| Anglo-Norman | ||||
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| Spoken in | England and Wales, Scotland, Ireland | |||
| Extinct | contributed to Middle English | |||
| Language family |
Indo-European
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| Language codes | ||||
| ISO 639-3 | xno | |||
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Anglo-Norman, also known as Anglo-Norman French, is the name traditionally given to the dialect of the Old Norman language used in England, and to some extent elsewhere in the British Isles, during the Anglo-Norman period.[1] This dialect is closely related to Old French and is sometimes referred to generically as simply French.
When William the Conqueror led the Norman invasion of England in 1066, he, his nobles, and many of his followers from Normandy, but also those from northern and western France, spoke a range of Oïl dialects; one of these was Norman. Others who came with him would have spoken varieties of the Picard language or western French. This amalgam developed into the unique insular dialect now known as Anglo-Norman, which was commonly used for literary and eventually administrative purposes from the 12th until the 15th century. It is difficult to know much about what was actually spoken, and sure knowledge of the dialect is restricted to that which was written.
Nevertheless it is clear that Anglo-Norman was to a large extent the spoken language of the Norman nobility and was also spoken in the law courts, schools, and universities, and in due course amongst at least some sections of the minor nobility and the growing bourgeoisie. Private and commercial correspondence was written in Anglo-Norman from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century. Other social classes than just the nobility became keen to learn Anglo-Norman; manuscripts containing materials for instructing non-native speakers still exist, dating mostly from the late fourteenth century onwards.
Although the English language survived and eventually eclipsed Anglo-Norman, the latter had been sufficiently widespread as to permanently affect English lexically. This is why English has lost or, more often, kept as parallel terms many of its original Germanic words, cognates of which can still be found in German and Dutch. Grammatically, Anglo-Norman had little lasting impact on English, although it is still evident in official and legal terms where the noun and adjective are reversed, for example attorney general, which in New High German is Generalanwalt, literally meaning "general attorney": in that configuration, the term maintains the similarity between the German and English spellings while still possessing the Anglo-Norman reversal of the noun and adjective. Similar legal terms include heir apparent, court martial, body politic, and so on.[2]
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Among important writers of the Anglo-Norman cultural commonwealth are the Jersey-born poet, Wace, and Marie de France. The literature of the Anglo-Norman period forms the reference point for subsequent literature in the Norman language, especially in the 19th century Norman literary revival and even into the 20th century in the case of André Dupont's Épopée cotentine. The languages and literatures of the Channel Islands are sometimes referred to as Anglo-Norman, but this usage, derived from the French îles anglo-normandes, is wrong: the Channel Islanders spoke and still speak a variety of Norman, not Anglo-Norman.
Anglo-Norman was never the main administrative language of England, Latin remaining the major language of record in legal and other official documents for most of the medieval period. However, from the later thirteenth century until the early fifteenth century Anglo-Norman and Anglo-French succeeded in establishing a very significant presence in law reports, charters, ordinances, official correspondence, and the language of trade at all levels. There is evidence, too, that it served as a means by which words from further afield (Italian, Arabic, Spanish, Catalan ...) entered England and thus, in due course, English.
The language of later Anglo-French documents adopted some of the changes ongoing in continental French and lost many of its original dialectal characteristics, so that Anglo-French remained (in at least some respects and at least at some social levels) part of the dialect continuum of French, albeit often with distinctive spellings. By the late fifteenth century, however, what remained of insular French had become heavily Anglicised: see Law French. It continued to be known as "Norman French" until the end of the nineteenth century, even though philologically there was nothing Norman about it.[3] Over time, the use of Anglo-French expanded into the fields of law, administration, commerce, and science, in all of which a rich documentary legacy survives, indicative of the vitality and importance of the language.
One notable survival of influence on the political system is the use of certain Anglo-French set phrases in the Parliament of the United Kingdom for some endorsements to bills and the granting of Royal Assent to legislation.[4][5] These set phrases include:
The exact spelling of the formulæ has varied over the years; for example, s'avisera has been spelled as s'uvisera and s'advisera, and Reyne as Raine.
Much of the earliest recorded French is in fact Anglo-Norman. In France, almost nothing was being recorded in the vernacular because Latin was the language of the nobility, education, commerce, and the Roman Catholic Church and was thus used for the purpose of records. Latin did not disappear in medieval England; it was used by the Church, the royal government and much local administration, as it had been, in parallel with Anglo-Saxon, before 1066. The early adoption of Anglo-Norman as a written and literary language probably owes something to this history of bilingualism in writing.
Around the same time as a shift took place in France towards using French as a language of record in the mid-13th century, Anglo-Norman also became a main language of record in England. From around this point onwards, considerable variation begins to be apparent in Anglo-Norman, which ranges from the very local (and most Anglicized) to a level of language which approximates to and is sometimes indistinguishable from Parisian French. So, typically, local records will be most different from continental French, with diplomatic and international trade documents closest to the emerging continental norm.[6] English remained the vernacular throughout this period, eventually spoken as a mother tongue by even the highest social classes.
