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From: kthier@festival.ed.ac.uk (K Thier)
Subject: Re: Anglo-Saxons & Celts
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References: <dnb105.137.2F70D101@psu.edu>
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Organization: Edinburgh University
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 1995 12:38:12 GMT
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Ferret (dnb105@psu.edu) wrote:
: In article <3kqfl0$h0m@ss1.cam.nist.gov> koontz@cam.nist.gov (John E Koontz) writes:

: >My hypothesis on which language wins out in "conquest" situations is
: >that it's the language of the administrators.  Wessex was
: >administrated in AS; the Frankish Empire was administered in
: >(Vulgar?) Latin.  Norman England was administered in English, wasn't
: >it?  I have read that French became popular in legal contexts after
: >it had died out among the nobility.  If the Normans did govern
: >England in English, that would be consistant with their governing
: >Normandy in French and Sicily in Italian.  

: What language was used in Normandy in 1066 ?

: It appears that Middle English, being a combination of French and German is 
: unusual as it is incomprehensible to users of its ancestral languages.

: Otherwise the scenario that the administrative language becomes dominant 
: seems to fit the facts the best. It is unusual that French has little 
: outside influences and _could_ be considered Modern Latin due to its being 
: evolved directly and almost solely from Classical Latin. More continuum than 
: from Old to Middle "English".

Just some more thoughts on the subject. I generally agree with what's
ben said (although it's interesting news to me that norman England was
administered in english, source?). But there is the odd exception to
prove the rule. Roman Britain as far as i'm aware was administered
through Latin, but still the language survived and now lives as modern
welsh - still showing the impact of Roman rule through Latin words for
items as common as fish.
In Western Scotland in the Middle ages the Gaelic-speaking Lordship of
the Isles emerged in an area a great part of which had been Norse
for a long time. (This example is far less straightforward though).

Catriona

