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That's easily complicated by the fact that the roots of the rivalry between France and England was in large part stoked by French-speaking Norman conquerors. Fe
by smallnamespace 9y ago
That's easily complicated by the fact that the roots of the rivalry between France and England was in large part stoked by French-speaking Norman conquerors. Few native English speakers will read this paragraph and identify all these French-derived words as being 'French', since they have become such a plainly integral part of English:
complicate, fact, rivalry, part, conqueror, native, paragraph, identify, derive
TL;DR can't speak English without also speaking a bunch of French in the process, especially since French words represent all the elite, cultured words (e.g. 'cow' vs. 'beef')
- tome 9y agoIt seems that "fact" doesn't belong in that list but rather it comes directly from medieval Latin https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fact https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fact https://www.peigencihui.com/word/fact https://www.peigencihui.com/word/fact
- eru 9y agoThe Norman conquest was way back, and wasn't even the latest invasion. (The Dutch conquered Britain in the meantime.) The Norman conquest played a role, especially in language, but the later major power / colonial empire rivalry would have developed regardless of history, just dictated by geography and clashing interests.