No, it’s not an IRS form; the date (October 14, 1066 to be precise) fomented a battle and resulting invasion that changed our culture and language for all time. Our British forebears were squeezed between crazy Viking attacks from the north and an uneasy peace/war relationship with the continent, notably at that time, the Normans (antecedents to modern day French). And at that time Normans were pretty much calling the shots in England from the continent. They didn’t take kindly to Edward the Confessor (he died in 1066) handing British rule to Harold II, who promptly had himself crowned as King. William II, a Norman, decided to teach Harold a lesson… and the Battle of Hastings ensued with the resulting Norman conquests. Very old French (Latin-based) also came with that conquering force.
According to the April 4th WordSmith.org: “As many as 30% of the words in the English language are of French origin (depending on whom you ask).” And it has made English a profoundly difficult language with dozens of rules from German, Celtic, French, etc. I mean, do you really use the conditional subjunctive when you speak? “I sure wish I were rich.” And how do you reconcile pronouncing “trough” and “through”? “Arkansas”? And why is it “aren’t I” and not “amn’t I”? “I will have gone” doesn’t sound perfect, and it does make me a tad tense. Compare that to Mandarin, which has too many words to be sure, but makes grammar a snap by simply adding a “no” to a sentence to negate the thrust, a number or “many” or “few” to create a plural – children (from the German, Kindern) is the plural of “child” in English? – and words like “yesterday” and “tomorrow” to create past and future tenses. Back to the French and “others.” Hey, at least we don’t have masculine, feminine and (OK, you Germans) neuter!
Indeed, things “French” are often imbued with a certain risqué (ooops, French with an accent and everything) connotations. Wordsmith.com explains: “Novelist Stephen King once said, ‘French is the language that turns dirt into romance.’ Is that why it is called a Romance language? But it's true that we equate all things French with sophistication, whether it's food, clothing, art, or dirt.” Freedom fries anyone? But then, Lafayette provided vital support to a fledgling United States in its struggle from those nasty Brits, and we came to the aid of France (and a few more counties) in WWI and II.
And then there’s this damned French legal system – different from the British-based system in every other state – in Louisiana. It all began in 1803 when President Thomas Jefferson made a deal with Napoleon to buy some land… a lot of land: “The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition by the United States of America of 828,800 square miles … of France's claim to the territory of Louisiana in 1803. The U.S. paid 60 million francs ($11,250,000) plus cancellation of debts worth 18 million francs ($3,750,000), for a total sum of 15 million dollars for the Louisiana territory ($219 million in 2010 dollars).” Wikipedia. Napoleon needed cash, and he wanted a strong and anti-British maritime nation to help balance out the power over the Atlantic states.< /SPAN>
The Civil Code – derived from France – put a greater emphasis on statutes while the Common Law – derived from Britain – put much more law-making into the “common-sense” hands of judges. “The first Louisiana Civil Code Digest of 1808 was written in French and translated into English by Martin O'Callaghan. For many years, legal practitioners in the state made great effort to ensure that both versions agreed. Despite those efforts some clauses were found only in one version or the other.” Wikipedia. While over the centuries, Louisiana law began to look a lot more like its British-based counterpart (Common Law), to a modern day practitioner, the words are often different (Parish versus County) and some of the statutes still reflect their French roots.
Why in the world did I write this blog today, in 2011, you might ask? Well, as the French were the Western prime movers in Libya, where the United States most definitely was the defining mega-force in the air-to-air and air-to-ground assault, it does help to remember our roots, who we are as Americans, and how those “roots” reach into the present and continue to define our values, perceptions, history, culture… and even our language. We always tend to think “Britain” when we think of our ancient past… but then there is France.
I’m Peter Dekom, and today Americans are truly global mutts!
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1 comment:
Interesting article. The first paragraph though confuses the terms 'british' and 'english'. The kingdom of Edward the confessor and the rulers before and after were rulers of England and the English. There was no joint ruler of all the countries of the island. The anglo saxon people at that time didn't see themselves as british - they just saw themselves as english and the 'british' as the enemy.. The welsh and scots - the celtic regions - were the british.
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