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    French Words in English

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    Purple Purple
    Nearly 30% of English words come directly or indirectly from French due to William the Conqueror's successful Norman invasion of England in 1066. The new French nobility established themselves as the ruling class and introduced Anglo-Norman as the language of law and administration, blending with Old English over time. As a result, around 10,000 French words entered common usage in England, with about 7,000 surviving in modern English, especially in areas like politics, law, and diplomacy.

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    French Words in English

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    Purple Purple
    229 views16 pages
    Nearly 30% of English words come directly or indirectly from French due to William the Conqueror's successful Norman invasion of England in 1066. The new French nobility established themselves as the ruling class and introduced Anglo-Norman as the language of law and administration, blending with Old English over time. As a result, around 10,000 French words entered common usage in England, with about 7,000 surviving in modern English, especially in areas like politics, law, and diplomacy.

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    French words in English

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    French words in English

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    Nearly 30% of English words come directly or indirectly from French due to William the Conqueror's successful Norman invasion of England in 1066. The new French nobility established themselves as the ruling class and introduced Anglo-Norman as the language of law and administration, blending with Old English over time. As a result, around 10,000 French words entered common usage in England, with about 7,000 surviving in modern English, especially in areas like politics, law, and diplomacy.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    229 views16 pages

    French Words in English

    Uploaded by

    Purple Purple
    Nearly 30% of English words come directly or indirectly from French due to William the Conqueror's successful Norman invasion of England in 1066. The new French nobility established themselves as the ruling class and introduced Anglo-Norman as the language of law and administration, blending with Old English over time. As a result, around 10,000 French words entered common usage in England, with about 7,000 surviving in modern English, especially in areas like politics, law, and diplomacy.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    The passage discusses how around 30% of English words come from French, with many entering after the Norman invasion of 1066. It also talks about how French became the language of the ruling class in England for a time.

    Many French words entered the English language after the Norman invasion of 1066, when William the Conqueror became king of England. The new French nobility imposed their language on the English people and French became the dominant language for several centuries.

    The Norman invasion had a huge impact on the English language. The Normans introduced Anglo-Norman as the official language and replaced English nobility with French-speaking nobles. Over time French became the primary language of government, law, and education in England.

    How many French words

    are there in English? How


    did they get there?
    Nearly 30% of all English words come directly or
    indirectly from French.
    English speakers will typically know at least 1500 French words
    without needing to study the language.
    How did they get there?
    Because the last successful invasion
    of England was undertaken by the
    French.
    THIS IS ALL HIGHLY SIMPLIFIED, BUT......
    In 1066, William the Bastard
    (also known as William the
    Conqueror), invaded England
    in pursuance of his claim to
    the English crown. The
    invasion succeeded, and
    William was crowned William
    I of England, overthrowing
    the preceding line of English
    The new monarch placed
    French noblemen in
    positions of authority
    and wealth throughout
    England, and French
    became the language of
    the ruling class (the
    English being pretty
    thoroughly repressed). It
    was nearly 200 years
    before a descendant of
    William could manage
    Unlike the Romans, the Normans introduced a legal and
    enough English to administrative system written in their own language. This
    address Parliament. was Anglo-Norman, a French dialect. 
    As a result of this, the
    language of the country
    became an amalgam of the
    older English (which was
    basically Germanic) and the
    French of the new rulers. The
    two languages existed side by
    side and terms from both came
    into the modern English; the
    squires had to communicate
    with their serfs, after all. And
    gradually the French nobles
    became English, and the
    English took a fair bit of
    French into their language.
    French became incorporated
    into the language.
    Latin is also an influence; as the language of the Church (then the source of
    most education) it also influenced English. Since French is closely related to
    the Latin languages of Southern Europe, this blurs the picture: some words
    we may think of as French have Latin roots, and may have entered English
    as Latin or as French words.
    This is in fact something which contributes to the richness of English: we
    have two words for many things. The Germanic 'kuh' and the French 'boeuf'
    both come into English: and we have Cows in the fields and Beef on our
    plates. The two inheritances can provide different meanings, or different
    nuances.
    Over time, around 10,000 French words (typically with Latin roots)
    came into common usage in England. Around 7,000 of these survive in
    modern English.
    The Normans also had
    an enormous impact in
    key areas of vocabulary:
    particularly politics
    (coup d’état), legal
    language (jury, verdict) ​
    and ​diplomacy(chargé
    d’affaires).
    Their legacy includes 1,700 cognates (words identical in the French &
    English).
    Many of these cognates are easily translated. Au contraire, for example,
    may sound more glamorous than on the contrary but there is no
    difference in terms of meaning. Some French words and phrases do,
    however, capture a precise nuance not available in English.
    Why have so many French words survived into
    modern English?
    English has overtaken French as the primary
    international lingua franca, spoken as second
    language in a truncated form sometimes known as
    global English or Globish. Despite this dominance,
    French vocabulary still has the caché words of
    being associated with learning, culture and
    luxury: haute couture, haute cuisine, chic,
    elegance etc.

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