullen cf) Dutch smeulen, cognate to Low

German smölen, smelen (“to smolder”)

odor/odour < ME odour < OF odour < Latin odor

work/labour, gift/present, height/altitude

Nouns - Cuisine

chicken < ME < OE ċicen, cycen (“chicken”)

poultry < French poulet ("chicken", as in dish) <

Latin pullus ("chick")

ox/beef, calf/veal, deer/venison, swine/pork

Nouns - Cuisine

sheep < OE scēap < Proto-Germanic skæpom

mutton < OF mouton (“sheep”)

cf) lamb < OE lamb < Proto-Germanic lambaz <

Proto-IE hlhonbhos

Others

Hand Manual, manufacture, manuscript, ma-

nipulate, manicure, etc.

Foot Pedal, peddle, pedestal, pedestrian,

pedicure, etc.

God Deity, divine, divinity, divination, etc.

Conclusion

Though the Norman Conquest took a large proportion of OE vocabularies away, it made the English language rich in "lexical alternatives“.

Through high affinity between high level English and everyday French, high level English speakers may easily learn French.

Thank you

ReferencesAlgeo, John. The Origins and Development of the English Language. 6th ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2010.Barber, Charles. The English Language: a historical introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. WiktionaryWikipedia

Image sourceWikipedia