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To: Peter Libra; LoneRangerMassachusetts
From Oppenheimer's book:

"My favourite piece of linguistic trivia is evidence of Norman pidgin surviving today in English words for live domestic animals and French ones for dead meat. Presumably, the Norman lord would ask his steward to arrange roasts of boeuf, porc and poulet, and the latter would round up cows, swine and hens from the Saxon serfs. A thousand years later, we now have beef, pork and poultry as meat on the butcher's tray and the Saxon animals still alive in the fields."

My mother, a Southern farm girl, would often say (when I was a child), 'I'm going to get a poulet for dinner tonight.' (That usually meant fried chicken for dinner)

47 posted on 09/28/2007 9:31:01 AM PDT by blam (Secure the border and enforce the law)
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To: blam
My favourite piece of linguistic trivia is evidence of Norman pidgin surviving today in English words for live domestic animals and French ones for dead meat.

While not a domestic animal, I remember reading that "deer" and "venison" are also in this category.

77 posted on 09/28/2007 2:47:30 PM PDT by GATOR NAVY
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