unusual among members of the highest class, it seems equally clear that the knowledge of French was often found somewhat further down in the social scale. In fact the knowledge of French may sometimes have extended to the free tenants. So the two languages fused together and influenced each other.
4.2.4 French influence on the vocabulary
The influence of the French language upon the English language is direct and evident. It is much more observable from the vocabulary. Where the two languages exist side by side for a long time and the relations between the people speaking them are as intimate as they were in England, a considerable transference of words from one language to the other is inevitable. [4] The number of French words that poured into English was unbelievably great. There is nothing comparable to it in the previous or subsequent history of the language. In the influx of French words two stages can be observed, an earlier and a later, with the year 1250 as the approximate dividing line. [5] When we study the French words appearing in English before 1250, roughly 900 in number, we find that many of them were such as the lower classes would become familiar with through contact with a French-speaking nobility, e.g. baron, noble, dame, servant, messenger, feast, minstrel, juggler, largess, story, rime, lay, etc.[6]
In the period after 1250 the conditions under which French words had been making their way into English were supplemented by a new and powerful factor-those who had been accustomed to speak French were turning in increasingly to the use of English. In changing from French to English they transferred much of their governmental and administrative vocabulary, their ecclesiastical, legal, and military terms, their familiar words of fashion, food, and social life, the vocabulary of art, learning, and medicine. In general we may say that in the earlier Middle English period the French words introduced into English were such as people speaking one language often learn from those speaking or learning to speak English, they were also such words as people who had been accustomed to speak French would carry over with them into the language of their adoption. Only in this way can we understand the nature and extent of the French importations in this period.
We can find words relating to every aspect of human society:
(1) Governmental and administrative words
We should expect that English would owe many of its words dealing with government and administration to the language of those who for more than 200 years made public affairs their chief concern. The words government, administer might appropriately introduce a list of such words. It would include such fundamental terms as crown, state, empire, realm, reign, royal, prerogative, authority, sovereign, majesty, scepter, tyrant, usurp, oppress, court, council, parliament, assembly, statute, treaty, alliance, record, record, repeal, adjourn, tax, subsidy, revenue, tally, exchequer. Intimately associated with the idea of government are also words like subject, allegiance, rebel, traitor, treason, exile, public, liberty. The word office and the titles of many offices are likewise French: chancellor, treasurer, chamberlain, marshal, governor, councilor, minister, viscount, warden, castellan, mayor, constable, coroner, and even the humble crier. Except for the words king and queen, lord, lady, and earl, most designations of rank are French: noble, nobility, peer, prince, princess,
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