French Loanwords of Middle English (1100-1500)

As English speakers, we often associate many of our words with having some foreign origin; some of our words sound like they are originating, or borrowed from outside nations – this notion of English words being borrowed did happen and is still happening today. Of course once a language borrows words, the words are never returned, so the adopting of loanwords and process of borrowing are simply metaphors; there is no actual process of lending happening. The purpose of this essay is to define and identify French loanwords – how and when they entered into English, their categories, and any changes in meaning and morphology.

“Loanwords are words adopted by the speakers of one language from a different language (the source language)” (Kemmer). Typically, the source community (or invader) “has some advantage of power, prestige and/or wealth that makes the objects and ideas it brings desirable and useful to the borrowing language community”. In the case of French loanwords, when bilingual speakers made a complete shift to English, they felt the need to retain the specialized terms they were used to within law, government and literature, so they “brought them over from French” (Barber, 156). And, many of the Anglo-Saxon words of the early eleventh century died out (e.g., words like genēa / ǣhte, þēow, and onƒēng) after the Norman Conquest, replaced by “approached, servant, [and] received” (Barber, 36).

The bulk of French loanwords, entering Middle English from 1100-1500, spread its way into various categories. However, there was a “direct infusion of Norman French into the English court, law, and manners (Loanwords). French became the official language of law in England; all documents and proceedings were in French. Borrowed words for law and government included accuse, attorney, bailiff, chancellor, chattel, country, court, crime, defendant, evidence, government, jail, judge, jury, justice, larceny, noble, parliament, plaintiff, plea, prison, punish, revenue, sentence, state, tax, and verdict. (Barber; Kemmer)

The meaning of these types of words has not changed very much. For example, the French term crime passionnel literally means “a crime, especially murder, committed in the heat of passion” (Loanwords). And, in the law courts or Parliament, judges and lawyers had the position of noblesse de robe, meaning “nobility of the gown”. So, there really are not significant differences in meaning from English crime and nobility. Spellings, though, have changed a bit.

A large number of French loanwords in Middle English end with “age, -ance/-ence, -ant/-ent, -ity, -ment, -tion” and begin “con-, de-, and pre-“ (Kemmer). However, many of the borrowing entererd English from prestige without change (no pun intended), e.g., words like “adventure, change, charge, chart, courage, devout, dignity, enamor, feign, fruit, letter, literature, magic, male, female, mirror, pilgrimage, proud, question, regard, [and] special” (Kemmer). In general, the French provided some of the largest contributions to Western culture – “in lifestyle, fine and applied arts, cookery, wine, literature, [and] fashion” (Loanwords). Perhaps the most appetizing loanwords arrived via kitchen and chef.

Some of our most delicious terms in cooking are borrowed from French, e.g. “beef, boil, broil, butcher, dine, fry, mutton, pork, poultry, roast, salmon, stew, [and] veal” (Kemmer). Cooking words provide us with an exemplar of morphological differences between French and English words, i.e. spelling changes occurred, yet meaning remained unchanged. For example, English beef from French boeuf (English roast beef phonologically differs due to the lack of a French /t/ in rosbif and English beefsteak to French bifteck from lack of a /s/); English pork from French porc (/-k/ replaces /-c/); English poultry from French poulet; English beef from French bif; English salmon from French saumon (/-u/ replaces /-l/). (Loanwords)

The first French loanwords “appeared most densely around London, the centre of fashion and administration, and spread northwards and westwards from there; by the fourteenth century, they were being used freely all over the country” (Barber, 150). Among the words borrowed from French culture – “art, bracelet, claret, clarinet, dance, diamond, fashion, fur, jewel, oboe, painting, pendant, satin, ruby, [and] sculpture” (Kemmer).

Despite the power and prestige of the new source language, English retained many of its native nobility words over French loans (e.g., “king, queen, earl, lord, lady, knight, kingly, [and] queenly” all maintained). However, English adopted “baron, baroness; count, countess; duke, duchess; marquis, marquess; prince, princess; viscount, viscountess; noble, royal” (Kemmer).

French loanwords for upper-class objects are used over the English common names; English home and house are replaced by French manor and palace; child, daughter and son become heir and nurse; maid, man, woman become servant and butler; English calf, ox, sheep and swine are then French veal, beef, mutton and pork. (Barber)

Norman conquerors contributed military loanwords to English; e.g., “army, artillery, battle, captain, company, corporal, defense, enemy, marine, navy, sergeant, soldier, [and] volunteer” are all French (Kemmer).