French was the language of the king and his court until the end of the 14th century. During this period, marriages with French princesses reinforced the French status in the royal family. Nevertheless, during the 13th century, intermarriages with English people became more frequent. Some children of the nobility spoke English as a mother tongue and had to be taught French in school. French became progressively a second language among the upper classes. Moreover, with the Hundred Year's War and the growing spirit of English nationalism, the status of French diminished. Anglo-Norman was the mother tongue of the English king until Henry IV (1399–1413). He was the first to take oath in English. His son, Henry V (1413–1422), was the first to write in English. We can say that at the end of the 15th century, French became the second language of a cultivated elite.[7]
From the conquest (1066) until the end of the 13th century, Latin was the language of all official written documents, and French was almost exclusively used as a spoken language. Nevertheless, some important documents had their official French translation, such as the Magna Carta signed in 1215. The first official document written in Anglo-Norman was a statute promulgated by the king in 1275. So from the 13th century, Anglo-Norman became used in official documents, such as those that were marked by the private seal of the king, whereas the documents sealed by the Lord Chancellor were written in Latin until the end of the Middle Ages. English became the language of Parliament and of legislation half a century after it had become the language of the king and of most of the English upper classes.[7]
During the 12th century, the development of the administrative and judicial institutions took place. Because, at the time, French was the language of the king and law, it also became the language of these institutions.[7]
From the 12th century until the 15th century, the courts made use of three languages. Latin was used for everything that was written, French was the main oral language during the trial, and English was used during less formal exchanges between the judge, the lawyer, the complainant or the witnesses. The judge gave his sentence orally in French, which was then written in Latin. Only in the lowest level of the manorial courts were there trials that were entirely given in English.
During the 15th century, French diminished and English became the main spoken language. But Latin and French continued to be the exclusive languages used in the writing of official documents until the beginning of the 18th century. Nevertheless, the French language used in England changed from the end of the 15th century into law French. This variety of French was a technical language, with a specific vocabulary, where English words were used to describe everyday experience. It was characterized by the progressive decline of the French grammatical rules and morphology. The confusion of the masculine for the feminine, for instance, or the adding of s to form all plurals. Law French was banished in the courts of the common law in 1731, almost three centuries after French ceased to be the language of the king.
The great mass of ordinary people spoke English. But French, because of its prestigious status, spread as a second language, encouraged by its long-standing use in the school system as a medium of instruction through which Latin was taught. In the courts, the members of the jury, who represented the population, had to know French in order to understand the plea of the lawyer. French was used by the merchant middle class as a language of business communication, especially when it traded with the continent, and several churches used French to communicate with the non-religious people.[7]
As a langue d'oïl, Anglo-Norman had developed collaterally to the central Gallo-Romance dialects which would eventually become Parisian French, in terms of grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary - it being also important to remember that before the signature of the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts in 1539, and indeed for long after, in practice, French had not been standardised as an official administrative language of the kingdom of France.
Middle English was heavily influenced by both Anglo-Norman and, later, Anglo-French. W. Rothwell has called Anglo-Norman 'the missing link' because many etymological dictionaries seem to ignore the contribution of that language in English and because Anglo-Norman can explain the transmission of words from French into English, and fill the void left by the absence of documentary records of English (in the main) between 1066 and c. 1380.[8]
Anglo-Norman morphology and pronunciation can be deduced from its heritage in English. Mostly this is done in comparison with continental French. English has many doublets as a result of this contrast:
Compare also:
The palatalization of velar consonants before the front vowel produced different results in Norman to the central langue d'oïl dialects which developed into French. English therefore, for example, has fashion from Norman féchoun as opposed to Modern French façon (both developing from Latin factio, factiōnem).
The palatalization of velar consonants before /a/ that affected the development of French did not occur in Norman dialects north of the Joret line. English has therefore inherited words that retain a velar plosive where French has a fricative:
| English | < Norman | = French |
|---|---|---|
| cabbage | < caboche | = chou |
| candle | < caundèle | = chandelle |
| castle | < caste(l) | = château |
| cauldron | < caudron | = chaudron |
| causeway | < cauchie | = chaussée |
| catch | < cachi | = chasser |
| cater | < acater | = acheter |
| wicket | < viquet | = guichet |
| plank | < planque | = planche |
| < pouquette | = poche | |
| fork | < fouorque | = fourche |
| garden | < gardin | = jardin |
| cattle | < *cate(l) | = cheptel (Old French chetel) |
Other words such as captain, kennel and canvas exemplify how Norman retained a /k/ sound from Latin that was not retained in French.
However, Anglo-Norman also acted as a conduit for French words to enter England: for example, challenge clearly displays a form of French origin, rather than the Norman calenge.
