Status Of English 12c-14c

SEMINAR: THE STATUS OF ENGLISH: 12c - 14c

1. After the Norman conquest, English and Norman French had to coexst in England, but not exactly among some people. Those who belonged to the higher classes and wanted to stay like that, and have contact with the new Norman nobility, had to learn and speak French; but this happened only with the higher class English people, French people would not learn English.

The lower classes of Englishmen would not learn French, though it is considered that it is better for a man to know both, English and French.

2. French and Englishmen had possessions both in England and France, and the king of France decided that Frenchmen who were in this situation would have to choose between their lands in England or those in France. The problem is that the English king did not do the same as he was supossed to do, he did not give the chance to choose which kingdom to belong to, he ordered the Frenchmen to leave their possessions in England. This made the French king get really annoyed but he was not healthy and did not want to fight; he also had to calm down the furious Normans.

Although this was a political issue it had linguistic consequences because English people who had possesions in France would travel there and improve their French, but till the moment they left their lands in France their French would not be improved any more, that is why French was lost in England; since the French spoken from this period would not be well considered in France, there was no reason to keep it.

3. The author believes that books shoud be now translated into English for the English people. Up to this moment it was Frech the language books were written in all over the country, but now it is time for every country to have its own language. He also says that the common people should have access to literature too.

4. At Chaucer's time people who wanted to pretend being of a higher class said to speak French, which was the language of culture. What can be observed from this text is that these people hardly knew any French actually.

French spoken in England was a degenerated variety of the Norman variety, which was not well considered in France any more. The French the Prioress spoke is this variety, which had no prestige at all. Chaucer questioned why should they learn or keep a variety which had no longer any prestige at all.

5. These three authors