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This investigation contributes to issues in the study of second language transmission by considering the well-documented historical case of Anglo-Norman. Within a few generations of the establishment of this variety, its phonology diverged sharply from that of continental French, yet core syntactic distinctions continued to be reliably transmitted. The dissociation of phonology from syntax transmission is related to the age of exposure to the language in the experience of ordinary users of the language. The input provided to children acquiring language in a naturalistic communicative setting, even though one of a school institution, enabled them to acquire target-like syntactic properties of the inherited variety. In addition, it allowed change to take place along the lines of transmission by incrementation. A linguistic environment combining the 'here-and-now' aspects of ordinary first language acquisition with the growing cognitive complexity of an educational meta-language appears to have been adequate for this variety to be transmitted as a viable entity that encoded the public life of England for centuries.
Collection examining the Anglo-Norman language in a variety of texts and contexts, in military, legal, literary and other forms.
First published in 1924, this volume presents critical editions of three short Anglo-Norman texts. As the general editor, O. H. Prior notes in the Preface, 'the works selected are representative of three genres, a purely didactic poem on Geography, a legend of the Virgin, and a biblical subject'. Each selection is taken from among the numerous medieval manuscripts held in the colleges of the University of Cambridge, and the editions are given as exact copies of the manuscripts, with no corrections introduced and any alternative readings or emendations reserved for the notes. The book will continue to be of interest to scholars as a valuable source of minor Anglo-Norman works.
Essay from the year 1998 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, University of Münster, language: English, abstract: This paper deals with the influence of the French language on the English language. The English was replaced by the French nobility. A bilingual situation was predominant: Whereas people from the upper class spoke the French language, people from lower classes spoke English. The French nobility led a separate life from ordinary people. The English language was considered to be inferior to the French language, and only people like merchants who wanted to communicate with people from the lower classes had to know the English language.
The essays in this volume form a new cultural history focused round, but not confined to, the presence and interactions of francophone speakers, writers, readers, texts and documents in England from the 11th to the later 15th century.