LEXICAL INVASIONS – chapter 7

 The impact of French was most noticeable in vocabulary. Eventually it would become the
most etymologically multilingual language on earth.
 Layamon’s Brut (poem): parish priest, first describes landing of Brutus, Saxon victory
over British – written in an alliterative line (English model), the approach also shows the
influence chivalric romances, French verse chronicle, Roman de Brut (12th century) 
contains few French loanwords because of the poem’s content – motivation to use
indigenous vocabulary / rhythms and resonances of Old English. Author wanted to
modernise the text, replacing older words with French equivalents (most words were
unintelligible in 13th century).
 Romance words are supplementing Germanic words, providing a richer vocabulary +
entrance of Latin words.
 Loanwords were entering orally and from written medium, some were informal, others
were technical. Terms restricted to law, horse-riding, religion, politics, society, culture.
The loans took time to move north. Two varieties of French were involved: Parisian
(prestigious norm) and Norman. Some words were borrowed twice (prisun, prison).
 Religious subject-matter has motivated many specialized terms: grace, litany, Psalter,
scroll. There is a large increase in abstract words, especially to do with morality and
behaviour – chastity, arrogance, fault … and everyday words – advance, brooch, city,
flower …
 Sense of lexical mixing: OE + French. The be- prfix was attached to several other Old
French words – befool, besiege … usage of the suffix -ful to derive abstract adjectives
…
 The Affixation flood: con-, de-, dis-, en-, -able, -ity, -ment … The suffixes were
especially productive: tournament, defendant, solemnity, avoidance …
 The proportion of French vocabulary in Chaucer varies a great deal, depending on the
subject-matter: the courtlier narratives attracts more French words.
 Ways of putting neologisms across to a readership so they become understandable:
GLOSSING – previous sentence has just exemplified. PAIRINGS OF OLD AND NEW
WORDS. The words in groups may not have identical senses. AN ENGLISH WORD IS
USED TO CLARIFY A NEW FRENCH / LATIN WORD.
 French terms for food (everyday language): veal – calf, pork – pig, mutton – sheep. Eggs:
egges and eyron.
 It’s difficult to be precise about the number of French words entering English. Many
words were used only once. OED statistic. Around 30 % of English vocabulary is French
in origin.
 The flow of French loanwords reduced during 15th century, but the overall rate of
foreign borrowing did not – growing influence of Latin (French 30k, Latin 50k). The two
languages were intimately related: French evolved from Vulgar Latin, Latin was taught
through the medium of French, it was often pronounced French, words are very similar.
Admixture of L and F influences.
 Latin was the language of the Church, medieval scholarship and political administration
– technical terms: dissolve, eccentric, abacus, allegory, orbit, arsenic, limbo … 
uncommon in speech.
 Arrival of non-specific words: adoption, colony, communicative, complete, conclude …
Words developed more general senses.
 Other languages: Scandinavian (Danish predecessors), the Netherlands (Flemish
settlement by weavers and farmers in England and Wales – poll ‘head’, sled …). The Low
countries, Old Frisian – boi ‘young gentleman’. Celtic – crag, Irish kern, Scottish Gaelic,
the Continent, Gaulish … Sable – Russian, tragedy – Greek, Arabic – amber, cotton, al-
forms (alchemy) – Persian …
 French was a relay language. Virtually all loanwords were French-mediated. These
included words from other Romance languages: marmalade from Portuguese, alarm from
Italian … 16th century: growth in Continental travel and trade, increased awareness of
European literature and the Italian Renaissance, renewed interest in Classical authors
(other language’s influence).
 At the end of Old English period – 50k words, many fell out of use, Middle English –
doubled.
 Thanks to the nature of English grammar (the, of, and …) – maintained elements of A-S,
also vocabulary: top 100 American words, almost all from Old English.
 Middle English: introduction of new concepts, new domains of discourse, means of giving
novel ways of expression to familiar concepts within old domains of discourse.