{"id":413,"date":"2015-01-10T21:34:09","date_gmt":"2015-01-10T21:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.efolio.soton.ac.uk\/blog\/gc-ethnographic-encounters\/?p=413"},"modified":"2015-01-10T21:34:09","modified_gmt":"2015-01-10T21:34:09","slug":"parlons-nous-le-franglais-historical-based-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/test-media\/2015\/01\/10\/parlons-nous-le-franglais-historical-based-blog\/","title":{"rendered":"Parlons-nous le franglais? Historical based blog"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s been a while since my last blog, but here we go. (Apologies for the lack of photos – I can’t seem to upload them at present thanks to a bad wifi connection)<\/em>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I decided that since my project is looking at the use of English\u00a0in 3 different spaces around my town, I should first look at the history of England and France\u00a0so that I can see if there are\/ were any possible reasons for the use of English in France (and vice versa for personal interest); so this blog\u00a0will largely focus on the histories of France and England as opposed to being on my present day research; I am using it as an way of informing my present day research.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, due to that fact that I am very busy teaching and researching things that are directly useful for my YARP, I have only been able to go back as far as the 1000s, (which is not to say that this is as far back as English\/French historical links go – but it’s a far as I dare do back at the moment).<\/p>\n

Let’s start at the beginning (always the best place to start I find), and attempt to answer the question:\u00a0Why did the Normans start\u00a0to take interest in England?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Well,\u00a0in\u00a01002 King Aethelred II of England\u00a0married Emma,\u00a0the sister of Richard II, Duke of Normandy,\u00a0and they had a son who became\u00a0known as Edward the Confessor\u00a0(who sadly spent many years in exile in Normandy before he succeeded to the English throne in 1042.) Due to Emma being Norman and having an English husband, their\u00a0marriage led to the establishment of a powerful Norman interest in English politics, which Edward used to his advantage when he succeeded his father as King of England, as he\u00a0used\u00a0his fellow Frenchmen\u00a0for support during his time in England by bringing in Norman courtiers, soldiers, and clerics and appointing them to positions of power, particularly in the Church. However, Edward was\u00a0childless, which meant that when he\u00a0died at the beginning of 1066, there was a clear\u00a0lack of a clear heir to the throne as\u00a0several contenders laid claim to the throne of England.<\/p>\n

Who laid claim to the throne and why?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Edward’s immediate successor was the\u00a0Harold Godwinson (The Earl of Wessex) who was the richest and most powerful of the English aristocrats.<\/p>\n

Harold was elected King\u00a0by the Witenagemot of England and crowned by the Ealdred, the Archbishop of York.\u00a0However, he was immediately challenged by two powerful rulers.<\/p>\n

The first was Duke William who claimed that he had been promised the throne by King Edward and that Harold had sworn agreement to this. However, King Harald III of Norway, commonly known as Harald Hardrada, also believed that he had the right to the throe based on an agreement between his predecessor Magnus I of Norway and the earlier English King, Harthacnut, whereby if either died without heir, the other would inherit both England and Norway. Of course with so many strong feelings and no way of sorting out who was the true heir to the throne, William and Harald began assembling troops and ships to invade England.<\/p>\n

What happened next?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In summary, after two very large battles – The battle of Fulford and The Battle of Stamford Bridge –\u00a0Harold of England won the battle against his\u00a0Norwegian enemies (as Harald of Norway and Tostig were killed), leaving his ony competition to be William of Normandy.<\/p>\n

Of course having remembered your history lessons in year 9, you – my avid readers – ask me “So, what happened during the Norman Invasion, and the Battle of Hastings?”<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The Norman Invasion happened when William of Normandy got together invasion fleet of between 7,000-8,000 men (although exact numbers are disputed) and decided to invade England, arriving in Sussex on 28th September.<\/p>\n

However, after defeating his brother Tostig and Harald Hardrada in the north, Harold of England found left much of his force there, including Morcar and Edwin, and marched the rest of his army south to deal with the threatened Norman invasion. Hastings began\u00a0at about 9\u00a0am on 14 October 1066 and lasted\u00a0the whole day, but ended with the death of Harold (King of England). Surprisingly William was not proclaimed King straight away, as instead Edgar the Aetheling\u00a0was proclaimed King. However,\u00a0Edgar’s leading supporters didn’t have much confidence\u00a0in him so\u00a0the English leaders surrendered to William.<\/p>\n

So what? William became King. How is this relevant to your project Churchill?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Well, being as my project discusses the use of English in my town in France, I thought that it would be important to look at certain words which may seem to have “English” roots, but in fact that don’t. For example, I have been lucky\u00a0enough to talk to a French teacher who works at my Coll\u00e8<\/strong>ge and I told him about my project. He therefore took it upon himself to do some research for his 4e class, and to talk about how 1066 was important in terms of adding French words to the English language.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Here I copy some sections\u00a0from the worksheet:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>“XIe si\u00e8cle, 1066: Guillaume le Conqu\u00e9rant envahit l’Angleterre. En 1154, la reine d’Anglaterre est fran\u00e7aise: C’est Ali\u00e9nor d’Acquitaine. A la Cour d’Angleterre, on commence donc \u00e0\u00a0parler fran\u00e7ais. Les nobles anglais se mettent \u00e0\u00a0nommer leur nourriture en fran\u00e7ais: c’est pour cela qu’aujourd’hui, la viande et l’animal portent deux noms diff\u00e9rents, l’un EMPRUNT\u00c9 au fran\u00e7ais par les nobles, et l’autre H\u00c9RIT\u00c9 du germanique,\u00a0alt\u00e9r\u00e9 peu\u00a0\u00e0 peu par l’usage paysan.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Exemples<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Beef = la viande de boeuf \/ Ox – le boeuf (l’animal)<\/p>\n

Mutton = la viande de mouton\/ Sheep or lamb – le mouton (l’animal)<\/p>\n

Pork = la viande de porc \/ Pig – le couchon (l’animal)<\/p>\n

So, to summarize here, words such as le mouton\/ le boeuf\/ le porc<\/em>, which maybe to an English person may sound “English”, do in fact have French origins dating back to 1066.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, during this time it appears that we inherited other words from the French that we still use today, but which have a fairly formal register and are used on some occasions to make oneself seem formal and educated. To exemplify<\/span>:<\/p>\n