@MN-vz8qm

2 months ago

English was a germanic language. Then they were conquered by french speaking dudes, who took over all the nobility positions in england. For centuries, there was a french speaking nobility and a germanic speaking peasantry. Then the king of england ended up being the rightful heir of the crown of France by right of succession (the deceased king of france had no son), and other contenders used the fact that he was king of a foreign country to discard him (despite the fact that he was a french speaker of french culture with lands in France). After about 70 years into the war of succession (the famous 100 years wars, which lasted actually 116 years), the english king, in a move to unify his land against the french forces) decided to separate from the french culture and established english as the official language of england, which led to noble men speaking some sort of creole, a weird mix of germanic and french, which we know today as modern english. Hence why the english often has two words to say the same thing. And why english speakers see the french with this feminine sophisticated elite stereotype. For example, look at the word cow. The animal itself is named after the germanic word, because that was the word peasants used. But once a meat on the plate of the noblemen, it is a beef (from the french boeuf). Same for the mutton (mouton in french)/sheep (german), or pork(french)/pig(german) Or overall complex/sophisticated words. Clever vs Intelligent Strength vs Force office vs bureau cooking vs cuisine etc... This heritage had a direct influence in politics, economics and law related vocabulary, like money, treasury, exchequer, commerce, finance, tax, liberalism, capitalism, materialism, nationalism, plebiscite, coup d'état, regime, sovereignty, state, administration, federal, bureaucracy, constitution, jurisdiction, district, justice, judge, jury, attorney, court, case, attaché, chargé d'affaires, envoy, embassy, chancery, diplomacy, démarche, communiqué, aide-mémoire, détente, entente, rapprochement, accord, treaty, alliance, passport or protocol. On the folkloric side, a lot was taken from that time from the french (cockatrice, dragon, griffin, hippogriff, phoenix, wyvern for mythological beast, or even exotic for the time like lion, leopard, antelope, gazelle, giraffe, camel, zebu, elephant, baboon, macaque, mouflon, dolphin, ocelot, ostrich, chameleon). And France having had an influencial military history, a ton of war related words, like accoutrements, aide-de-camp, army, artillery, battalion, bivouac, brigade, camouflage, carabineer, cavalry, cordon sanitaire, corps, corvette, dragoon, espionage, esprit de corps, état major, fusilier, grenadier, guard, hors-de-combat, infantry, latrine, legionnaire, logistics, matériel, marine, morale, musketeer, officer, pistol, platoon, reconnaissance/reconnoitre, regiment, rendezvous, siege, soldier, sortie, squad, squadron, surrender, surveillance, terrain, troop or volley.

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