A Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis of French Loanwords in Early Middle English

Abstract

The following study is concerned with the earliest French
borrowings in the Early Middle English period and the effects of French
influence during this historical context of extensive linguistic contact. My
research assesses these loanwords from multiple approaches and
disciplines, both linguistic and literary, in an attempt to encompass a
thorough quantitative and qualitative analysis. These approaches include
semantic classification, which reassesses the general types of words that
were typically borrowed during this early stage of linguistic exchange. I then
deal with a linguistic examination of the lexical effects on grammatical gender
and how French might have influenced the decaying English grammatical
system. For the remainder of this study, I then focus on literature as a vector
in the transmission of these early French borrowings. I first look at how
generic background and tradition may play a role in the types of words that
are borrowed and used and then move onto scribal influence and the role of
an individual scribe’s preferences and French repertoire on a preexisting
poet’s work. Finally, I examine the role of the English poet as
translator/adaptor of French works in order to ascertain the degree of lexical
borrowing that can be attributed to French literature or, alternatively, to the
lexical repertoire of the English poet himself.

Date of Award	17 Jun 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	Marianne J Ailes (Supervisor) & Ad Putter (Supervisor)