Of the most common words in use in the English language today 70% are
French in origin. Anglo Saxon apologists seek to dilute this percentage
by including obsolete words from the largely defunct old English
language. The 'English' King Richard
Coeur de Lion (the Lionheart) could not speak a word of English. The
Statutes of Kilkenny (1366AD), were a set of regulatory laws which
prohibited, (among other things) the use of the Irish language in public
dealings in favour of the English language. However the "English" language which the statutes are written in looks suspiciously like French! It was after all apart from Irish, the only language the Irish Norman nobility could
understand.
No comments:
Post a Comment