浅析诺曼征服对英语语言的影响

The English language that is spoken today is the direct result of 1066 and the Norman Conquest. Modern English is vastly different from that spoken by the English prior to the Conquest, both in its word-hoard and its grammar. In order to understand what happened, and why, it is necessary to look at both English and Norman French before 1066, and then the Middle English that resulted from their interaction.
Old English
Old English was a highly inflected member of the West Germanic language family. It had two numbers, three genders, four cases, remnants of dual number and instrumental case, which could give up to 30 inflectional forms for every adjective or pronoun. Its syntax was only partially dependent on word order and has a simple two tense, three mood, four person (three singular, one plural) verb system. The spelling of Old English is strictly phonetic.
As a result of the Viking wars and the subsequent settlement of many speakers of Old Norse, a North Germanic language, the introduction of new words and a simplification of the grammar had already started to take place. This was more marked in those areas in the North, Midlands and East Anglia where the Danes and Norwegians settled in large numbers. Although the two languages were mutually understandable, a modern day comparison would be a Geordie talking to a Cockney with neither making any concession to the other.
The language had four major dialects: Northumbrian, Mercian, West Saxon, and Kentish. As the kings of Wessex (West Saxons) gradually emerged as kings of all England, West Saxon dominated the written form of the language. As such, it gradually became less reflective of the spoken language, especially in the Danelaw.
Norman French
A legacy of the Roman Empire was the fact that the area west of the Rhine spoke Latin. The Latin they spoke, however, was not the highly inflected Classical Latin, used by the church and scholars, but the common, or Vulgar Latin of the soldiers and the market place. This Vulgar Latin, as it had no one controlling or regulating its use, brought in words from the languages of the local populace. For this reason Italian, Catalan, Spanish, Portuguese and French, though similar, even by 1066 were not the same.
French had brought in many words from the Gauls who originally occupied the land. In addition they had suffered conquest and settlement from various Germanic Tribes such as the Goths and Vandals, and finally the Franks, who gave the country its new name. From these peoples came additional words.
There were two major divisions in French: langue d'oil in the north; langue d'oc in the south (oil and oc being variations of 'yes'). Langue d'oc was nearer to Catalan than it was to Langue d'oil.
Langue d'oil had three major dialects, namely those of Picardy, Ile de Paris and Norman. The Northmen (Danes and some Norwegians) who had taken the land and settled there influenced Norman French. Its proximity to England had also allowed some English words to slip in, noticeably nautical terms.
Middle English
By 1100 English had changed sufficiently to be classed as a 'new' version of English, descended from, but quite different to, Old English.
Middle English had five major dialects, Northern, West Midland, East Midland, Southwesterm and Kentish. It was characterised by the extreme loss of inflections, almost complete standardisation of the plural to 's' and the introduction of a large number of Norman French and Low German words. The French came, of course, from the French speakers who now controlled the government, the law and the church. The Low German from the large number of Flemish the Normans had first hired as mercenaries and then used to settle those parts of the country they had harried and depopulated.
So, how had the changes come about? When the Norse had settled in England they brought with them a language that was from the same linguistic family, and indeed enabled them to be understood by their English neighbours. The culture was also similar, not surprising considering that the original English had come from Scania, Denmark and the North Sea coast bordering Denmark. In addition the new comers supplemented, rather than replaced, both the aristocracy and the commons. As a result assimilation was very quick and easy even before the fighting stopped. The Normans brought with them an alien culture and language. Add to this their social status as the new ruling class, and it is no shock to find that assimilation was
slower, and the new society and language that emerged was so radically changed from that which they found when they arrived uninvited in 1066.
English, which had been a written language since the conversion to Christianity, was rapidly dropped as the language for royal and legal charters and proclamations, not reappearing until Simon De Montfort's Parliament issued the Provisions of Oxford in 1258. The replacement language was usually Latin, though often duplicated in French. French was the language of the royal court, the legal system and the church. The use of French was reinforced by the fact that many of the new aristocracy and religious houses had extensive holdings in France. This state of affairs changed slightly in 1204 when King John lost Normandy, but did not really end until after the English were finally expelled from France at the end of the Hundred Years War in 1453.
The result of English disappearing as a written language was the removal of any restraints on language development. This assisted the simplification of the grammar as the folk strove to find the simplest way to communicate with people who did not speak English as their first language. The process that had started with the compromises needed to allow English and Norse to understand each other better gathered speed as the Anglo-Scandinavians sought to communicate with both their linguistic cousins, the Flems, and the alien Normans and French. This development was not dissimilar to that of Vulgar Latin as it changed into the various Romance languages as mentioned earlier. By the time the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle stopped being written at its last stronghold in Peterborough in 1154, its West Saxon English was already obsolete.
