Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
English had reasserted itself as a language of government and learning after over 200 years as a language of low prestige. In 1349, English became the language of instruction at the University of Oxford, which had taught in French or Latin. In 1476, the use of English became widespread through the introduction of printing to England by William ...
Modern English spelling developed from about 1350 onwards, when—after three centuries of Norman French rule—English gradually became the official language of England again, although very different from before 1066, having incorporated many words of French origin (battle, beef, button, etc.).
STORY: Why is English so hard to spell?There are clear differences between how words are written and how they are said.If English is your first language you may not realize it’s not that normal ...
Partly because English has never had any official regulating authority for spelling, such as the Spanish Real Academia Española, the French Académie française, the German Council for German Orthography, the Danish Sprognævn, and the Thai Royal Society, English spelling is considered irregular and complex compared to that of other languages ...
French was the prestige language during the Norman occupation of the British Isles, causing many French words to enter English vocabulary. [11] Their language also contributed common words, such as how food was prepared: boil , broil , fry , roast , and stew , as well as words related to the nobility: prince , duke , marquess , viscount , baron ...
English words gave way to borrowings from Anglo-Norman following the Norman Conquest as English lost ground as a language of prestige. Anglo-Norman was used in schools and dominated literature, nobility and higher life, leading a wealth of French loanwords to enter English over the course of several centuries—English only returned to courts of law in 1362, and to government in the following ...
Further problems are caused by examples of confusion with English, such as connection (incorrect) and connexion (correct). [3] Misspellings of French words outside the French language occur often and account for part of the etymology of some modern loanwords in English, such as English "caddie". [4]
"[be] on [your] guard". "On guard" is of course perfectly good English: the French spelling is used for the fencing term. en passant in passing; term used in chess and in neurobiology ("synapse en passant.") En plein air en plein air lit. "in the open air"; particularly used to describe the act of painting outdoors. en pointe en pointe (in ...