French Borrowings in the English Language

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INTRODUCTION French is the language that had most influence on the vocabulary of English; it also influenced its spelling. After the Norman invasion, English was neglected by the Latin-writing and French-speaking authorities. Northern French became the official language in England. There are several semantic groups of French borrowings: government terms: to govern, to administer, assembly; words connected with feudalism: peasant, servant, money; words connected with jury: plaintiff, judge, fine; words connected with art, fashion, food: pleasure, appetite, beauty, figure, etc. Early French borrowings were fully assimilated; the opposite tendency is to be discerned in the later French borrowings. During the 17th century there was a change in the character of the borrowed words. English took lots of words to do with cooking, the arts, and a more sophisticated lifestyle in general (prestige, leisure, resume). French borrowings of the period of the Norman Conquest became part of the English vocabulary. The number of borrowings was so large that it became possible to borrow morphemes and form word-hybrids, e.g.: god – goddess, short — shortage, bewilder – bewilderment. As English speakers, we often associate many of our words with having some foreign origin; some of our words sound like they are originating, or borrowed from outside nations – this notion of English words being borrowed did happen and is still happening today. Of course once a language borrows words, the words are never returned, so the adopting of loanwords and process of borrowing are simply metaphors; there is no actual process of lending happening. The purpose of this research is to define and identify French loanwords – how and when they entered into English, their categories, and any changes in meaning and morphology. The solution of the aim claims for doing away with a number of certain tasks,
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