| Transcript |
| · | Does English exist? |
| 0:00 | · | The English language doesn't exist. It's just badly pronounced French. |
| 0:03 | · | Those aren't my words. They're supposedly the words of this 20th century French statesman. |
| 0:08 | · | And they're the name of a book by this French linguistics professor. |
| 0:12 | · | who thinks the English-speaking world should be grateful to France. |
| 0:15 | · | [Bernard Cerquiglini in French]: It's thanks to French that English is International. |
| 0:18 | · | [Rob] Is he right? How French is English, after all? Let's find out in another RobWords. |
| 0:25 | · | So English is a Germanic language. Some people will try to tell you it isn't, for reasons |
| · | Where English comes from |
| 0:32 | · | that'll become clear, but it is. |
| 0:34 | · | Old English was brought to the British Isles by Germanic tribes. It was closely related |
| 0:39 | · | to the languages that became German and Dutch, |
| 0:42 | · | and in fact it's not totally ridiculous to claim that a modern day German would have |
| 0:46 | · | a better chance of understanding Old English than a modern-day Brit. |
| 0:51 | · | Old English is really nothing like the English that we speak today. It had grammatical gender, |
| 0:57 | · | you had to put words in a different order, and it had all these complicated variable |
| 1:02 | · | endings for nouns, adjectives and verbs. |
| 1:05 | · | But a millennium and a series of historical events have changed our language completely. |
| 1:11 | · | And perhaps the single biggest event was this. |
| · | England's French kings |
| 1:15 | · | In 1066, the French arrived - specifically the Normans - and English would never be the |
| 1:21 | · | same again. |
| 1:23 | · | As professor Cerquiglini puts it in his book: |
| 1:26 | · | "Without the Normans, English would today be a second Dutch." |
| 1:31 | · | Would that be so bad? |
| 1:33 | · | And the thing is, he's sort of right. When the Norman King William the Conqueror seizes |
| 1:37 | · | the throne of England, he initiates a period of enormous linguistic change. |
| 1:43 | · | He kicks out all the English nobles and replaces them with his pals. |
| 1:46 | · | He sacks all the English bishops - bar one - and puts Normans in their place. |
| 1:52 | · | And suddenly, anyone with any power in England is speaking French. |
| 1:57 | · | And that remains the case for a few centuries. |
| 1:59 | · | You know, one of England's most celebrated kings - particularly by English nationalists |
| 2:05 | · | - Richard the Lionheart |
| 2:07 | · | spoke barely a word of English. That's if he spoke any at all. |
| · | French words in English |
| 2:12 | · | So French was the language of the elite. It became the language of government, chivalry |
| 2:18 | · | and art - all French words, by the way. |
| 2:21 | · | As a result, French words from these fields start to stream into the English language. |
| 2:26 | · | You needed to know them to get anything done. And to this day, many of our words for power, |
| 2:32 | · | justice and culture are from French. |
| 2:35 | · | Words like parliament, council, court, judge, prince, battle, painting, music... I could |
| 2:42 | · | go on. |
| 2:44 | · | And I will. |
| 2:45 | · | Tax, bill, jury, prison, baron, duke, culture, theatre, mayor, minister. I could still go |
| 2:52 | · | on... |
| 2:53 | · | And I will: words like attorney, rule, economy, faith, war, peace, |
| 2:57 | · | I think you've got the picture. |
| 3:00 | · | And what also happens is the names for trades and artisans start to change too. They take |
| 3:05 | · | on more prestigious French names. |
| 3:09 | · | The Old English flesh-monger is replaced by the Old French "butcher". The treewright |
| 3:15 | · | becomes the carpenter. The chapman becomes the merchant. |
| 3:20 | · | And we end up with barbers, drapers, grocers, masons and tailors. All words from French. |
| 3:27 | · | And the power dynamic between the lowly English and the Norman nobility is apparent even in |
| 3:32 | · | our language today. |
| 3:34 | · | We've ended up with two words for a lot of animals - an Old English-derived one for |
| 3:38 | · | when they are alive, and a French one for when they're served up for dinner. |
| 3:43 | · | We have cow and beef, sheep and mutton, deer and venison. |
| 3:50 | · | Because the English would encounter them on the farm, and the Normans would encounter |
| 3:53 | · | them on the plate. |
| 3:55 | · | You've perhaps heard all of that before. I'm by no means the first to point it out. |
| 3:59 | · | In fact Walter Scott tackled it way back in 1820 in Ivanhoe, his tale of an Anglo-Saxon |
| 4:05 | · | noble family surrounded by Normans. |
| 4:08 | · | In it, the jester Wamba says "old Alderman Ox continues to hold his Saxon epithet, |
| 4:14 | · | while he is under the charge of serfs and bondsmen such as thou, |