Christianity also brought forth a significant number of French loanwords into English. The church contributed “abbot, chaplain, chapter, clergy, friar, prayer, preach, priest, religion, sacrament, saint, [and] sermon” (Kemmer). English preach is similar to French précis, meaning “a summary or abstract”, and prie dieu, “a kneeling stand, for use during prayer” (Loanwords). The first morpheme in sacrament is French sacré, meaning “sacred; holy” or “damned; cursed”; it is used in popular expressions such as sacré blue, meaning “curse it! damn it!” (Loanwords). The English saint is widely known today for its applications in Christianity – i.e., the Catholic rite of Transfiguration – the moment during Catholic mass when the blood of Jesus Christ becomes wine – corresponds with the use of saint and French wines (e.g., Saint-Emilion and Saint-Julien, red wines from Bordeaux).

Sometimes, foreign words – borrowers use new words and phrases with (only) source language speakers – become conventionalized as part of the English language. These “foreign words are incorporated into [the] language, on the basis of phonological similarity, between” phonemic source and borrower language categories by bilingual speakers (McNabb). Thus, some (not all) foreign words become loanwords unless “they fall out of use before they become widespread” (Kemmer). “Generally, the longer a borrowed word has been in a language, and the more frequently it is used, the more it resembles the native words of the language” Despite their use in English, many French loanwords still seem or feel foreign. This is not to say that there are no changes heard in pronunciation of the latter. (Loanwords)

Some French loanwords (literally) reversed the minimization of effort present in Early Middle English (e.g., ea was replaced with river). The bulk of borrowed words were sired by Central French dialect during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and there were (inevitable) Middle English discrepancies caused by dialectal variations in Old French – the Normans spoke a dialect of Northern French. Changes in borrowing are sometimes heard between English and French due to pronunciation changes in both languages that have been occurring since the medieval period (e.g., English pronunciation of age [dʒ] compared with Modern French [Ʒ]). Borrowers of a language are often bilingual in the source language, and they may pronounce loanwords similar to the source language (e.g., the loanword garage was first pronounced closer to its French pronunciation than it is today). (Barber; Kemmer)

Modern English (1650-present) is continuing to evolve with the passage of time. The many changes occurring in Western civilization are affecting the English language constantly. The major changes happening in history affecting Modern English include the seventeenth century colonization of North America (America has close ties with France in the history of the development of the North American continent), industrial and technology revolution, and an immigration surge into America. During this period many more cultural and military terms have made their way into English including “ballet, bouillabaisse, cabernet, cachet, chaise lounge, champagne, chic, cognac, corsage, faux pas, nom de plume, quiche, rouge, roulette, sachet, salon, saloon, sang froid, savoir faire” and “brigade, battalion, cavalry, grenade, infantry, [palisade], rebuff, [and] bayonet”. Other loanwords we use include “bigot, chassis, clique, denim, garage, grotesque, jean(s), niche, [and] shock” (Kemmer).

English is certain to continue borrowing words from many non-invading nations for centuries to come. In America, generations of immigrants are constantly incorporating aspects of their traditions into everyday life, e.g., clothing, holidays, songs, art and music. In The history of the English Language course at New Jersey City University, African-American Vernacular, although lax in prestige and power when compared to Norman French, has already fed English with a stratum of new loanwords. Whatever direction English takes from the current status quo, French loanwords will herein continue to thrive.

Works Cited

Barber, Charles, Joan C. Beal and Philip A. Shaw. The English Language: A Historical Introduction. 2^nd ed. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Print.

Kemmer, Prof. Suzanne. Major Periods of Borrowing in the History of English. Rice University, 22 Sep 2009. Web. 15 Dec 2009. www.ruf.rice.edu/~kemmer/Words/loanwords.html.

"Loanwords Dictionary: A Lexicon of More Than 6,500 Words and Phrases Encountered in English Contexts That Are Not Fully Assimilated into English and Retain a Measure of Their Foreign Orthography, Pronunciation, or Flavor." 1st ed. 1988. Print.

McNabb, Yaron. “Apparent Pharyngealization in French Loanwords in Moroccan Arabic”.

LSA Annual Meeting. University of Chicago. Baltimore, MD. January 2010. Abstract. http://home.uchicago.edu/~ymcnabb/Presentations_files/MAloan_LSA_abstract.pdf