The ruling classes spoke French, as did the many merchants that flocked to England following the Conquest. Those that dealt with them, or had ambitions to join them, had to learn at least some of the language. However, it cannot be assumed that the ruling classes and the merchants did not quickly come to at least understand English if not speak it. It would have been very difficult to oversee an estate or buy and sell unless you could communicate, though it was noted at the time that there was a flourishing job market for translators. This may have sufficed for many of those who arrived with William the Bastard, but surely not for their children, brought up by an English wet nurse and with English servants. It is hard to imagine that those children did not absorb the language at the same time as they supped the milk. It should also be borne in mind that many of the Normans married English wives, often the widows or daughters of the previous English landholder. In such a household both parties would need to learn at least a smattering of the others native language. At a lower level, the need to learn at least simplified English was essential. Many a Norman or Frenchman was granted a holding (which he would re-name
a manor) as reward for services rendered during the Conquest. With a totally English workforce and possibly an English wife and no French speakers for miles learning English would have been the number one priority.
From documentary evidence we know that by 1160 an English knight had to retain a Norman to teach his son French. Around 1175 a noble woman warns her husband of danger in English, not French as might have been expected. In 1191 one of four knights in a legal dispute cannot speak French when appearing at a court where the proceedings were still conducted in that language. By 1200 phrase books teach French as a foreign language are being produced. In the same year the poet Brut's 'The Owl and the Nightingale' appears and signals the rebirth of English (now Middle English) as a literary language. By the end of the thirteenth century a poet can write:
Lewde men cunne
Ffrensch non,
Among an hundryd
unneþis on
(Lewd [common] men ken
[(understand] French
not
Among a hundred only
one)
This Middle English was the basis for the Modern English we speak and write today. The number of words used had expanded greatly, with the French normally supplementing rather than replacing the English, allowing shade of meaning not available to other languages. Thus we can either deem or judge a matter to be right or wrong, with to deem being a personal opinion whilst to judge is a formal declaration. Cattle become beef and swine pork when killed and dressed for the table, yet conversely a flower is a bloom when put on display. Hopefully it will have a pleasant French odour, aroma or scent rather than a Middle English smell or worse, an Old English stench! Also adding to the store of words were French words that had been given and English beginning or ending. For example, the French 'gentle' joins the English man/woman to give gentleman/woman, or gets an English ending to become gently, or even more bedecked with English as ungentlemanly.
The habit of using words from other languages rather than creating our own has continued until this day so that it has been claimed that in The Concise Oxford Dictionary there are words from 87 languages, great small,
and often dead. The total number of words in Modern English is estimated to be between 400,000 and 600,000, and many of them have more than one meaning! The nearest language in word count is French with a mere (as in 'a restricted amount', rather than a lake) 150,000.
Despite this the language is still basically Germanic and most basic words are still derived from Old English. Taking the body as an example, whilst we may have French 'spirit', our body still has English arms, legs, hands, feet, head, eyes, ears, nose and mouth, plus brain, liver, lungs, arse, and men bollocks.
Many folk when seeing Old English are totally confused and fail to see the commonality. Much of this is caused by the changes in spelling convention, in addition to the fact that Modern English is not spelt phonetically (with the many different versions of English in use today an impossibility).
The Lords prayer is an example:
Thu ure Fæder þe eart on heofunum, Sy þin nama gehalgod. Cume þin rice, Sy þinne wille on eorðan swaswa on heofonum. Syle us todaeg urne daeghwamlican hlaf. Ond forgyf us ure gyltas, swaswa we fogyfaþ þampe with u s agyltaþ. Ond ne lae thu na us on constnunge, ac alys us of yfele. Soðlice Phonetically this reads:
Thu our Father, thee art on heavenum, say thine nama ge-holyod. Come thine rich, say thine will on earth swas-wa on heavenum. Sell us today ourne day-ge-wham-lick hloaf. And forgive us our guiltas swas-wa we forgiv-ath themp with us a-guilt-ath. And no lay thu nah us on costnun-ya, ahsh all-lays us from evil. Soothlike.
Which is quite easy to understand.
Another reason we find Old English so hard to understand is that Modern English (as opposed to dialectal English which is still alive, kicking and confusing to this day) is derived from the East Midland dialect of Middle English, rather than from the West Saxon in which most of the original sources is written.
Just how English would have developed if there had been no Norman Conquest is a matter of conjecture. No doubt it would have continued the simplification that had started with the arrival of the Norse, but it is doubtful if it would have become the wonderful tool it is today.
2.2 中期英语时期(1150-1500)
2.2.1诺曼征服与中期英语的产生
如果说古英语时期是以盎格鲁—撒克逊入侵不列颠为标志的，那么中期英语时期则是从诺曼人征服盎格鲁—撒克逊人开始的。