| 4:18 | · | but becomes Beef, a fiery French gallant, when he arrives |
| 4:22 | · | before the worshipful jaws that are destined to consume him. |
| 4:25 | · | Mynheer Calf, too, becomes Monsieur de Veau in the like manner; he is Saxon when he requires |
| 4:32 | · | tendance, |
| 4:33 | · | and takes a Norman name when he becomes matter of enjoyment." |
| 4:37 | · | Many more of our words for a fancy banquet come from French too. |
| 4:41 | · | A servant may bring you your dinner, or serve you a bottle with supper. |
| · | Lingoda |
| 4:46 | · | [ad text redacted] |
| · | More French words |
| 6:01 | · | Okay, back to the many French words in English, |
| 6:04 | · | And like with the meats, our names for family members show the former prestige of the French |
| 6:10 | · | language. |
| 6:11 | · | Our closest family have Anglo-Saxon names - mother, daughter, father and son - these |
| 6:16 | · | words have been with us since Old English. |
| 6:19 | · | But niece, nephew, aunt, uncle, cousin: they're all French words. You need to be able to describe |
| 6:26 | · | non-nuclear family members |
| 6:27 | · | when it comes to matters of hierarchy and succession, |
| 6:30 | · | but not necessarily if you're only ever handing the family farm down to the next generation. |
| 6:36 | · | During this period, which we call the Middle English period, the appetite for taking French |
| 6:40 | · | words is pretty much insatiable. |
| 6:42 | · | In fact in some cases, we even took on the same French words twice, but in slightly different |
| 6:48 | · | forms. |
| · | Different dialects |
| 6:49 | · | William the Conqueror and his lot brought over a specific dialect of Old French, Norman |
| 6:53 | · | French. |
| 6:54 | · | It was spoken in northern France, and was a version of Old French influenced by Germanic |
| 7:00 | · | pronunciations. |
| 7:01 | · | The Normans were essentially Vikings who had settled in northern France and learned the |
| 7:04 | · | lingo. |
| 7:05 | · | It's what the word Norman means. |
| 7:08 | · | But a bit less than a century after William first claimed England for himself, the crown |
| 7:12 | · | passed down to the Plantagenets, |
| 7:15 | · | a dynasty that spoke a different dialect to William. One that came from central France. |
| 7:21 | · | So check this out: |
| 7:22 | · | where Norman French used a "w" sound at the start of a word, the Central French dialect |
| 7:28 | · | tended to use a '"g". |
| 7:30 | · | The Normans made a "k" sound where their counterparts to the south made a "ch". |
| 7:34 | · | And they made a "ch" sound where central French had a "s". |
| 7:40 | · | Now, during the Middle English period, English took on versions of the same word from both |
| 7:46 | · | dialects, |
| 7:47 | · | many of which remain with us today. |
| 7:49 | · | We took both warden and guardian, warranty and guarantee, wage and gauge, catch and chase. |
| 8:00 | · | Now, these words meant the same as each other, but when we took them on, we charged each |
| 8:05 | · | with its own nuance. |
| 8:07 | · | And that tactic of borrowing a word but giving it a slightly narrower meaning is a tactic |
| 8:12 | · | that has helped make English the gloriously rich that language it is. |
| 8:16 | · | Because, instead of French words replacing Anglo-Saxon words, a lot of the time they |
| 8:21 | · | sat alongside them. |
| 8:23 | · | For example, we can still "ask" for something, but we can also "demand" it. |
| 8:29 | · | We can "answer" and we can "respond". |
| 8:33 | · | We can "wish" and "desire", "begin" and "commence". |
| 8:37 | · | We have the Anglo-Saxon versions and the French-derived versions. |
| · | After the French kings |
| 8:42 | · | So English takes on vast amounts of French words during this Middle English period. |
| 8:46 | · | But it also never really gets out of the habit, even after French stops being the language |
| 8:51 | · | of the ruling class. |
| 8:53 | · | A process that begins when the English crown losing Normandy in 1204 |
| 8:57 | · | and ends arguably with the Hundred Years War between England and France, |
| 9:02 | · | when speaking French in England was no longer de rigeur, but something of a faux pas. |
| 9:09 | · | Over the centuries since then, we've continued to take on French words, mainly because French |
| 9:13 | · | has always been a bit prestigious. It's... |
| 9:17 | · | It's fancy! |
| 9:18 | · | We've given various Anglo-Saxon nouns florid French adjectives. |
| 9:23 | · | Things concerning the brain are "mental". Things in our house are "domestic". And |
| 9:27 | · | our towns are "urban". |
| 9:30 | · | A lot of that's just the result of a fashion in the 15th century. |
| 9:34 | · | And as the professor points out, in the 18th century a mania for all things French saw |
| 9:39 | · | us borrow ballet, connoisseur, coquette, coterie, intrigue and soubrette. |
