The Germanic and French Influence
The Anglo-Saxons, who invaded England in AD350, came from Germany, Denmark and Holland. They spoke a Germanic language which became the basis of Old English. Even today, words used in modern English for ordinary objects are mostly Anglo-Saxon, or Germanic, in origin. Germanic languages, such as Danish, German, Norwegian and Swedish, have very similar words for the objects mentioned below. Words of Germanic origin are usually short (often just one syllable) and tend to be informal in modern English:
shoe, clothes, earth, sun, moon, day, man, wife, child, friend, house, food, water, sleep, love, say, live, have, be, work.
English also has many similarities with Romance languages, whose origin is Latin. The words below came to England with the French-speaking Normans. Notice that the words are associated with power: Norman-French was used as the language of government. Words of Latin origin are usually longer than words of Germanic origin and often have a more formal meaning in English than in the original Romance language:
government, parliament, judge, court, legal, military, army, crown, nation, state, country, power, authority, people.
Norman-French words did not enter English immediately. When the Normans invaded in 1066, ordinary people still spoke Old English.
Imagine a Norman feast. The English would look after the animals and cook the meat, still calling the animals by their Old English names. The Normans, when they saw the cooked meat arrive at the table, would use French ones. This explains why The English language now has different words for animals and meats.
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