Today self-explaining compounds are still formed by a sure instinct, but the method is much less universal than it once was because of new habits introduced after the Norman Conquest. Although the modification that happened in the English language is not caused by the Norman invade has nothing to do in the English language. There is absorbed thousands of French word as a natural result Because there are a large number of people was bilingual. And then gradually turned from the use of French to the use of English.
It is right to incorporate also under this designation the big number of words borrowed directly from Latin in the middle English language. Of course, it must not be forgotten that Latin was a spoken communication among ecclesiastics and men of learning, and a specific number of Latin words could well have passed directly into spoken English. An anonymous writer of the primary half the fifteenth century complains that it’s hard to translate from Latin into English, for there ys many wordes in Latin that we’ve got no proper English according to that.
Through such words as violence, dispose of, diurnal, equipment, and tenebrous, poets attempted what was described as a kind of stylistic gilding, and this aspect of their language is thus known as aureate diction. The poets who affected aureate terms were described as tearing up Latin words that never took root in the language. Much nonsense has been written on the relative merits of the Germanic and Romance elements in the English vocabulary.
The Latinized diction of many seventeenth- and eighteenth-century writers was brought up. In the tradition of the classics, the reaction provoked by the glorification of the Saxon element of the language as a solid, simple, and direct component in contrast to the many abstract and literary terms derived from Latin and French. The fact is, many of English’s most vibrant and strong expressions are French.
The importance of the Romance dimension in English has overshadowed and caused another source of foreign words to be overlooked within the vocabulary, the languages of the geographical region Flemish, Dutch, and West Germanic language. within the English wars reception and abroad we see constantly Flemish mercenaries battling with land forces. On the opposite hand, weavers from the geographical region, noted for his or her superior clothes, were encouraged to return to England and at various times came in large numbers. and that we see that there have been many favorable conditions for the introduction of West Germanic language words into English.
One of the striking characteristics of the English language is its great variety within the different parts of England. Giraldus Cambrensis within the twelfth century remarked that the language of the southern parts of England, and particularly of Devonshire, was more ar- chain and seemed less agreeable than that of other parts with which he was familiar. And at a rather earlier date, William of Malmesbury had complained of the harshness of the speech of Yorkshire.