Well, they got run over by a whole lot of Vikings who were fond of French food in 1066. Having Norman French as the ruling language for a few hundred years hel

Well, they got run over by a whole lot of Vikings who were fond of French food in 1066. Having Norman French as the ruling language for a few hundred years helped muddy English. People have commented that the animal name is often Anglo saxon (cow, pig) while the meal name is French (beef, pork). Don’t know when English started stealing words and the like from all languages but it’s real good at it now. And quite sloppy with rules vs. Related languages.