French borrowings in the english language

                   commence                                     begin

                   cordial                                           hearty

                   felicity                                           happiness

                   aid                                                 help

                   conceal                                          hide

                   repast                                            meal

                   marriage                                       wedding

                   dress                                             clothe

                   amity                                            friendship

                   nourish                                         feed

                   liberty                                           freedom

                   grief                                              sorrow

    The areas of the English lexicon in which the influence of French was to be felt reflect the spheres of life in which the French predominated in the early Middle English period.

   In some cases French words supplanted even the most everyday words of the English vocabulary.Thus,the French word rivière supplanted the native word ēa river,the French word montagne supplanted the native beorʒ mountain,and the French paix the native friþ peace.in some individual cases there could be special conditions favouring the introduction of the foreign word;for example,the OE word ēa river became ē,in ME and was thus phonetically much weaker than the French riviére.Its phonetical weakness might thus promoted its appearance from the language.In other cases other factors may also have been at work.

      Sometimes the intruding French word forced its native synonym into a different sphere of meaning.For instance,the OE substantive hærfest,meaning autumn,was superseded by the French word autumn,but survived in the English language with the meaning harvest.The semantic tie between autumn and harvest is of course clear enough.

     In some similar way,the OE substantive ʒebed prayer was superseded by French preiere,MnE prayer.However,the native word survived with the meaning beads,which had developed from the original meaning prayer owing to the intermediate meaning rosary;the number of prayers said was counted on the beads or rosary;thus,in certain circumstance,for example,five beads could mean the same as five prayers.

    The degree to which French words penetrated into English depended on two factors:on the geographical region and on the social layer addressed by the document.Thus,we can state two principles in this sphere:

(1)the farther North,the fewer French words;

(2)the closer to the lower strata of society,the fewer French words.

   A typical example showing the dependence of the French lexical layer on the social position of an author was found by comparing two documents belonging to the same time (early 13th century),but differing as to the social position of their authors.One of them is Ancrene Riwle(Statue for Nuns) adressed by an unknown author to three aristocratic nuns on the rules of monastic life;the other is Ormulum-a poem by a simple monk called Orm,addresed to his brother Walter.While the Ancrene Riwle contains a large number of French words,the Ormulum is almost entirely devoid of them.

   The third period of French borrowings is from around 1400 onwords.The borrowings of the two periods tent to be more elegant and sophisticated but yet not too far away from the core and several became quite nativised (dance,April,native,fine,line,punish,finish).These later borrowings were more,distant from the core,with attention being explicitly called to their sophisticated,well-bred,cultivated,even arty’French’texture:notice the spellings and pronunciations of some of these items:ballet,tableau,statuesque,cliché,motif,format

trousseau,lingerie,soufflé,hors d’oeuvre,rouge,etiquette,etc.

   By the 16^th,especially the 17^th century England was establishing itself as a modern nation state,economically viable,self-confident,powerful.No longer needed French words-for special effects.

  The words of this period are not from the Norman dialect of French,but from the Central or Parisian dialect.They were borrowed from French as a result of political and cultural relations between the two countries.In the second half of the 17^th century France was the greatest power in Europe.The French language became fasionable in England and that caused the appearance of a lot of new French words in the English language.

   Such words as fianc,unique,machine,marine,police,etc were borrowed at this period.A lot of the words borrowed by the English at this period are international,e.g .toilet, hotel, illuminated, elegant, extravagant , delicate,

miniature, critique ,symphony ,bourgeois, regime, bomb,etc.

    Under the influence of the French revolution some political terms have entered the English language,e.g.royalism,despotism,tyranny,democrat,aristocrat,etc.Those words are also international.

    Many classical borrowings came into Early NE through French due continous contacts with France,for the French language had adopted many loan-words from classical languages at the time of the Renaissance.Sometimes the immediate source of the loan-word cannot be determined.Thus,the words solid,position,consolation and many others,judging by their form,could be adopted either directly from Latin or from French,having entered the French language some time before:such borrowings are often referred to as “Franco-Latin”.They should not be confused with loan-words from OFr,which usually go back to Latin roots,for French is one one of the descendants of Latin;words borrowed from OFr differ from their Latin prototypes as they have been subjected to many changes in French.Some loan-words from OFr were re-shaped by crudités of the age of Renaissance according to their Latin prototypes though their forms were historically correct,since they were adopted from OFr.This Latinisation in the 15^th-16^th century produced words like describe in place of Chaucer’s decrive(n),equal instead of egal,language instead of langage,debt,doubt and adventure instead of the earlier dette,doute,aventure.Some corrections even affected the pronunciation:language,adventure.