公元九世纪起，斯堪的维亚半岛上的挪威人，丹麦人以及居住在法国北部诺曼底将法语的诺曼人不断袭击盎格鲁—撒克逊。

公元十世纪中下叶，诺曼底公爵威廉率军攻占伦敦，从而结束了撒克逊的戈得温家族的统治，诺曼征服时期开始了。

随着诺曼人成为英国的统治者，法语词汇大量输入英国，使得诺曼人的法语和英吉利人的英语彼此影响相互渗透，其结果是法语词汇按英语的的构词法或读音进入了英语的词汇中，古英语也在这个阶段发生了变化。

2.2.2中期英语的特征
“在英语的发展演变过程中，其他语言对它产生了或多或少的影响，其中法语的影响最大的。

”[6](P172)因此，这时中期英语的主要特征是向法语借了大量的词汇，此时期的法语借词涉及各个领域各个活动。

词汇特征：中期英语时期的词汇特征具有混合性和借用性，许多词都是英语与法语相混合和组成的混合词。

如：sotlice 这个词是由法语sot ‘foolish’ 英语的lic e‘ly’组成的 crowning是由法语的crown和英语的‘ing’ 、相混而成的混种词。

最终，英语向法语的借用了不同领域的词汇：政府(government, authority, sovereign, parliament); 宗教(clergy, clerk, cardinal, abbey, immortality);法律(bar, judge, advocate, suit);陆军、海军(army, battle, spy, enemy);一切有关文明生活及服装的词(fashion, dress, habit, gown);珠宝首饰(ornament, jewel, pearl, diamond);饮食(cheer, dinner, supper, feast);家庭生活(arras, curtain, chain, cushion);娱乐(dance, carol, music, lute);尤其是打猎(kennel, falcon, quail);艺术与科学(art, painting, sculpture, comedy, volume);医药(medicine, pain, surgeon, physician)。

除了借用单个词，英语还向法语借用了大量的词组。

例如：“ par cause de(because of);avant la main(beforehand);comment le fatites-vous?(How do you do?);faire quelqu’un un bon tour(to do someone a good turn);tomber malade/amoureux(to fall ill/in love);faire une requeste(to make a request)等。

莎士比亚的“lend me your ears”也来源于法语。

”[7]（P57）
方言特征：古英语不是统一的，主要有三种方言，中期英语继续延续了这一特征。

“诺曼人征服的结果，使古英语的几种方言都沦为次要地位。

中期英语时期，英语有五种不同的方言：北部方言，中西部方言，中东部方言，西南部方言和东南部方言，或称为肯特方言。

中西部方言最接近古英语的语言特点。

”[8](P60-63)在这些方言中，崭露头角而终于成为普通话或“标准英语” 的就是中东部的方言。

因为英国中东部在14世纪时是人口最密集的地方。

牛津和剑桥这两所高等学府，两个文化中心也都落在这里，在英国的社会和政治的统一随着经济的发展逐渐增强，伦敦作为全国的中心也益显重要。

在中期英语时期，中东部方言即伦敦方言逐渐成为英语的民族标准语言和标准文学语言。

All is the same - All is changed
The Effect of 1066 on the English Language.
by Geoff Boxell
Chibnall, Marjorie (1999). Debate on the Norman Conquest. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Douglas, David (1964). William the Conqueror: The Norman impact upon England. University of California Press.
Humble, Richard (1992). The Fall of Saxon England. Barnes & Noble. ISBN 0880299878.
Howarth, David (1981). 1066 The Year of the Conquest. Viking Penguin. ISBN 0140058508.
Loyn, H. R., (1965). The Norman Conquest A synthesis for the general reader. Rex, Peter (2004). The English Resistance: The Underground War Against the Normans. Tempus Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0752428276.
Savage, Anne (1997). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. CLB. ISBN 1858334780. van Houts, Elisabeth (1995). "The Norman Conquest through European Eyes". English Historical Review。