Re: [tied] The Normans and their language

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 4324
Date: 2000-10-13

Dear Mordechai,
 
Of course it's the right place to ask a question like that. If you need a good online article on the Scandinavian colonisation of Normandy, consult this one:
 
http://viking.no/e/france/contents.html
 
It discusses, among other things, the linguistic contribution of the Normans to the local dialect of French. I'll be happy to answer any remaining questions you might have.
 
By the way, Old French was certainly much more than 5% non-Latin. It was a complex mélange of a provincial variety Latin (with traces of a Gaulish Celtic substratum) and of Germanic elements, inherited mainly from the language of the Franks.
 
(on Franks,
 
http://www.ucalgary.ca/HIST/tutor/firsteuro/frank.html
 
)
 
Piotr
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Mordechai Housman
To: cybalist@egroups.com
Sent: Friday, October 13, 2000 6:16 AM
Subject: [tied] The Normans and their language

  I do not know if this is the correct list in which to post this
question. So please let me know (politely) if it does not belong
here.

   Now, the question: I find myself wondering how it is that the
Normans, a Germanic people, came to be speaking Old French, which I
think is something like 95% Latin.

   Near as I can guess, it was from daily exposure to the Romans in
the nearby areas.

   But was nothing left of their own language? How did they come to
abandon their own roots that way, and assume completely the language
of the people they had conquered?
 
   Can anyone help me with this?

   Thank you.

   Mordechai Housman