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Wasn't it William the Conqueror who made French the language of the English court? That's how English has quite some French influence too or so I've heard. Of c

Wasn't it William the Conqueror who made French the language of the English court? That's how English has quite some French influence too or so I've heard. Of course neither side will want to speak much of it. Nor will the English want to speak much of the quite German blood influence of the Royals and how the English behaved at the start of WWII. It's just all so mixed up through history. It's weird how German and French are actually close in that they have quite extensive and regular grammar and genders, like Latin and if you translate French word for word to German, it sometimes sounds like someone is just speaking weirdly structured middle ages German or something and is actually understandable. Of course only in writing, since the pronunciation is "very French" :) And then there's Dutch which takes lots of English words and pronounces them a bit more German or takes German words and pronounces them quite English and then that's called Dutch (not to take anything away of course, there are completely Dutch words that aren't like that).

hilbert42 3y ago
"Wasn't it William the Conqueror who made French the language of the English court? That's how English has quite some French influence too or so I've heard." Right, from 1066 to about 1485 with the end of the Plantagenet kings: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Plantagenet https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Plantagenet. During much of this time French was the official language of the English Royal Court and government business. Thousands of French words entered the earlier English (Anglo Saxon—based) language during this time. "Nor will the English want to speak much of the quite German blood influence of the Royals and how the English behaved at the start of WWII. It's just all so mixed up through" Don't get me started on that. Those incestuous English/European monarchies caused untold harm to the world. The problems go back before WWII to much earlier than even WWI. Out of embarrassment and under threat of loss of the monarchy the British Royal family changed its name from the German Saxe-Coburg to Windsor in 1917. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/from-the-archive-blog/2017/jul/17/british-royal-family-windsor-name-change-1917 https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/from-the-archive-blog/20...

hilbert42 3y ago

"Wasn't it William the Conqueror who made French the language of the English court? That's how English has quite some French influence too or so I've heard." Right, from 1066 to about 1485 with the end of the Plantagenet kings: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Plantagenet https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Plantagenet. During much of this time French was the official language of the English Royal Court and government business. Thousands of French words entered the earlier English (Anglo Saxon—based) language during this time. "Nor will the English want to speak much of the quite German blood influence of the Royals and how the English behaved at the start of WWII. It's just all so mixed up through" Don't get me started on that. Those incestuous English/European monarchies caused untold harm to the world. The problems go back before WWII to much earlier than even WWI. Out of embarrassment and under threat of loss of the monarchy the British Royal family changed its name from the German Saxe-Coburg to Windsor in 1917. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/from-the-archive-blog/2017/jul/17/british-royal-family-windsor-name-change-1917 https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/from-the-archive-blog/20...