| 9:44 | · | I actually had to look up "soubrette". Apparently it's "A maid-servant or lady's |
| 9:50 | · | maid as a character in a play or opera, |
| 9:53 | · | usually one of a pert, coquettish, or intriguing character." |
| 9:59 | · | "Pert"? |
| 10:00 | · | The upshot of all that is that it's now thought just shy of 30% of the words in modern |
| 10:05 | · | day English come from French. |
| 10:09 | · | That's huge. |
| 10:11 | · | And if you take into account the Latin-derived words in English too, you see that the minority |
| 10:16 | · | of English words are actually Germanic. |
| 10:19 | · | On the face of it, that seems like a win for those who say English is more of a Romance |
| 10:23 | · | language than a Germanic one. |
| 10:26 | · | But not so fast. |
| 10:27 | · | Because what's important here is precisely which words come from where. |
| 10:32 | · | Because yes, there are lots of French words in English, in terms of raw numbers. |
| 10:36 | · | But the vast majority of the words we actually use day to day are Germanic. |
| 10:41 | · | Our core vocabulary is overwhelmingly from Old English. |
| · | English words in French |
| 10:47 | · | On this list of the 100 most frequently used words in English, only one of them is from |
| 10:54 | · | French. |
| 10:55 | · | And that's the word "people" - a word that we've recently handed back to the French |
| 10:58 | · | and they're using it to describe their celebrities. |
| 11:01 | · | Actually, it's funny how French has started reborrowing words that it gave to English |
| 11:06 | · | in the first place. |
| 11:07 | · | It's one of the big themes of Professor Cerquiglini's book. |
| 11:09 | · | [Cerquiglini in French] Many of the anglicisms that we're borrowing at the moment are actually |
| 11:15 | · | old French words. |
| 11:16 | · | We know this for "tennis", which is "tenez" in real tennis, when sending the ball over. |
| 11:23 | · | [Rob] His point is that French-speakers should actually take heart in the fact that French |
| 11:27 | · | has permeated the English language so deeply that English is now redistributing it to the |
| 11:32 | · | rest of the world. |
| 11:33 | · | [Cerquiglini in French] Organization of the United Nations: three French words. |
| 11:36 | · | International English is French. Be proud! |
| 11:38 | · | [Rob] Yeah, also "United States". That's two words from French. |
| 11:43 | · | States is an interesting one actually. I dedicated a large chunk of a previous video to this |
| 11:47 | · | next bit |
| 11:48 | · | but a surprising number of "st" words in English have a Modern French equivalent |
| 11:53 | · | with É T. |
| 11:55 | · | In the case of state, it's État. |
| 11:57 | · | But also "stage" has "etage", "stranger" has "etranger". |
| 12:04 | · | That's because the Old French versions of these words started with an E S T. English |
| 12:10 | · | dropped the E, and French dropped the S. |
| 12:13 | · | So we may have put our own spin on them, but French words really are everywhere in our |
| 12:19 | · | language |
| 12:20 | · | and undoubtedly, vocabulary is the most profound way in which French has influenced English. |
| 12:25 | · | But it's not the only way. |
| · | French grammar |
| 12:27 | · | The grammar of English has changed significantly since Old English, and a large amount of that |
| 12:33 | · | change happened as the Normans arrived and Old English became Middle English. |
| 12:38 | · | Now, it's hard to know how much of this change is attributable to French influence. |
| 12:43 | · | English, for example, has just come into a great deal of contact with the language of |
| 12:47 | · | the Vikings, Old Norse, too. |
| 12:49 | · | But there are at least a couple of changes for which French has to be the prime suspect. |
| 12:55 | · | One of them is that we developed a second way to indicate that something belongs to |
| 12:59 | · | someone or somewhere and we still have both now. |
| 13:02 | · | So nowadays we can say "The king's sword" or "The sword of the king". |
| 13:07 | · | The first of those reflects the Old English construction, and the second is applying the |
| 13:12 | · | same formula as French does. |
| 13:14 | · | It uses a word to suggest possession - in French "de", in English "of" - |
| 13:19 | · | instead of just adding letters to the end of whatever is doing the possessing like Old |
| 13:25 | · | English did. |
| 13:26 | · | In Middle English, it also becomes possible to put an adjective after a noun, although |
| 13:30 | · | it's not something we do that often these days. |
| 13:33 | · | But we can say, for example, "move to pastures new" instead of "new pastures". |
| 13:38 | · | And we can speak of "time immemorial". |
| 13:41 | · | This is a French construction that we also see in a lot of job titles like Attorney-General, |
| 13:47 | · | Procurator-Fiscal, Notary Public or when we speak of an heir apparent. |