   Adoption of classical words may have been facilitated by the large number of French loan-words in the English language of the 15^th and 16^th century.This is how O.Jespersen accounts for extensive borrowing of latin words:

    “The great historical events,without which this influence would never have assumed such gigantic dimensions was the revival of learning.Through Italy and France the Renaissance came to be felt in England as early as the 14^th century,and since then the invasion of classical terms has never stopped,although the multitude of new words introduced was greater,perhaps,in the 14^th,the 16^th, the 19^th,than in the intervening centuries.The same influence is conspicuous in all European languages,but in English it has been strongerthan in any other  language,French perhaps excepted.This fact cannot,I think,be principally due to any greater zeal for classical learning on the part of the English than of other nations.The reason seems rather to be that the natural power of resistance possessed by a Germanic tongue against these alien intruders had been already broken in the case of the English language by the wholesale importation of French words.They paved the way for the Latin words which resembled them in so many respects,and they had already created in English minds that predilection for foreign words which made them shrink from consciously coining new words out of native material.If French words were more distingues than English ones,Latin words were still more so,for did not the French themselves go to Latin to enrich their own vocabulary?”

    The influx of French words continued and reached new peaks in the late 15^th and in the late 17^th century.French borrowings of the later periods mainly pertain to diplomatic relations,social life,art and fashions.French remained the international language of diplomacy for several hundred years;Paris led the fashion in dress,food and in social life and to a certain extent in art and literature;finally,the political events in France in the 18^th -19^th century were of world-wide significance.

All these external conditions are reflected in French loans.Examples of diplomatic terms are attaché,communiqué,dossier;the words ball,beau,cortege,café,coquette,

hotel,picnic,restaurant refer to social life;ballet,ensemble,essay,genre,pertain to art;

military terms are brigade,corps,manoeuvre,marine,police,reconnaissance;fashions in dress and food are illustrated by words like blouse,chemise,corsage,cravat,menu

champagne, soup.Words of miscellaneous character are:comrade, detail, entrance,

essay,machine,moustache,progress,ticket.

   As seen from the lists,later French borrowings differ widely from the loan-words adopted in M.E.Most of them have not been completely assimilated and have retained a foreign appearance to the present day-note their spellings,the sounds and the position of the stress.Words like genre and restaurant have nasalized vowels and a French spelling:police,fatigue,marine receive the stress on the last syllable and are pronounced with long [i:] indicated by the letter i like French words;the diagraph ch stands for [ ʃ ] in machine,in beau the letters eau have also retained the sound value of the French prototype [o:].

   Words were borrowed from French into English after 1650,mainly through French literature,but they were not as numerous and many of them are not completely assimilated.There are the following semantic groups of these borrowings:

a)words  relating to literature and music: belles-lettres, conservatorie, brochure,

nuance,piruette,vaudeville;

b)words relating to military affairs:corps,echelon,fuselage,manouvre;

c)words relating to building and furniture:entresol,chateau,bureau;

d)words relating to food and cooking:ragout,cuisine,etc.

    Let’s summerise what happened in England after Conquest.For 200 years after the Conquest,the language of policy was French.And this was not a demarcation of ethnicity.Numerous English people(those of the upper classes)learned the language through marriage and by association. However, the language of the masses remain-

ed English.Until the beginning of the 13^th century,French continued to dominate as the language of nobility.A very close connection existed between the continent and England…the nobility usually held land in both places;therefore,travel between the two was fairly common.

   Further,William was no exception to this.In fact when William died,he left Normandy to his eldest son and England to his youngest son,William the Second.Later Normandy and England were under one ruler,but not until Henry the First.Under Henry the Second,English ”possessions” in France were even further broadened and enhanced.

   When Henry the 2^nd marries Eleanor of Aquitaine,he increased his holdings so that by the time he became King of England,he controlled about 2/3 of France.From  William the Conqueror through Henry the 2^nd,most kings spent at least 2/3 of their time in France.And besides Henry I,no other  English king married an Englishwoman until Edward the 4^th in the 1460.The perpetuation of French was on.Too much time and too much money were invested in France for the nobility not to have,as a natural course of events,used French as the language.No evidence exists to suggest that English was a “hated”language.Most probably very little attention was paid to it because classes simply did not mix.Fusion of the French and English-over time,the two”cultures”assimilated and adjusted to one another. Some nobility spoke English. This would be a natural occurrence.Some clergy  preserved  English. Some of educated, the nobility, and

clergy,then representing the upper social strata,were bilingual.Knights learned French.Merchants spoke both French and English.Managers (sheriffs,bailiffs,etc.) on large estates were bilingual.For the most part,bilingualism extended only down to the middle class.Bilingual as used above does not indicate fluency.In 1204 King John “lost” Normandy.He fell in love with a French  noblewoman-Isabel of Angouleme.He married her hastily without regard for her other suitor(to whom she was already engaged),Hugh of Lusignan.Hugh was the head of a very powerful and ambitious family,but John chose to ignore these connections and,in anticipation of retaliation for stealing Isabel,attacked Hugh’s family.Hugh appeals to the King of all France,Philip,and Philip took advantage of the situation to “embarrass”the duke of Normandy (and King of England),John.Since John was extremely irritating to Philip,it was with great delight that Philip summoned John to appear before him,answer charges,and submit to the judgement of the court.John maintained that,as King of England,he was exempt from subjugation and did not appear at his trial.Hence,Philip stripped John of his “dukedom” and invaded Normandy.Philip succeded,and Normandy returned solely to the French.John lost support:he was viewed as a scoundrel.There was even thought(with some basis) that he had his own cousin,prince Arthur,murdered.

