Monday, February 27, 2012

C'est la vie!

I would like to start this post by thanking everyone who has commented on the blog over the past few weeks. Thanks for this must go especially to Gaynor, who kindly wrote a letter to the Warrington Guardian promoting the blog. My most sincere thanks :-)

OK, now down to business.

There have been many interesting comments over the past weeks, and I would like to pick out a few here.

TF and the Wire pointed out that we Warringtonians say "chipper" for chip shop - I have to say that I grew up hearing both. There was a definite generation difference in the use of the words, my parents would say "chipper", whereas my peer group would say "chippie". I used them both depending on who I was talking to.

Gaynor and Yorick made a very interesting comment about San fairy Ann, which indeed comes from the French Ça ne fait rien or "It doesn't matter".
 
To respond to Gaynor's remark about speaking French, did you know that approximately 30 percent of all English vocabulary is derived from the French language?

Take the last sentence as an example. Highlighted are all the words that have a French origin:

  • Did you know that approximately 30 percent of all English vocabulary is derived from the French language?
In all honesty, I did not plan that sentence at all. Nevertheless, there are 17 words in the sentence, and 5 of them have a French origin; that's 29 percent!

The reason that English has so many words of French origin is thanks to William of Normandy, or as we more commonly know him, William the Conqueror. After his victory at the Battle of Hastings in 1066, William set England on a path that would change its linguistic character for ever. The ruling classes of England would speak French for hundreds of years, and with them they would bring their language.

It is thanks to William and his legacy that we have linguistic doublets, the most obvious of these are those concerning food where the common animal, often looked after by the poor English surfs, retains the English name, but the corresponding food of the French ruling elite has the French name:

  • Sheep- Mutton
  • Cow - Beef
  • Deer - Venison
  • Pig - Pork