5. 1066 and All That

There is no doubt that today English is one of the most important and richest of the world's languages. Probably the most significant factor accounting for the latter quality was the Conquest of England by the Normans more than 900 years ago. The conquering Normans spoke French. Most of the inhabitants of the conquered nation spoke varieties of Anglo-Saxon of Germanic origin.

Of course, the Normans were stronger than the local inhabitants politically and naturally their language became the language of the King's court. It also became the language for written documents, together with Latin, and was generally regarded as "more literary" and somehow "better" than the language of the common people. In spite of apparently being "worse", however, the language of the ordinary inhabitants of England, and especially the language spoken by the inhabitants of the central part of the country, did not die out. For centuries, the two languages continued to exist side-by-side.

The individual most responsible for bringing them together (and one of the greatest writers in English literature) was a customs official who lived in the late fourteenth century named Geoffrey Chaucer. Chaucer, whose Canterbury Tales is one of the most extraordinary works in English, practically created, or at least made acceptable, a new language, which was a combination of the more elegant French and the cruder but more powerful Germanic elements.

Since Chaucer's time the two languages have been woven closer and closer together, forming the single language that we now know as English. However, even today, vestiges of the differences survive, for words of French or Latin origin still tend to occur more frequently in formal written English than in spoken English. This naturally means that, for Spanish speakers, it is often easier to understand written English than spoken English. You can find evidence of this in this paragraph. Go through it and underline the words which are similar to words in Spanish. It is virtually certain that these will be words of Latin (or Greek) or French derivation, and probably they were brought to England by William the Conqueror and his men long ago.

One clear example of the dual origins of English is to be found in the ways comparatives and superlatives of adjectives are formed. Adjectives of one syllable, usually of Germanic origin, form comparatives and superlatives by the addition of suffixes (-er, -est) as in German. There are nine examples of such forms in this passage. On the other hand, longer adjectives tend to be derived from French or Latin and form their comparatives and superlatives (in the same way as in Spanish, of course) through the addition of words preceding the adjective (more, most), which itself remains unchanged. Can you find the eight examples of such forms in this passage? Do you find the second type easier or more difficult to understand than the first?