-
William the Conqueror invaded the island of Britain and settled in his new acquisition along with his nobles and court.
-
The “Ormulum” gives philologists an invaluable snap-shot of they way Middle English was pronounced in the Midlands.
-
-
-
Bilingual word lists (Anglo-Saxon and Norman French) started being compiled.
-
England became even more isolated from continental Europe which made the differences between Norman French and French of Paris more marked.
-
-
English was the language mainly of the uneducated peasantry that many of the grammatical complexities and inflections of Old English gradually disappeared. Noun genders had almost completely died out, and adjectives, which once had up to 11 different inflections, were reduced to just two. Also, the final “e” in many, but not all, words had ceased to be pronounced
-
It had the effect of branding French as the language of the enemy and the status of English rose as a consequence.
-
It killed about a third of the English population.
-
It made English the official language of the courts and Parliament.
-
-
