[geeks] Vocabulary and grammar (was: New Tech Schools: Digital Harbor in Baltimore)

[Sandwich Maker]

" Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2007 18:46:06 +0100
" From: Mike Meredith <very at zonky.org>
" 
" On Thu, 12 Apr 2007 11:16:14 -0400 (EDT), Sandwich Maker wrote:
" > there is probably more than a shadow of norman influence in this.
" > after the norman conquest, french was the language of the ruling class
" > while english was the language of the commoner.  you can see the
" 
" That's Old English. The commoner certainly didn't speak anything like
" the English we have today. Apparently the Normans tried and failed to
" learn the English of the time (at least William did)

and it's true that norman french changed english quite a lot.  'chief'
is norman; it came in again as 'chef' after french had itself changed.

" ... bear in mind that the Normans had only recently switched to
" French from their original Norse.

they had maybe 2c of france under their belts at the time of the
conquest.  iirc william and harald of denmark who tried to invade just
weeks before were cousins, both claiming right to the english throne.

" > rant: this legal practice dates from the time when formal docs had to
" > be written so that both conqueror and conquered could read them, but
" 
" I'm not sure they worried too much about the conquered being able to
" read legal documents considering most of them wouldn't be able to read.

there was all kinds of saxon lower nobility, landowners, etc. who
could read the english of the day.

" > 1000 years later lawyers are still doing it!  even the english royalty
" > formally abandoned french 700-odd years ago.
" 
" Who of course haven't been properly English since before the Norman
" conquest. Interestingly the English aristocracy (and English royal
" family) abandoned French partially because they didn't speak the French
" of the French aristocracy and they were made fun of! Of course the
" increasingly unrealistic claims to the French crown also had something
" to do with it.

all true.  wasn't king harold also a cousin of harald and william?
and william's descendants became known as the plantagenets because
granddaughter maud's [mother of king henry] french husband had the
affectation of wearing a sprig of planta genista - a medicinal herb -
in his hat.

btw i'm a descendant of edward the confessor, so watch yourself!  if
enough people died...
________________________________________________________________________
Andrew Hay                                  the genius nature
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adh at an.bradford.ma.us                       and think what none thought