However, the Normans spoke a rural dialect of French with considerable Germanic
influences, usually called AngloNorman
or Norman French, which was quite different from
the standard French of Paris of the period, which is known as Francien. The differences
between these dialects became even more marked after the Norman invasion of Britain,
particularly after King John and England lost the French part of Normandy to the King of
France in 1204 and England became even more isolated from continental Europe.
AngloNorman
French became the language of the kings and nobility of England for more
than 300 years (Henry IV, who came to the English throne in 1399, was the first monarch
since before the Conquest to have English as his mother tongue). While AngloNorman
was
the verbal language of the court, administration and culture, though, Latin was mostly used
for written language, especially by the Church and in official records. For example, the
“Domesday Book”, in which William the Conqueror took stock of his new kingdom, was
written in Latin to emphasize its legal authority.
However, the peasantry and lower classes (the vast majority of the population, an estimated
95%) continued to speak English considered
by the Normans a lowclass,
vulgar tongue and
the two languages developed in parallel, only gradually merging as Normans and
AngloSaxons
began to intermarry. It is this mixture of Old English and AngloNorman
that
is usually referred to as Middle English.