SC - igrounden & middle english

[Huette von Ahrens]

- --- Seton1355 at aol.com wrote:
> It must have been wonderful!  Has anyone ever seen
> THE STORY OF ENGLISH?  It 
> was on PBS years ago.  Anyway, there is a segment
> about middle english.  They 
> have some people reading it and it *is* very musical
> sounding.  

Yes, I have not only seen it, but I video taped it
also.  Have a copy of the book also.  It is a very
fascinating series that explains the unique history of
our language and how it came to be so complex.

One of my favorite segments is one that explains the
influences of invaders to the language.  I.e.: take
the words "husband" and "wife".  Husband comes from
the ON hus bondi, meaning "householder"; wife comes
from the OE wif, meaning "wife".  This tends to show
that the Norse men came without their families and
took Anglo-Saxon wives, while in England.

Then there is the interesting juxtiposition of who
were the servants and who were the masters.

Old English             Old French

Cow                     Beef
Pig                     Pork
Sheep                   Mutton
Deer                    Venison
Chicken, duck, goose    Poultry

So after the Norman Conquest, the English became the
servants who took care of the livestock and the
Normans became the lords who ate the livestock.

Neat, huh?

Huette



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