You never know where you'll find little gems of wisdom corncerning the English language.
Excerps from the beginning bit of Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott (set during the reign of Richard the LionHeart/Sean Connery - tosspot of the highest order - Sean, not Richard who was a lovely bugger), download free (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/82)
"A circumstance which greatly tended to enhance the tyranny of the nobility, and the sufferings of the inferior classes, arose from the consequences of the Conquest of Duke William of Normandy.
Four generations had not sufficed to blend the hostile blood of the Normans and Anglo-Saxons, or to unite, by common language and mutuel interests, two hostile races. [...]
Excerps from the beginning bit of Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott (set during the reign of Richard the LionHeart/Sean Connery - tosspot of the highest order - Sean, not Richard who was a lovely bugger), download free (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/82)
"A circumstance which greatly tended to enhance the tyranny of the nobility, and the sufferings of the inferior classes, arose from the consequences of the Conquest of Duke William of Normandy.
Four generations had not sufficed to blend the hostile blood of the Normans and Anglo-Saxons, or to unite, by common language and mutuel interests, two hostile races. [...]
Still... occasioned the gradual formation of a dialect betwixt the French and the Anglo-Saxon, in which they could render themselves mutually intelligible ... and from this arose by degrees the structure of our present English language."
Then later...
[Wamba the Jester and Gurth, swine-herd, both Anglo-Saxon slaves, discuss the above in their fashion concerning Gurth's occupation. Please assume a pirate accent for the next bit]
Concerning the word; "Swine is good Saxon," said the Jester, "but how call you the sow when she is flayed , and drawn, and quartered, and hung up by the heels like a traitor?"
"Pork," answered the swine-herd... "So when the brute lives, and is in the charge of a Saxon slave, she goes by her Saxon name; but becomes a Norman, and is called pork, when she is carried to the Castle-hall to feast among the nobles... The Ox becomes Beef... Mynheer Calf becomes Monsieur de Veau..."
Love it.
Chicken to pullet, sheep to mutton. Cool.
But (you can actually start a sentence with this word, as I just have) "The Norman Conquest [continued to] subject England to continental domination in military, ecclesiastical and cultural terms" (England and its Rulers by Michael Clanchy). Try any of the above terms; they're all French/Latin.
Let's check out the various invasions:
The Romans (what did they ever give us?) 55-54 BC
The Anglo-Saxons (German people) 5 - 6th century
The Danes or Norsemen (as you wish) 8th - 11th century
The Norman French in 1066 as any fule no. Finally booted out around 1390 (War of Roses).
Mysy-my. What a tangle. So that's what English is. It's four languages mixed with whatever we were dribbling when the Romans arrived. Big mess.
To find the common ground with French, we have to trawl about in our language. The French stuff is the POSH stuff. It's not "he's gotta have"; it is "it is necessary that he have". It's not 'to allow' (no 'w's, please, the Romans - and therefore the French - don't do 'W's), it's "to permit". You don't "go up", you "mount" and you don't "go down", you "descend". No "going in", please; "enter" only. And this kind of stuff.
Avoid so-called phrasal verbs - that have two or more words in them - especially anything to do with "get": 'get up' is morphed into levitating; 'get lost' is 'losing oneself', 'get pissed' is 'drunkening oneself'. We've got loads of phrasal verbs in English. We take verbs like "get" and "look" and "take" and then add prepositions (just slipped that in there, pay no attention) like 'out', 'in', 'up'. For example, I have taken up ice-skating. Then, I have taken in the washing. Or even, I have taken the washing in, with the object spliced in between the verb and the preposition! WTF is that???!!!
