UNITS 41 & 42
Are you studying for the civil exam? Then, keep reading because you will receive some ideas on how to write the conclusion and you will review the History of English Language with me here.
* See all the info: lists and tribunals here.
UNIT 41: "THE ROMANISATION OF BRITAIN. LATIN INFLUENCE. BORROWINGS"
UNIT 42: "THE NORMAN CONQUEST. FRENCH INFLUENCE & BORROWINGS."
For the INTRODUCTION: Remember well the periods I am giving you below and their literary exponents mentioned beside, because this structure is priceless at the time of placing authors at a glance.
Old English Language (500-1100)
Caedmon's Hymn and Beowulf epic poem.
Celt migrations
Roman Occupation
Germanic Settlements
Viking Invasions
Middle English Language (1100 - 1500)
Canterbury Tales- Geoffrey Chaucer
Wycliffe's translation of the Bible (WYC)
Norman invasions
Anglo-Norman French spoken in Britain
Although the units mentioned cover from 500 to 1500, I want you to see the whole picture by giving you the following periods as well. We will need this info at the time of giving conclusions.
Early Modern English Language (1500 -1800)
From Renaissance, Neoclassicists and Romantics.
Renaissance Mixing influence: French, Latin, Greek, Italian.
Late Modern English (1800 - present)
from Victorian writers till now.
Empire imports: Hindi, Persian, Arabic, Turkish, Malay, American English....
When talking about the ROMANISATION (the content of UNIT 41) you can distinguish the following 3 periods:
0) ZERO PERIOD: CONTINENTAL=
PRE-OLD ENGLISH (200 BC)
LOANWORDS:
trade, table, carpet,
cheap, cherry, cheese
chalk, copper, pid
battle, wine, vinegar
1) 1ST PERIOD: LATIN INFLUENCE THROUGH CELTIC TRANSMISSION into ANGLO SAXONS.
- 43 AD Claudius: Romans ruled during 300 years.
- 400 AD invasion of Germanic Tribes: Jutes, Angles, and Saxons
LOANWORDS:
caester - chester: for English place-names such as Chester, Colchester, Manchester, Lancaster, Gloucester
port- harbour, gate, town
munt- mountain
wic-village
2) 2nd PERIOD: CHRISTIANISATION OF BRITAIN.
- Differences between Germanic philosophy and Christianity.
- Even Franks accepted the new religion too. Bertha was the Christian daughter of Charibert I king of the Franks.
- Pope Gregory in 597 AD (6th C) sent St. Augustine to Kent probably thanks to Bertha's influence.
- King Ethelbert kept the Christian faith as a promise to his mother Bertha.
- 731 AD (8th C) The Venerable Bede wrote: "The Ecclesiastical History of the English People"
- England led the intellectual leadership of Europe and it owed to the Church because of the development of: vernacular literature, arts, agriculture in monasteries and domestic economy.
- The invasion of the Danes or Vikings in 787 AD (or late 8th C) makes us divide this second period into two different types of borrowings:
a) Early borrowings 6th C -10th C: St Augustine + missionaries
LOANWORDS:
Religion: abbot, angel, cleric, mass, nun, priest, relic
Education: school, literary, master, verse, talent, anchor
Domestic life: lap, sock, purple, lentil, oyster, cook, plant, pine, balsam
Miscellaneous: anchor, elephant, fever, talent, crisp, sealtian (latin saltare = dance)
b) Later borrowings 10th C - 11th C: The Benedictine Reform with the king Edgar.
LOANWORDS:
Religion: antichrist, cloister, idol, prophet,
Education words: accent, decline, history, title
Miscellaneous: cucumber, ginger, coriander, cypress, fig, laurel, cancer, paralysis, plaster, camel, scorpion, tiger.
3) 3rd PERIOD: LATIN INFLUENCE ON MIDDLE ENGLISH
After the NORMAN CONQUEST during the Middle English Period (1100 - 1500) Latin words were borrowed through French or directly from Latin, especially through the written language in the 14th & 15th C. Many of them have passed into common use thanks to Wycliffe's Bible (WYC).
BORROWINGS
Related to law, medicine, theology, science and literature: immune, index, legal, mechanical, testify. tributary, ulcer, etc
Aureate Terms: introduced by poets following the tendency to use unusual words as a stylistic device. This style is usually associated with the 15th-century French, English, and Scottish writers.
