The Evolution And Formation Factors Of English Language

The Norman Conquest of 1066 had the greatest effect of the various subsystems of the English Language, leaving a fair amount of French influence in the English Language due to the following reasons. First and foremost, the French Language was responsible for simplifying the originally complex grammar structure of Old English. Furthermore, the English lexicon was directly influenced by French, implementing more vocabulary and changing the English lexicon altogether. Supported by the fact that the French Language was primarily the language of power used by influential figures, hence were able to spread the French influence more efficiently.

The French Language altered the structure of morphology and syntax of the English Language, simplifying the previously complex structure of Old English. Old English was notorious for its extensive use of inflections, paired with the existence of grammatical gender under the influence of West Germanic, Celtic and Old Norse, complicating the already inconsistent, developing grammar system. However, when William the Conqueror successively led the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 and appointed the French language as the language of the upper class, we saw a surge in the use of derivational morphemes and the depletion of pre-existing inflectional morphemes such as '-eþ, -aþ, -e, -don' etc. Derivational morphemes, particularly prefixes and suffixes, that have been implanted in the English Language by French were 'con-, de-, dis-, en-, ex-, pre-, pro- and trans-,[…] -able, -ance/-ence, -ant/-ent, -ity, -ment and -tion' (Crystal, 2018), leading to the creation of many words through affixation and backforming. The act of decreasing the number of inflectional morphemes also improved the syntax structure of the English language. In Old English, a word’s position was defined by its inflection morpheme and can be placed in any order in a sentence. To combat the confusion this inconsistent rule may have produced, French managed to make the 'word and phrase order in the sentence become gradually more fixed' (Corisco. 1997) by limiting a word’s position in a sentence. For example, with the addition of prepositions from French, the Ablative, Genitive and Dative cases were no longer needed, thus it ensured that there was a specific, coordinated pattern in any sentence, making the grammar structure easier and cleaner. Another significant grammatical change under French Influence was the removal of randomised gendered nouns from Germanic stems. Old English nouns had three distinct genders: masculine, feminine and neuter; however, these gendered nouns only reflected their 'grammatical gender of a noun and did not necessarily have to correspond to its natural gender' (Bhana, 2013). Hence, to weaken the common confusion concerning the randomised gender that was prominent in Old English, the French language allowed it to be simplified and more systematic by using their own grammar rules concerning gender. Despite the fact that the act of simplifying English grammar and loss of inflections were classified as indirect influences to the English language, the impact of French was considerably more immediate and recognisable upon the English lexicon.

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The Norman Conquest directly impacted the English lexicon by bringing large amounts of French vocabulary into the English lexicon. As of today 'just over 30,000 words (excluding derived forms) have French identified as part of their history' (Crystal, 2018), of those lexemes identified with French origin, 75% of them are still used today. Through observation, it was evident that French was able to change and replace the English lexicon by bringing in French words and assigning them with distinctly different connotations to the original lexeme. For example, the common, neutral word for 'smell' in Old English was 'stench', yet during the Middle English period the word 'stench' deteriorated in meaning through the addition of the French words 'aroma', 'scent', 'fragrance' and 'odor', resulting in the meaning of 'Stench' changed into ‘an unpleasant smell’. Other than changes through semantic processes, there have also been instances where the adopted French lexeme completely replaced the original Old English lexeme. In such cases, one of two things may have happened, 'of the two words one was eventually lost, or where both survived and were differentiated in meaning as in the French doublet' (James, 2015). In most cases, the original lexeme with West Germanic roots died out and got replaced by the French alternative; for instance, the Old English term 'athel' was replaced by the French counterpart 'noble' as of the Middle English period and became a dialectal lexeme used in Scotland. Other instances include 'eam' to 'uncle', 'eld' to 'age' and 'barrow' to 'mountain' etc. The act of influencing a language not only included the direct changes it had on the various subsystems but also the people who were able to spread the use of French during the Middle English period.

After the Norman Conquest in 1066, French became the language of power used by influential figures, thus it enabled the spread of French influences upon the English Language more efficiently. By replacing the authority of English with French, ‘the Norman Conquest made it easier for grammatical changes to go forward unchecked’ (Baugh, 1951). From the 11th century to the 13th century, all forms of law, government, military, royals used French as their primary language. Thus, this created 'an inequality of status between the two languages' (Roth, 2011) which initiated the mass amount of borrowing into the English lexicon, particularly words relating to royalty, government and power. This included fundamental terms such as 'crowne' from 'coroune, 'empir' from 'emper', 'parlament' from 'parlement' and so on. French being a language of power also meant that public notices, letters and central government notices were all written in French, hence French became a cultivated tongue used by aristocrats and upper-class members supported by social custom and the law. However, from 1258 to 1362, French was no longer restricted to the upper classes and was used more often by the growing 'aspirations of the middle class' (Kibbee, 1991), a time when 'outside the highest level of aristocracy and monasteries French made few inroads into everyday life' (Kibbee, 1991). In the 14th century, French was stigmatised due to the growing hatred between the two countries, allowing English to return as the official first language of England, yet the language had already developed so much from its previously West Germanic-oriented language to what we know as Middle English from the large proportion of language features it had adopted from French.

The influence of the Norman Conquest made many morphological, lexical, syntax and semantic changes that ultimately created the history of Middle English as a part of the English language. The grammatical structure of the English language was altered greatly under the influence of French. Furthermore, the French language made a direct impact on the English lexicon. Aside from direct and indirect changes towards the subsystems, the people of power during the Middle English period also made a significant contribution to the influence of French into the English Language. Thus, these various linguistic and social factors all played an important role in the development of the English language.

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