My husband one day very kindly helped two gorgeous, nipply blonde Dutch women with their broken-down car (he's a mechanic - remember them? They've been replaced by electronics. These Dutch dudettes were in some hippy old shite car which a) therefore broke down, and b) he could fix). I heard him speaking to them in his insane English.; "This piece of motor is bugger-off," I heard him say. "I exit it.". Ignore the bugger-off - he thinks that it means 'no good'. Let's look at his use of "exit". In English, he would have said "taken out". He said "exit" because he has seen the word written above doors on TV and it corresponds to the equivalent verb in French for "to take out" - "sortir" - "exit". Ta daaam. If you try "take " - prendre" and out "dehors" in French, then they would go outside and try to "take" something, only there isn't anything outside to take that is outside because the washing's in the kitchen. Sigh.
No phrasal verbs, OK? Don't 'look for'; Search! Don't 'come back'; Return. Etc.
Moral being, tart your English strastapherically (is that a word?) and it might just slip into everyday French. It's worth a ponder.
Thanks for your time.
Then later...
[Wamba the Jester and Gurth, swine-herd, both Anglo-Saxon slaves, discuss the above in their fashion concerning Gurth's occupation. Please assume a pirate accent for the next bit]
Concerning the word; "Swine is good Saxon," said the Jester, "but how call you the sow when she is flayed , and drawn, and quartered, and hung up by the heels like a traitor?"
"Pork," answered the swine-herd... "So when the brute lives, and is in the charge of a Saxon slave, she goes by her Saxon name; but becomes a Norman, and is called pork, when she is carried to the Castle-hall to feast among the nobles... The Ox becomes Beef... Mynheer Calf becomes Monsieur de Veau..."
Love it.
Chicken to pullet, sheep to mutton. Cool.
But (you can actually start a sentence with this word, as I just have) "The Norman Conquest [continued to] subject England to continental domination in military, ecclesiastical and cultural terms" (England and its Rulers by Michael Clanchy). Try any of the above terms; they're all French/Latin.
Let's check out the various invasions:
The Romans (what did they ever give us?) 55-54 BC
The Anglo-Saxons (German people) 5 - 6th century
The Danes or Norsemen (as you wish) 8th - 11th century
The Norman French in 1066 as any fule no. Finally booted out around 1390 (War of Roses).
Mysy-my. What a tangle. So that's what English is. It's four languages mixed with whatever we were dribbling when the Romans arrived. Big mess.
To find the common ground with French, we have to trawl about in our language. The French stuff is the POSH stuff. It's not "he's gotta have"; it is "it is necessary that he have". It's not 'to allow' (no 'w's, please, the Romans - and therefore the French - don't do 'W's), it's "to permit". You don't "go up", you "mount" and you don't "go down", you "descend". No "going in", please; "enter" only. And this kind of stuff.
Avoid so-called phrasal verbs - that have two or more words in them - especially anything to do with "get": 'get up' is morphed into levitating; 'get lost' is 'losing oneself', 'get pissed' is 'drunkening oneself'. We've got loads of phrasal verbs in English. We take verbs like "get" and "look" and "take" and then add prepositions (just slipped that in there, pay no attention) like 'out', 'in', 'up'. For example, I have taken up ice-skating. Then, I have taken in the washing. Or even, I have taken the washing in, with the object spliced in between the verb and the preposition! WTF is that???!!!
My husband one day very kindly helped two gorgeous, nipply blonde Dutch women with their broken-down car (he's a mechanic - remember them? They've been replaced by electronics. These Dutch dudettes were in some hippy old shite car which a) therefore broke down, and b) he could fix). I heard him speaking to them in his insane English.; "This piece of motor is bugger-off," I heard him say. "I exit it.". Ignore the bugger-off - he thinks that it means 'no good'. Let's look at his use of "exit". In English, he would have said "taken out". He said "exit" because he has seen the word written above doors on TV and it corresponds to the equivalent verb in French for "to take out" - "sortir" - "exit". Ta daaam. If you try "take " - prendre" and out "dehors" in French, then they would go outside and try to "take" something, only there isn't anything outside to take that is outside because the washing's in the kitchen. Sigh.
No phrasal verbs, OK? Don't 'look for'; Search! Don't 'come back'; Return. Etc.
Moral being, tart your English strastapherically (is that a word?) and it might just slip into everyday French. It's worth a ponder.
Thanks for your time.