There were also vowel differences: compare Anglo-Norman profound with Parisian French profond, soun 'sound' - son, round - rond. The former words were originally pronounced something like 'profoond', 'soond', 'roond' respectively (compare the similarly denasalised vowels of modern Norman), but later developed their modern pronunciation in English.
Since many words established in Anglo-Norman from French via the intermediary of Norman were not subject to the processes of sound change that continued in parts of the continent, English sometimes preserves earlier pronunciations. For example, 'ch' used to be /tʃ/ in Medieval French; Modern French has /ʃ/ but English has preserved the older sound (in words like chamber, chain, chase and exchequer).
Similarly, 'j' had an older /dʒ/ sound which it still has in English and some dialects of modern Norman, but which has developed into /ʒ/ in Modern French.
The word veil retains the /ei/ (as does modern Norman in vaile and laîsi) that in French has been replaced by /wɑː/ voile, loisir.
The word mushroom preserves a hush sibilant in mousseron not recorded in French orthography, as does cushion for coussin. Conversely, the pronunciation of the word sugar resembles Norman chucre even if the spelling is closer to French sucre. It is possible that the original sound was an apical sibilant, like the Basque s, which is halfway between a sibilant and a shibilant.
Note the doublets catch and chase, both deriving from Latin captiare. Catch demonstrates the Norman development of the velars, while chase is the French equivalent imported with a different meaning.
Distinctions in meaning between Anglo-Norman and French have led to many faux amis (words having similar form but different meanings) in Modern English and Modern French.
An interesting question arises when one considers English vocabulary of Germanic, and specifically Scandinavian, origin. Since, although a Romance language, Norman contains a significant amount of lexical material from Norse, some of the words introduced into England as part of Anglo-Norman were of Germanic origin. Indeed, sometimes one can identify cognates such as flock (Germanic in English existing prior to the Conquest) and flloquet (Germanic in Norman). The case of the word mug demonstrates that in instances, Anglo-Norman may have reinforced certain Scandinavian elements already present in English. Mug had been introduced into northern English dialects by Viking settlement. The same word had been established in Normandy by the Normans (Norsemen) and was then brought over after the Conquest and established firstly in southern English dialects. It is therefore argued that the word mug in English shows some of the complicated Germanic heritage of Anglo-Norman.
Many expressions used in English today have their origin in Anglo-Norman (e.g. the expression before-hand derives from Anglo-Norman avaunt-main), as do many modern words with interesting etymologies. Mortgage, for example, literally meant death-wage in Anglo-Norman. Curfew (fr. couvre-feu) meant cover-fire, referring to the time in the evening when all fires had to be covered. The word glamour is derived, unglamorously, from Anglo-Norman grammeire, the same word which gives us modern grammar; glamour meant first book learning, and then the most glamorous form of book learning, magic or magic spell in Medieval times.
The influence of Anglo-Norman was very asymmetric, in that very little influence from English was carried over into the continental possessions of the Anglo-Norman kings. Some administrative terms survived in some parts of mainland Normandy: forlenc (from furrow, compare furlong) in the Cotentin Peninsula, and a general use of the word acre for land measurement in Normandy until metrication in the 19th century. Otherwise the direct influence of English in mainland Norman (such as smogler - to smuggle) is because of direct contact in later centuries with English, rather than Anglo-Norman.
When the Normans invaded England, the Anglo-Saxon literature had reached a very high level of development. The important Benedictine monasteries wrote Chronicles in Old English and guarded other works written in this language. But with the arrival of the Normans, the Anglo-Saxon literature came to an end and the literature written in Britain was in Latin or in Anglo-Norman. The Plantagenet kings encouraged this Anglo-Norman literature. Nevertheless, during the beginning of the 14th century, some authors chose to write in English, but it is only during the late 14th century that the English literature was at its best with Geoffrey Chaucer. The authors of that period were influenced by the works of their contemporary French writers, whose language was culturally and literally prestigious. Chaucer is considered to be the father of the English language and the creator of English as a literary language.[7]
Due to the Norman influence, English passed from Old to Middle English. The French influence affected the English vocabulary, grammar, spelling and pronunciation. As a result, the Anglo-Saxon grammar became less flexible, and the verbal system less complex. The major French influence on English can still be seen in today's vocabulary. An enormous number of French words came into the language, and about three-quarter of them are still used today. Very often, the French word supplanted the Anglo-Saxon term. Or both words would co-exist, but with slightly different nuances, for example ox (describing the animal) and beef (describing the meat). In other cases, the French word was adopted to signify a new reality, such as judge, government, nation. In general, the French borrowings concerned the fields of culture, aristocratic life, politics and religion, whereas the English words were used to describe everyday experience. When the Normans arrived in England, their copyists wrote English as they heard it, not realizing that there was no correspondence between the Anglo-Saxon pronunciation and spelling, and in this way the spelling changed. There appeared different regional Modern-English written dialects, of which the one that the king chose in the 15th century became the standard variety.[7]
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