I'm fascinated by the history of our language especially where it comes from the French language. According to Wikipedia, more than half our words come from the French language or have a French cognate.
I had to look up cognate - again Wikipedia comes to the rescue "words that have a common origin, but which may not have the same meaning. An example would be night (Eng) & nuit (Fr) which have the same meaning.
In the 11th century the Normans invaded our motherland and their Old Norman (Normandy) language mixed in with the Old English, mainly through the courts and government. For about 300 years, the Norman kings and the nobility spoke only Anglo-Norman until Edward III addressed Parliament in English in 1362. The expansionist Normans also made their mark in Ireland in 1169 in the south east.
This language mix (which included other roots) gave rise to Middle English which held sway between 1066 and about 1470 when the printing press enabled the London-based Chancery Standard to become widespread during the reign of King Henry V.
Today, the Norman language is still spoken in the Channel Islands, the Cotentin Peninsula and Pays de Caux, the last two being areas of the Normandy region. The principle settlements or villages in these areas are Le Havre, Dieppe, Fecamp, Yvetot and Etretat. It has no official status, but is recognised as a regional language. It sounds like it bears no resemblance to what we speak as English today... and then there's Wales, Scotland, Ireland etc!
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