Conquest
The year is 1066 and England is doing well.
'William the Conqueror' true to his name, takes interest and invades the country, bringing with him the French language, and over 10,000 new words that the English adopted into their own language. Such as 'Judge' and 'Jury'. Along came the Normans and other tribes we now know today as french. Latin was still spoken by scholars and in church, but English was spoken by the common man, as social class separated language, some interesting things began to occur. In this time as French was still the dominant language, mostly spoken by nobles, lords and ladies. This created and interesting contrast, and a good example is the names of food. The common man would use English words for meat and livestock Like 'Cow' 'Sheep' and 'Pig'. Whereas the nobility would use the french words, 'Beef' 'Mutton' and 'Pork'. |