Anglo-Norman language: Encyclopedia II - Anglo-Norman language - Use and development

Anglo-Norman language - Use and development

The written records from the conquest onwards display certain striking features. In the first place, they are early: the first medieval French literature appears in England, and some of the first non-literary documents in Old French (charters, etc.) are in Anglo-Norman. The most likely explanation for this is that there was a long-standing insular tradition of vernacular writing of religious, literary and historical texts, which the newly-arrived Normans adopted.

Among important writers of the Anglo-Norman cultural commonwealth are the Jersey-born poet, Wace, and Marie de France. The literature of the Anglo-Norman period forms the reference point for subsequent literature in the Norman language, especially in the 19th century Norman literary revival and even into the 20th century in the case of André Dupont's Épopée cotentine. The languages and literatures of the Channel Islands are sometimes still referred to as Anglo-Norman.

Over time, the use of Anglo-Norman expanded further into the fields of law, administration, commerce, and science, in all of which a rich documentary legacy survives.

One notable survival of influence on the political system is the use of Anglo-Norman phrases in the granting of Royal Assent to legislation in the United Kingdom. It is also used in Parliament for some endorsements to bills:

• "soit baillé aux communes" (a bill sent by the House of Lords to the House of Commons)
• "A ceste Bille les Seigneurs sont assentus" (a Commons bill agreed by the Lords)
• "A ceste Bille avecque des amendements les Seigneurs sont assentus" (a Commons Bill amended by the Lords)
• "Ceste Bille est remise aux Seigneurs avecque des raisons" (a Commons bill amended by the Lords, sent back by the Commons when they disagree with the Lords' amendments)
• "La Reyne le veult" (Royal Assent for a public bill)
• "La Reyne remercie ses bon sujets, accepte leur bénévolence, et ainsi le veult (Royal Assent for a supply bill)
• "Soit fait comme il est desiré" (Royal Assent for a private bill)

But in parallel with the development of Anglo-Norman as a "language of record" (Michael Clanchy's term), the language became less and less of a true vernacular, and increasingly an acquired, second language. In many cases, of course, it was only imperfectly acquired, and it is these texts which have fuelled the idea that all later Anglo-Norman is little more than a degenerate jargon.

How far this is from the truth may easily be seen from the wide range of documents well into the 15th century in which Anglo-Norman is used for complex administrative matters and indeed affairs of state, at home and abroad. At an international level, many Anglo-Norman diplomatic documents are virtually indistinguishable from the products of the Paris Chancery - a fact which (together with the substantial evidence of the use of Anglo-Norman in Gascony) rather undermines the notion, still current, that the insular variety of French was cut off from its continental roots after the loss of continental Normandy in 1204.

Yet as well as continuing as a written language of record for all sorts of purposes right through the Middle Ages (and in the case of Law French, beyond), in a determinedly multilingual context, it is clear that Anglo-Norman must also have penetrated sufficiently into all social classes to ensure numerous borrowings into various English dialects. On the one hand the bulk of the Anglo-Norman influence on the lexis of English can probably be attributed to the trilingual scribes in charge of records of all sorts from the late thirteenth century onwards; on the other, there is a layer of vocabulary (of lower status) not so readily explained by this process.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Use and development", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki