Intoduction

French English

close shut

reply answer

odour smell

annual yearly

demand ask

chamber room

desire wish

power might

ire wrath/anger

commence begin

cordial hearty

The areas of the English lexicon in which the influence of French was to be felt reflect the spheres of life in which the French predominated in the early Middle English period.

In some cases French words supplanted even the most everyday words of the English vocabulary.Thus,the French word rivière supplanted the native word ēa river,the French word montagne supplanted the native beorʒ mountain,and the French paix the native friþ peace.in some individual cases there could be special conditions favouring the introduction of the foreign word;for example,the OE word ēa river became ē,in ME and was thus phonetically much weaker than the French riviére.Its phonetical weakness might thus promoted its appearance from the language.In other cases other factors may also have been at work.

CHAPTER III