The word aureat = “golden” or “splendid,”
was probably coined on the basis of the Latin words: auratus =“gilded” ; aureus = “golden”
Samples of aureate words: "Matutyne", "depurit" and "cristallyne".
As an example of Middle English Literature we can explain the work of a bureaucrat and diplomat traditionally called "the father of English Literature": Geoffrey Chaucer (1345-1400) -studied in the UNIT 43- who wrote The Canterbury Tales.
It is the story of a group of pilgrims as they travel from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral, the archbishop who was murdered in the cathedral in 1170.
The writer created a multi-layered rhetoric by using different narrators (pilgrims of different social class) who were also the audience of the stories shared. It was written in verse, 5 or 10 syllabus lines, sometimes a caesura can be identified around the middle of a line.
Chaucer uses couplet rhyme and sometimes the rhyme royal to vary.The meter he uses were probably inspired by French or Italian forms.
Chaucer's meter would later develop into the heroic meter of the 15th and 16th centuries known also as the riding rhyme, which is an ancestor of iambic pentameter, used by Shakespeare, for example, in Henry V in the Prologue:
"Oh for a Muse of Fire, that would ascend
the brightest heaven of invention
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act
and monarchs to behold the swelling scene!".(...)
Now, let's compare the language of both poets when talking about April. Around the fifth century, the Anglo-Saxons referred to April as "Oster-monath" or "Eostre-monath". Another theory says that the name is rooted in the Latin "Aprilis", which is derived from the Latin "aperire" meaning “to open”—which could be a reference to the opening or blossoming of flowers and trees, a common occurrence throughout the month of April in the Northern Hemisphere. The month was generally in Roman calendar dedicated to deities who were female or ambiguous in gender, opening with the Feast of Venus on the Kalends (= first days of each month).
The General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales,Geoffrey Chaucer (Middle English)
"Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote,
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licóur
Of which vertú engendred is the flour; (...)
The sonnet 98 by Shakespeare (Early Modern English) April is an important month when talking about William, as you know he was born and died in April.
"From you have I been absent in the spring,
When proud-pied April, dressed in all his trim,
Hath put a spirit of youth in everything,
That heavy Saturn laughed and leapt with him."
When talking about the NORMAN CONQUEST (the content for UNIT 42) you can explain that with them, the Normans, came the end of what we call The Old English period and it started the Middle English Period.
The Normans were Northmen (Scandinavians) who settled along the Seine. They were one of the most advanced peoples in Europe and a generation after Alfred reached an agreement with the Northmen in England: The Treaty of Saint-Clair-Sur-Epte (911). From that moment Rollo became the Duke of Normandy and Charles the Simple his overlord who Rollo will protect from any new invasion by the Northmen.
This made a lot of Scandinavian countrymen immigrate to settle Brittany (its adjective is Bretton) a Northwest area in France and adopted French languages, Christian religion, customs and military tactics.
- The Conquest of England by the Normand: happened thanks to the close relations they already had. Edward the Confessor, son of Aethelred, who had been brought up in France, when restored to the throne gave his Norman friends important places in the Government. When he died named Harold to succeed him but Harold was killed in the battle of Hasting (1066) and William the Conqueror was crowned king of England on Christmas Day 1066. Supported by the papacy.
William the Conqueror- ruthless tyrant -put rigorously down rebellion and devastated vast areas, especially in his pacification of the north in 1060-1070. He was, however, an able administrator and perhaps one of his greatest contributions to England's future was the linking up of England with continental affairs. He linked England to France, economically and culturally.
The aristocracy spoke French and the Latin was the language of church and administration.
- Feudalism.
William the Conqueror granted lands directly to fewer than 180 men, making them his tenants in chief. In vulnerable regions, compact blocks of land, clustered around castles. They owed homage and fealty to the king and held their land in return for military service. They were under obligation to supply a certain number of Knights from their own households to meet demands for service. They soon began to grant some of their lands to knights who would serve them just as they in turn served the king.
- Law & Government
3 Instruments of the Empire: the castle, the church and the borough.
Only in England there were 1 thousand castles, as impressive symbols for domination and imperialism.
French religious orders and monks lived in the Normand abbeys: the Cistercians had a leading role in the spread of Normand control. Creation of new urban settlements in England & Wales.