| · | H dropping |
| 13:52 | · | And could it even be that the French changed the way we pronounce the words we already |
| 13:56 | · | had? |
| 13:57 | · | Almost certainly yes. |
| 13:59 | · | Because during the Middle English period, H's start to drop like flies to an 'orrible |
| 14:05 | · | extent. |
| 14:06 | · | Especially at the start of words. In Old English, Lord and Lady both begin with an H. |
| 14:14 | · | We also see H-dropping that is more familiar to us now, i.e. Hs being dropped before a |
| 14:20 | · | vowel. |
| 14:21 | · | But far from it being something that was seen as a sign of a lack of education back then |
| 14:25 | · | as it occasionally is now, |
| 14:27 | · | it was probably seen as the opposite. Because who is terrible at Hs? |
| 14:31 | · | [Inspector Clouseau:] I would like to buy a 'amburger |
| 14:35 | · | [Rob] To drop your Hs was to sound more French and therefore more prestigious. |
| 14:40 | · | This might even explain why H-dropping is - even now - more prevalent in areas that |
| 14:45 | · | were historically of administrative and commercial significance, like London and the southeast |
| 14:50 | · | of Englan. |
| 14:51 | · | because in areas that would have had much less French influence people are less likely |
| 14:57 | · | to drop their Hs. Think about how some people in Scotland will say "hwat" or "hwear". |
| 15:02 | · | They're emphasising the Hs if anything. |
| 15:05 | · | And a remnant of this idea that dropping your Hs like a French-speaker is prestigious is |
| 15:09 | · | the fact some people still insist on saying "an hotel" or "an historic", effectively |
| 15:16 | · | treating the H like it isn't there. |
| · | Poetry |
| 15:19 | · | I think perhaps some people think "an historic" is more poetic |
| 15:23 | · | which brings me onto another profound change that the French are very likely responsible |
| 15:28 | · | for. |
| 15:29 | · | Let me show you something. |
| 15:30 | · | This is Caedmon's Hymn. Written sometime in the 7th century, it's one of the earliest, |
| 15:35 | · | if not the earliest attested example of an Old English poem. |
| 15:40 | · | The key characteristic of this, and indeed all Germanic poetry from the time, is that |
| 15:45 | · | it contains amazing amounts of alliteration. |
| 15:48 | · | It repeats the sounds at the start of words over and over. |
| 15:53 | · | Let's have a listen to this marvellous reading by Kara Shallenberg. |
| 15:56 | · | Note the alliteration, but also just see if you spot something else too. |
| 16:02 | · | [Kara Schallenberg] Nū sculon herigean heofonrīces Weard, |
| 16:07 | · | Meotedes meahte ond his mōdgeþanc, |
| 16:11 | · | weorc Wuldorfæder, swā he wundra gihwæs, |
| 16:17 | · | ēce Drihten, ōr onstealde. |
| 16:21 | · | So hopefully you heard the alliteration in there, but did you also notice something else? |
| 16:26 | · | It didn't rhyme. |
| 16:27 | · | Now, I know poetry doesn't have to rhyme, but in Old English it never did, it was all |
| 16:34 | · | about the alliteration. |
| 16:36 | · | Poetry in English only starts to rhyme after the French turn up. |
| 16:42 | · | French poetry was known for its rhymes at the end of lines and that becomes the fashion |
| 16:47 | · | in England too. |
| 16:49 | · | Without doubt the best known writer of the Middle English period is Geoffrey Chaucer, |
| 16:53 | · | and look at this. |
| 16:54 | · | He ends every line, with a lovely little rhyme. |
| 16:59 | · | And Chaucer was well versed, so to speak, in French. |
| 17:02 | · | [Cerquiglini in French] Chaucer, working in customs in London, is working in French. |
| 17:06 | · | [Rob] Yeah, and in The Canterbury Tales he's using a rhyming technique taken from across |
| 17:11 | · | the English Channel. |
| · | Conclusion |
| 17:12 | · | So our poetry, our grammar, our vocabulary and the way we speak. The people of France |
| 17:18 | · | can indeed claim a part in shaping English into the language it's become. |
| 17:23 | · | [Cerquiglini in French] It's thanks to French that English is international. |
| 17:28 | · | [Rob] Well, maybe. |
| 17:29 | · | Colonialism, Hollywood and the internet might also have played their part though, right? |
| 17:32 | · | Nevertheless, it seems to me that the sheer number of borrowed words in our language |
| 17:37 | · | means we 1.5 billion English speakers around the world are at least some of the time |
| 17:44 | · | just speaking badly pronounced French. |
| 17:47 | · | If you've enjoyed this video, I think you should watch this one next. |
| 17:52 | · | And if you can read French, check out the professor's book. It's actually really |
| 17:55 | · | great. |
| 17:56 | · | I've got a totally free newsletter about word facts and language fun - in English. |
| 18:00 | · | You should sign up to that and I'll see you in the next thing. |
| 18:06 | · | A la prochaine. |
| 18:07 | · | Cheerio. |
