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At the Battle of Hastings, the English army was defeated and effectively destroyed.
King Harold, who commanded it, was killed, and William, nicknamed Conqueror,
entered London, where he was proclaimed King of England. Thus Normandy,
William's hereditary domain, became part of the English state.
The Norman Conquest is considered a turning point not only in the eleventh
century, but in the entire history of England. It brought changes not only in the
political, social and cultural spheres of English society. It also changed the English
language.
The conquest of England by the Normans gave French the status of the state
language, the language of the dominant minority. All state documents were written
in French, it was taught in schools, and it seemed as if it could become the
common language of the state. But the stubborn Anglo-Saxons did not want to
learn French, and the vast majority of the population continued to speak Old
English. English was not curtailed by the development of writing, and for this
reason it changed and simplified very rapidly during the centuries of the Norman
conquest of England.
The situation was as follows: the lower classes had to learn French words in order
to understand the nobility; the nobility, on the other hand, had to use English words
in their speech in order to speak to the common people. In this situation,
substantial segments of the English population became bilingual. This bilingualism
was the main prerequisite for the introduction of a considerable number of French
words into English.
There were several major areas where the French influence penetrated.
In addition to words some morphemes penetrated into English from French. This
process happened in the following way. If English had a number of words formed
with the same suffix, then this suffix stood out as a special morpheme and could
participate in the formation of new words of both French and English origin.
Suffixes
Here is a list of the major suffixes used to form a significant number of English
words:
- the suffix -ment entered the English language as part of words like government,
treatment. Later, it was used to form new words from English roots: fulfillment,
amazement, bewilderment;
- the suffix -age, known from the words courage, marriage, was also attached to
Scandinavian roots and gave birth to the words luggage, leakage, etc;
- the suffix -able/-ible entered English in the words flexible, admirable, legible.
Thus, the English language borrowed about 10 thousand French words, and
according to some scientists, about 80% of words of the Old English origin
disappeared from the language at that time. This is how the relationship between
countries can affect not only the history of these countries, but also the
development of the language.