A TRILINGUAL NATION – CHAPTER 6

 Norman French had failed to establish itself. It took 300 years for English to be reasserted. It was first used in
1362 at the opening of Parliament. William II. and Henry I. Even after the period was over, the French
connection did not cease – the second invasion of Henry II of Aquitaine established the Angevin, dynasty on
the English throne (until 1399).
 Norman French became established in the corridors of power. French Barons were given senior posts and
huge tracts of land. The Senior Church position were given to French abbots and bishops. French merchants
and craftsmen arrived in England to take advantage of the commercial opportunities provided by the new
regime.
 The position of French seemed even stronger because of continuous relationships between England and
Normandy, many nobles-maintained estates there. The monarch was regularly in France (William I. spend half
of his reign there, they didn't speak English).
 William I.: a writing in English – a recognition of the established nature of the language in England, English had
a considerable written literature, strong oral tradition, public awareness of historical continuity (A-S Chronicle,
imaginative writings, heroic tradition like Beowulf).
 Why English couldn’t have been knocked off: political uncertainty (William bequeathed Normandy to one of
his sons – split the Norman aristocracy’s loyalties, war). Within England there as a growing spirit of nationalism
– Hundred Years War. French was now the language of the enemy – didn’t have an impact on the general
population (5000–1,5 mil), the vast majority had no contact with French at all, continued to speak Old English,
a bilingualism class had emerged – French loanwords. A few English would have learned French and the
pressure was much greater. Baronial staff would have to learn English to mediate between the lords and local
communities, clergy – in order to carry out their mission to people, intermarriages between Normans and
English – bilingualism, dwelt together.
 Harrying of the north – there was no village inhabited between York and Durham, the A-S nobility was
systematically eliminated, many English nobility fled to Scotland and became refugees – increase of English
speaking in the region.
 French: clergy, aristocracy, elite – the new language made few inroads into English society. Even at the official
level there were constraints on its use (Latin was the language of court, administration, literature, the Church,
intelligent people would know Latin as the matter of course). French had never become the sole voice of
officialdom, English was second-class language.
 Triglossia: different social functions (high–low), then French died out and ultimately Latin.
 The number of French-teaching handbooks increased greatly during the 13th century, as did bilingual
dictionaries and word lists and the frequency of translations into and out of French.
 By the end of 12th century: people were trying to use their vernacular language to express a wide range of new
functions, but there was no suitable English to use, could not rely on earlier times (OE), so it had become
Middle English, in law, architecture, estate management, music, literature – French. A-S perspective was
irrelevant, people had to develop new varieties of expression, adopting Continental models, traditional genres
to cope with the French way of doing things.
 A distinctive vocabulary: large clusters of words arrived, terminology; pronunciation changes – new spellings
appear. The character of phrases with the adoption of foreign compounds, idioms, formulaic expression
changed.
 Religion: new religions  new scriptoria, more scribes, more manuscripts. New rules and guidelines were
circulating, the importance of the vernacular as a religious medium was beginning to be emphasized.
 Everyone was affected by documentation. 1199 Chancery clerks began to keep parchment copies of letters
sent out under the great seal. A remarkable amount of administrative ephemera built up during the 11th, 12th
century: records of apprenticeship, guild membership, military conscription, parish registers.
 Record-keeping affects everybody. Writing became visible to all, its significance not lost on the illiterate
majority  literacy became a priority during the 12th century. The number of schools rapidly increased,
advanced literacy began to manifest itself in the establishment of the first universities (Oxford, 1249) + series
of intellectual and cultural developments in Continental Europe – the twelfth century Renaissance.
 The Renaissance: fresh thinking in domains as theology, philosophy, logic, law … A revival of interest in the
Classics and the nature of ancient learning increased the prestige of Latin, Arabic and Greek. Vernacular
literature also benefited – translations into English.
 Music and literature: virtuoso poet-musicians who were romanticising the high ideals of courtly love
(troubadours). Development of more sophisticated music genre (Magister, de Vitry, de Machaut) – all crossed
the English Channel, bringing their language with them.
 13th century: French was international language of culture and fashion BUT that was not the Anglo-Norman
variety, but the new kind of French  KEY TO SOCIAL ADVANCEMENT. It was also an important career
language, being used as an alternative to Latin in administrative settings, Latin was steadily being replaced in
the court and church.
 Not only English was changing, but also French, especially in the law courts – becoming more specialized, with
large numbers of arcane legal expressions, syntax increasingly influenced by English word order.
 A statute of 1362 just recognized the role of English for the first time in Parliament, French was present until
15th century, still encountered in the 17th. The context of the 1362 was a concern over the way plaintiffs were
unable to understand spoken proceedings in the courts, basically applied to the spoken language.
 By the 16th century: trilingualism was restricted to a specialized, chiefly legal elite. English: mother tongue,
Latin: required language of the Church, the Roman Classics, scholarship, politico-legal matters, French: routine
administrative communication, fashionable.
 English gradually made inroads into domains of discourse – Legal English, medical English, literary English …
began to appear and quickly evolved the distinctive style of expression.