Wordwatching by Julian Burnside

Author:Julian Burnside
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Scribe Publications
Published: 2010-05-24T16:00:00+00:00

No 27

LEGAL WORDS

The effect on the English language of the Norman invasion is well known and easily observed even now. From 1066 until Normandy was lost by King John in 1204, the ruling class in England was composed largely of nobles whose native land was France. After 1204, a sense of allegiance to France became progressively less relevant. By that time, however, a large number of Anglo-Saxon words had been displaced by Norman French equivalents.

Because the Norman rulers were truly a conquering force, they did not assimilate in quite the same way as the Scandinavians had 200 years earlier. Thus, the influence of French on English is greatest where the influence of the ruling invaders was greatest. So, the language of government, law, military leadership, and the baronial table is dominated by French words. The language of the farm, the fields, and the trades shows a healthy survival of Anglo-Saxon words.

In Ivanhoe, Sir Walter Scott identified the language divide between farm and table: the English serfs tended the Anglo-Saxon boar, calf, cow, bull, deer, ox, sheep, pig, and swine. At table, the Norman overlords ate the French brawn, veal, beef, venison, mutton, pork, and bacon. (It is tempting to add ham to this list. The connection with the French jambon: leg and Italian gamba is obvious and plausible. However, ham existed as homme before the Norman conquest, meaning the part of the leg at the back of the knee).

In the language of the law, it is difficult to find words that do not derive from the Norman influence. Apart from obviously French words (tort, oyez terminer, assize, malfeasance, and puisne), many others are French but are so completely naturalised as to pass unnoticed: arrest, accuse, acquit, convict, punish, pardon, plead, sue, damage, and so on.

Indict is a Norman French word. It derives in turn from the Latin dictare, to say or declare. So, originally, it was a statement or declaration by which a person was made aware of charges against them. Its use was not confined to the law, however. As late as the eighteenth century, Handel wrote the Coronation Anthems, one of which is called ‘My Heart is Indicting’, the sense of which is that heart-felt sentiments for the new King George are put into words.

Parliament is another obvious Norman French word. It comes from parlement: speaking. The Anglo-Saxon word it replaced was witenangemot: discussion of the wise men (perhaps circumstances would eventually have forced the abandonment of this word in any event). Although witenangemot has not been used since the eleventh century, it has left a small legacy to modern English. The constituent roots are witan (wise men) and mot (discussion). Mot was a variant form of moot, a discussion or debate. It survives in our moot courts, and in the idiom moot point.

It is not uncommon to hear it said that ‘the point is moot’, with the intended meaning that the point does not arise for debate, especially because it is hypothetical. A moot point is one that is debatable or doubtful.

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