The Anglo-Saxon "witan", or council, became the king's "curia-regis", a meeting of the royal tenants in chief both lay and ecclesiastical.
By the end of the reign of William The Conqueror all the important administrative officials were Norman, and their titles corresponded to those in use in Normandy.
He appointed justiciars to preside over local cases and at times named commissioners to act as his deputies in the localities.
In synthesis, the conquest of William and his lineage caused:
1. The introduction of a new nobility. The old one was wiped out and were hold by the Normans.
2. Introductions of the Normans in the important positions of the Church.
3. Settlement of Norman troops, merchant and craftsmen.
4. Introduction of the French Language
THE USE OF FRENCH (1088-1200)
During 200 years was the language of the ruling class and English was spoken by the masses.
Some learnt French because they were associated with the ruling class. English was ignored up to 1200.
There were two favourable conditions for this to happen:
1) The close connection between England and the Continent.
2) The Literature produced in England was written in French.
There was a rapid fusion due to:
- marriage of Normans to English women,
- the process of sponsoring the creation of new monasteries
- accepting being buried in England rather than in Normandy.
- Knights studied French.
- Increased the number of English speakers learning French for commercial reasons. Norman names were the leading citizens, and most likely the majority of the merchant group.
THE USE OF ENGLISH
During Norman times English remained the language for the masses and lower classes.
The reign of Henry II is an example of how most of the population spoke it. In the monasteries, as the lower ranks were probably able to speak and understand English as well as French. They were, we could say, bilingual. For example, plain priests, stewards and bailiffs were possibly more often in contact with the lower classes. Bilingual were, definitely, the children of Norman-French marriages, as the case of the chronicler Orderic Vitalis, a Benedictine monk who wrote one of the great contemporary chronicles of 11th- and 12th-century Normandy and Anglo-Norman England.
ENGLISH RE-ESTABLISHMENT (1200-1500)
In the 13th C, after king John lost Normandy, the connection between the 2 countries broke. the Anglo-Norman noblemen took sides, creating a division between the French and the English nobility.
Families were forced to choose and give up their own properties or estates, and the majority had more reason to stay in England and see themselves as English rather than French.
The continue use of French among the ruling class was almost disappearing when Henry III married Eleonor of Provence in 1236. A new stream of French entered to England and with that a feeling of anti-foreign feeling among the upper classes who had already began to feel what meant to be English.
French was seen more as a prestigious, cultivated tongue supported by social, administrative traditions than as a natural language inherited from previous Norman generations.
English, then became more frequently used among them and it was when a great deal of French words was introduced into English, when the users of French try to communicate in English.
Another reason to avoid the use of French, was that the Anglo-French was not regarded as "good" French, which differed greatly from the continental dialects. The Frenchmen looked down on the English speakers of French, there were satirical comments in the period's literature.
The rise of middle classes and the improvement in the conditions of the lower classes due to the rise of their wages after the Black Death, benefited the English speaking part of the population in the isles.
GENERAL ADOPTION OF ENGLISH IN THE 14th C
French had not gone out of use in court, spoken by the educated and elite, lawyers and clergymen. Remained the language of law courts until 1362. Also in Parliament, administration and even when it wasn't their everyday language.
In the 15th C was increasingly ignored.
French was especially learnt in the 18th C and is still studied in UK as a second language. According to different sources 30% of Modern English vocabulary is directly borrowed from French.
Baugh and Cable define several categories of early French borrowings:
Government and social class: revenue, authority, realm, duke, count, marquis, servant, peasant.
Church: religion, sermon, prayer, abbey, saint, faith, pray, convent, cloister.
Law: justice, crime, jury, pardon, indict, arrest, felon, evidence.
War: army, navy, battle, garrison, captain, sergeant, combat, defence.
Fashion: gown, robe, frock, collar, satin, crystal, diamond, coat, embroidery
Food: feast, taste, mackerel, salmon, bacon, fry, mince, plate, goblet.
Learning and medicine: paper, preface, study, logic, surgeon, anatomy, stomach, remedy, poison
In the CONCLUSION of any of these UNITS you can talk about the Prologue of The Canterbury Tales and how you would adapt the content in classroom mentioning the recent Spanish educational law in ESO or BACH. (See at the end)
I, for example, would explain the topic of pilgrimage and use some Gothic architecture and paintings to inspire the group and bring them near to the real context. It would be ideal to go and see some of our nearest Gothic Cathedrals: Santiago (1075-1211), Burgos (1221), Toledo (1227), León (1258), Seville (1401).
