Viking French? | What was the Norman Language?

In 911 AD a Viking chief named Rollo (Old Norse Hrólfr) was given as a fief the territory of Normandy in the North of France, the then Western Frankish Kingdom. 155 years later his descendant William would become a king in England starting the Norman Era and leaving a legacy that would shape British and world history. But in terms of those first Scandinavians that came to Northern France in the 10th Century, what language did they speak and how did this influence the development of Modern English that is spoken throughout the world today? While they were originally Old Norse speakers, soon the new "Normans" switched to the local vernacular of Old French, this new blend becoming known as "Old Norman" which retained some interesting features and loaned many words from Old Norse and decisively influenced the English language as we know it.

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Music Used:
"Sunday Dub" - Kevin MacLeod
"Eastern Thought" - Kevin MacLeod
"Tabuk" - Kevin MacLeod
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

#Vikings #Normans#Medieval

[johnr]

One of my favourite accidents of the English language is "warranty" and "guarantee" which are essentially the same word making its way into English via two different routes and meaning almost the same thing.

[Twittler]

Just a short note on the ‘castle, castel, château’ example. The circumflex over the ‘a’ in château is used in modern French to indicate that the next letter used to be an ‘s’. So pre-modern French ‘chasteau’ or ‘chastel’.

It is used to indicate pronunciation - although the ‘s’ is now a phantom, and is not pronounced, the rest of the word is pronounced as though it still was there. So, ‘shatow’ and not ‘shaahtow’.

[martychisnall]

The British monarch is still referred to as the “Duke of Normandy” in the Channel Islands today, though “Duke” is used for both genders.

[Connor-zypr]

Honestly, I respect the short clip of Sharpe saying "bastard"... You honestly have my respect.

[ElGringoCastellano]

"If Maltese is a Semitic language, why does it have so many Italian words?"

"If Malayalam is a Dravidian language, why does it have so many Sanskrit words?"

[edgelord]

We are Vikings and we want to pillage a village near you.

Villagers: aww man.

[tonio]

Late Vulgar latin is the ancestor of all romance languages and wasn't spoken in Italy anymore than it was in the other regions. In Italy they simply spoke Old-Italian languages.

[robertskrzynski]

How far into Normandy did Flemish settlement go (these are Germanic speakers) and Normandy was part of the old Roman Saxon shore were the people even then a German speaking group. Also during the 60's an Afrikaaner I knew went for a walking holiday from Normandy to Denmark: he reckoned that if stayed close to the shore line and spoke to older people in Afrikaans they understood him and he could understand them.

[regular-joe]

Yes, please, a video about Norman French spoken still today.

[happyspanners]

There’s a very interesting podcast called The History of the English Language that covers all details you mentioned. I would check it out!

[Totoofwarful]

if you wonder, in french we call him ''guillaume le conquérant" not william

[micahistory]

Very interesting. I remember when I did French class, I read some old french and realised that it sounded more similar to english than modern french.

[kimwexler]

A lot of our 'emotional' words come from old Norse eg. Happy, angry, lucky.

[ultrakw]

This is great, because there are even official sources which state that the introduction of French words (in this historical period) was via Middle French and not necessarily or specific the dialectic of Norman French at this time. 'Middle French' being the historical agent in such accounts seems like one of those reductive entities that we encounter in sloppy or over-generalized historical work. Cheers mate.

[bobby_bretwalda]

Loved the Sharpe "bastard" snippet! No one says the B-word like Sean Bean!

[infozencentre]

Some Canadian veterans of the Normandy landings reported that local Normans were pleased to be able to communicate easily with some French Canadian troops who they realized did not speak Parisian French but old French

[Charliecomet]

On behalf of my Norwegian-American grandmother, I was crestfallen when my French professor told me that the Normans ended up speaking French because that was what happened when a less civilized people conquered a more civilized one...

[MaxSluiman]

From a history/war history freak: I think you have one of the best history channels. I enjoy it a lot. And you answer interesting questions. This video is a fine example.
The humour I grudgingly accept.

[jeremyday]

I love history, and I love language. Now a video about the history of language? Oui, s'il vous plaît ! C'est trop parfait.

[RickMitchellProvenanceAndRoots]

Language topics are always fascinating.