   With the loss of  Normandy (some holdings were left in the south of France) many  nobles had to decide where their allegiance lay…France or England. Philip,

and later louis,helped solve this problem: he confiscated the land of many nobles.Those who still had holdings in both places were forced to give up one or the other.There were some that were divided up by Philip,and in some instances,the nobles kept their larger landholdings in England and gave up the lesser in Normandy.

   By 1250 the holdings had been divided or the choice made to hold land either in England or Normandy,and by 1250,there was no real reason for using French.During the breakup of holdings,an influx of French from south was also oc-

curing during the reign of Henry the 3^rd:

1.in 1233 under Peter des Roches(a Frenchman made bishop of Winchester and  later chancellor).

2.in 1236 when Henry married Eleanor of Provence,and he gave her many,many relative land and positions.

3.the last in 1246.

   Henry the 3^rd’s reign was full of excesses and liberties.He freely gave to foreigners-land,etc,and encouraged their influx.The hostilities that insued were,in large part,due to Henry’s catering to the French.Resentment of the foreigners and of Henry was the attitude of the day.

   Opposition to foreigners helped promote national feeling.Drove the barons and middle class together in a common cause.Ironically,one leader of the cause was Simon de Monfort-a Norman by birth.In line with these feelings,then,some knowledge of English would be regarded as desirable.

    Though England was beginning to unite,this did not mean French was given up overnight.In fact,French was considered ”the” language of the continent.Even Germans and Italians spoke French.In the 13^th century French continued to be spoken by the upper class in England,but not for different reasons.No longer the “mather” tongue,French was spoken as a matter of social custom and  administrati-

ve convention.Because French use was fading and English use becoming prevalent,the impact of “borrowing” French vocabulary is major.When an English term was unknown and needed to be expressed,a French word or phrase was used.

   One the whole English use was steady.By the middle of the 13^th century,French is considered as a foreign language.Some attempt to preserve French existed in the clergy and from scholars,but not much.The French that had been spoken among “Englishmen”was considered by Francophiles to be a”backard” and butchered dialect.The 100 years’War-promoted national unity against the French to a very instense degree.Because the English came to”hate” the French,the French language was used less and less.

   The rise of the middle class-with the outbreak of “The Black Death” in 1348,approximately 30% of the population died.This brought a shortage of labor;consequently,the economic importance of the working class grew.Since English was the language of the common laborer,its use become even more widespread.

    By the beginning of the 14^th century,English was once again the dominant language.Further,in 1362 Parliament enacted a law requiring all lawsuits to be conducted in English.English is,then,officially recognized.From here,the use of English filtered down to other branches of government and law.

   Henry V’s reign from 1413-1422 marked a turning point in English as a written language.Henry used English in writing letters,and the  practice diffused among the English people.French literature was not so easily replaced,though,by English literature.Most of the literature in Middle English comes in the form of religious.The diffusion of the hate language does extend eventually to literature.Chaucer(1340-1400),Langland(Piers Plowman),and the author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight emerge,leading to the labeling of writing at the time as The Period of Great individual Writing(1350-1400).

   The 15^th century literature of England becomes known as the Imitative Period or Transition Period,the period of imitators of Chaucer and before Shakespeare.

    French influence led to different kinds of changes in the vocabulary.Firstly,there were many innovations,i.e.names of new objects and concepts,which enlarged the vocabulary by adding new items.Secondly,there were numerous replacements of native words by French equivalents,which resulted in a shift in the ratio of Germanic and Romance roots in the language,e.g.the loan-words very,river,peace,

Easy displaced the native OE swiþe,ēa,friþ,ēaþe.The adoption of a word synonymous with a native word did not necessarily lead to replacement .Most frequently the co-existance of a borrowed and native synonym ended in their differentiation,they were both retained as they differed in style, dialect, shades of meaning or combinability.This third kind of influence enriched the English vocabulary even more than the adoption of pure innovations.The influx of French words-as well as the later borrowing of Latin words-is one of the main historical reasons for the abudance of synonyms in ModE.The difference between the native and borrowed words often lies in their stylistic connotations:French loan-words,particularly those which were adopted in Late ME(and later)preserve a more