I would mention John Bunyan (1628 -1688) who came after Shakespeare and is the author of the Pilgrim's Progress.(1678)
We can consider him, by the periods mentioned before, as an Early Modern English writer who inspired American and English authors like Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain and... Samuel Johnson, William Blake, Wordsworth, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brönte, William Makepeace Thackeray and George Bernard Shaw... to name a few.
We have a hymn from the same author that was created in 1684: " To be a Pilgrim" is still sang in many schools of England in The English Hymnal Version of Percival Dearmer (1906).
We can ask our students to work on pairs on the etymology of the highlighted words and so make them see the potentiality of dictionaries and their great legacy. I have chosen the original version:
"Who would true valour see,
let him come hither,
one here will constant be,
come wind, come weather.
There is no discouragement
shall make him once relent,
his first avowed intent
to be a pilgrim.
Whoso beset him round
with dismal stories
do but themselves confound
this strength the more is.
No lion can him fright
he'll with a giant fight
but he will have a right
to be a pilgrim.
Hobgoblin, nor foul fiend,
can daunt his spirit;
he knows he at the end,
shall life inherit.
Then fancies fly away,
he'll fear not what men say,
he'll labour night and day
to be a pilgrim.
"Let's neither faint nor fear!" - a verse from the Pilgrim's Progress during "The Hill Difficulty".
All the Muses,
including that of fire and imagination,
for the day of your exam!
And if they don't come, call Mnemosyne!
their mother, she'll bring them all.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- BAUGH AC and CABLE THOMAS (2002) A History of The English Language. London. Routledge.
- BROOK G.L. (1958) A History of the English Language. London.
- CAMPBELL J. (1982) The Anglo- Saxons. London.
- COOPER MENDENHALL, JOHN (1919) Aureate Terms: A study in Literature Diction of the XV C. Kessinger Publishing.
LAW IN ESO:
- Royal Decree 217/2022, of 29th March, which establishes the basic curriculum of Secondary Education.
- Decree 65/2022, of 20th of July, which establishes the curriculum of Secondary in the Autonomous Community of Madrid.
- Decree 2876/2018 on the 27th of July, which establishes the curriculum of Bilingual Education in private and state-founded schools in the Community of Madrid.
- Decree 29/2022, de 18th of May, which regulates specific points about the assessment, promotion and qualifications in Compulsory Secondary Education & Baccalaureate as well as in the teaching of adults.
- Royal Decree 217/2022, of 29th March, which establishes the basic curriculum of Secondary Education.
- Decree 65/2022, of 20th of July, which establishes the curriculum of Secondary in the Autonomous Community of Madrid.
- Decree 2876/2018 on the 27th of July, which establishes the curriculum of Bilingual Education in private and state-founded schools in the Community of Madrid.
- Decree 29/2022, de 18th of May, which regulates specific points about the assessment, promotion and qualifications in Compulsory Secondary Education & Baccalaureate as well as in the teaching of adults.
LAW IN BACCALAUREATE:
- Decree 64/2022, of 20th of July, which establishes the curriculum of Baccalaureate in the Autonomous Community of Madrid.
- Decree 2876/2018 on the 27th of July, which establishes the curriculum of Bilingual Education in private and state-founded schools in the Community of Madrid.
- Decree 29/2022, de 18th of May, which regulates specific points about the assessment, promotion and qualifications in Compulsory Secondary Education & Baccalaureate as well as in the teaching of adults.
MORE ABOUT CIVIL EXAMS:
EOI CIVIL EXAM IN MADRID 2025
EOI CIVIL EXAM IN MADRID 2023
BIBLIOGRAPHY EOI (OPO)
UNIT 28: LINGUISTIC MACROFUNCTIONS
MOTIVATION TO STUDY
SELF-ASSESSMENT FOR ALL LEVELS
USE OF ENGLISH
WORD FORMATION
REVIEW CONDITIONALS WITH ME
PRESENT SIMPLE vs PRESENT CONTINUOS
MOTIVATION TO WRITE
HOW TO WRITE AN ESSAY
HOW TO WRITE A PROPOSAL
HOW TO WRITE A REVIEW
HOW TO WRITE LETTERS
MOTIVATION TO READING & LISTENING
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Ana Language Coach