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mell. An interesting group of words illustrating the principle is ox, sheep, swine, and calf beside the French equivalents beef, mutton, pork, and veal. The French words primarily denoted the animal, as they still do, but in English they were used from the beginning to distinguish the meat from the living beast. In most of these cases where duplication occurred, the French word, when it came into English, was a close synonym of the corresponding English word. The discrimination between them has been a matter of gradual growth, but it justifies the retention of both words in the language. [11] (iv) Naturalization of the language From the French loaned words mentioned above, we know most of the borrowings were naturalized in form and sound. 4.2.6 French influence on the other aspects of English (i) Grammar The French influences on the English language brought about great changes not only in its vocabulary but also in its usages and grammar. (1) The decay of inflectional endings, the loss of grammatical gender and the conquest simplification of English grammar were due to the influence of French directly or indirectly in the Middle English period. After the Norman Conquest the inflections of the nouns and adjectives became greatly reduced. The English language changed gradually from a synthetic language to an analytic language. (French was an analytic language). (2) Some adjective phrases with post-modifier position were influenced by French, e.g. a thing immortal, the body politic, the poet laureate, heirs male, the people involved, the people concerned, the people interested, the house ablaze, anything interesting, anywhere quiet, a problem difficult to solve, the boys easiest to teach, Lords temporal, etc. (3) The expressions of some English verb phrases imitated those of French, e.g. to take advantage (F. prendre avantage), to take end (F. prendre fin), to take leave (F. prendre conge), to take at random (F. prendre à random), etc. (4) The expressions of some English prepositional phrases imitated those of French, e.g. by cause that (=because, F. à cause que), by so that (F. par si que), for why (F. por quoi), all be it that (F. tout soit il que), in vain (F. en vain), in general (F. en gènèral), in effect (F. en effect), in fact (F. en fait), on point to (F. sur le point de), etc. (5) Some English idiomatic use came from the imitation of French, e.g. to come rynande (=to come running F. venir courant), How does my lord? (F. Que fait mes sires?), do bind him (F. faites-le-lier), etc. [12] (6) Some common native verbs were replaced by French, e.g. andettan by confess, dihtan by compose, gōdian by improve, herian by praise, miltsian by pity, etc (7) The use of you instead of ye and thee also shows the influence of French. Originally English made a distinction between thou, used to address one person, and the plural ye for more than one person. These were subject forms, e.g. thou art my friend, ye are my friends, and contrasted with thee and you used for the object or after a preposition, cf. I saw thee/you; I gave it to thee/you. Two types of change take place in this system. First, the ambiguity of French vous is recreated in English, and you takes over the functions of ye, so that it becomes grammatical to say you are my friends. The other change is that you takes over the functions of thou, so that the distinction between singular and plural is lost. (8) The use of who was remodeled on French qui. Old English used hwa