Unlike isolate languages like Basque and Korean, both English and French are two languages that have continuously come into contact with each other and stolen words from each other through marriage alliances and historical conquest (similar to Arabic influence on the Spanish language by way of conquest). Here’s how the story goes… The Norman Language Reaches England History of French Influence on the English Languageĭid you know that nearly 45% of all English words are of French origin? That’s nearly 80,000 words fused together through war, peace, diplomacy, royal marriages, and popular culture.Įver wonder what Je ne sais quoi, c’est la vie, or rendez-vous mean? Do you know why they came to be used in English? This includes, of course, England’s neighbor across the English Channel: France. Today, our language is notorious among language-learning circles for being extremely irregular, and unique among many Indo-European languages as having evolved through the absorption of other languages by visiting or invading cultures.Įven though English doesn’t have any close relatives (in the way that Portuguese and Spanish are linguistic cousins), it shares cognates with languages of the countries that surround the British Isles. The Evolution of the English Language: The Great Language LootĮnglish is a Germanic language with a mix of Celtic, Old Norse, French, Latin, and other languages it picked up along the way to becoming the modern English that we know and love today. And the answer to WHY that came to be is, well, complicated.īut to make a long story short… English is weird. The amount of English words borrowed from French is astounding. “Why are there so many French words used in English?” Uncover the Story Behind These 32 Cognates English Words Borrowed From FrenchĮver notice the French influence on the English language and wonder…
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