The Impact of the Norman Conquest on the English Language

周蔚云

（山东大学威海翻译学院，山东大学  威海  264209）

摘  要：The Norman Conquest of England in 1066 had a great influence not only on the country, but also on the English language. This article briefly introduced the successional development of English in Middle Ages from those three aspects including pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar.

关键词：Norman; English; Pronunciation; Vocabulary; Grammar

中图分类号：G633    文献标识码：A        文章编号：

Ⅰ.Introduction

During the period when Norman French was the dominant language, English was rarely used in writing, and started to change in many ways. Here, I will choose pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar to show the influence of the conquest on the English language.

Ⅱ.The impact on pronunciation

   English pronunciation borrows a lot of ideas from French. Whereas there were the unvoiced fricative sounds in Old English, such as [f], [s], [θ] (think), and [∫] (shine), French sounds greatly affected English by distinguishing their voiced counterparts [v], [z], [ð] (then), and [ʒ] (manage), and also made contribution to the diphthong [ɔy] (toy).

Ⅲ.The impact on vocabulary

  Around10,000 French words were introduced into English during the Norman Conquest. What’s more, almost three-fourths of them are still in use today. Nowadays, from government and law to art and literature, French vocabulary can be found in almost every field. More than a third of all English words originated directly or indirectly from French, and it's estimated that English speakers who have never studied French already know 15,000 French words. Such as, court、accuse、penalty、heritage、architecture、literature.

Ⅳ.The impact on grammar

   English grammar did take on a few French structures. For example, the word order of some utterances, where English has reserved the word order typical in French-- noun + adjective, rather than the traditional form used in English--adjective + noun, can be seen everywhere. Such as, secretary general、surgeon general.

Ⅴ.Conclusion

In a word, the influence of the Norman Conquest upon the English language is great，deep and permanent. A bilingual English-French learner should fully understand the relation between these two languages to better study them. And above all, to learn the impact of the Norman Conquest, or rather the French, on the English Language is necessary to radically master the language.

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