What did the Norman conquest mean to culture..

[DarkAngelBGE]

..in Britain ?

[Klaas]

I guess I already answered part of that in the 1066 thread.

It had the most significant impact on the language. The people who lived in England spoke a Germanic tongue, while the Normans spoke a Latin tongue (French). This explains why so many French words are also used in English.

The Normans formed the aristocracy and continued to speak French. This becomes very clear if you analyse some English words:

judicial terms:

justice, court, judge, ...

political terms:

empire, duke, ...

Food as when it's prepared:

mutton, porc, ...

All French words

On the other hand, if you take more common words:

Food that's still alive (aka animals )

sheep, pig, ...

The are Germanic words

In the end the Germanic tongue stayed superior, probably because the common people, which is the large majority of the population, spoke it. So the French only remained in some words, but didn't reform the whole language.

I don't know how many other things that have changed culturally. Of course the reign of the Normans meant more contact with France and its culture, so in the early days there must have been a lot of influence.

[rohirwine]

I just wanted to add: normans did not import "aristocracy", they imported "feudal aristocracy", since aristocracy existed in the Anglo-Saxon society, but was less carachterized as being a feudal one.

For the rest i say "bravo" to our "classy" Klaas!

[Klaas]

normans did not import "aristocracy"

Yep, agreed. I basicly meant that the aristocracy existed out of Normans (so they didn't import it, but they became the higher class).

Good point about feudal aristocracy, that one didn't cross my mind

[rohirwine]

*bows*

and

* to Klaas* (forgot to do that in the previous post, lol)

Thanks for the repup!

[Klaas]

Lol np