The Anglo-Norman language is the name given to the variety of the Norman language spoken by the Anglo-Normans, the descendants of the Normans who ruled the Kingdom of England following the conquest by William of Normandy in 1066. This langue d'oïl became the official language of England and later developed into the unique insular dialect now known as the Anglo-Norman language.
Anglo-Norman was the spoken language of the Norman nobility and was also used in the courts, to compile official documents, to write literature, and for commercial purposes. The lower classes were keen on learning Anglo-Norma ...
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 a ...
