David Cowley

Hastings, 1066: Words We'd Wield if We'd Won David Cowley

After 1066, a Norman elite ensured that English lost much of its standing as an official tongue. Over the next 300 or so years many original English words were ousted by French ones. The effect was especially strong in fields such as law, government, and military terminology, changing English expression - and even how its speakers thought, and think today - in ways that are hard to fathom. Here, in a user-friendly phrase-book format, are some of those original, authentic English words, put in today's spelling to show how they'd look if there'd indeed been 'a breme English seyer at the Gouth of Hastings' [a famous English victory at the Battle of Hastings) in 1066! "Food for thought for everyone, from the linguistic historian to the cultural un-normaniser. William Barnes would be delighted on both counts." Clive Upton, Professor of Modern English Language, University of Leeds