Why is french before english

Some English pronunciations and words "froze" when they reached America. Some expressions that the British call "Americanisms" are in fact original British expressions that were preserved in the colonies while lost for a time in Britain for example trash for rubbish, loan as a verb instead of lend, and fall for autumn; another example, frame-up , was re-imported into Britain through Hollywood gangster movies.

Spanish also had an influence on American English and subsequently British English , with words like canyon , ranch , stampede and vigilante being examples of Spanish words that entered English through the settlement of the American West.

French words through Louisiana and West African words through the slave trade also influenced American English and so, to an extent, British English. Today, American English is particularly influential, due to the USA's dominance of cinema, television, popular music, trade and technology including the Internet. Germanic is a branch of the Indo-European language family.

Contributor: Josef Essberger. EnglishClub : History of English History of English This page is a short history of the origins and development of the English language. Nobody has the right to obey. The author of the Speculum Vitae The Mirror of Life , writing late in the fourteenth century, chose to use English and explained why. In contrast, Latin was only understood by those who learnt it at school, and French by those who attended court.

These languages were used by particular communities and for specific purposes. John Gower, a contemporary and friend of Geoffrey Chaucer in the late fourteenth century, wrote in all three languages.

Shown here is a section headed by an introduction rubricated in red ink in which Gower apologises for any mistakes in his French. The introduction to the passage is in Latin, and reads 'Gower, qui Anglicus est, sua verba Gallica … excusat' 'Gower, who is English, makes excuse for his French words'. This followed a familiar convention of bilingual presentation. A form of French, known as 'Law French', continued to be used by English lawyers in written form until the seventeenth century.

It became fossilized and degraded, because after the fourteenth century, most of those using the language did not fully understand it. Many legal terms still in existence today derive from French, such as 'attorney', 'bailiff' and 'defendant'. Title deeds in French are rare after the early fifteenth century. Detail from agreement relating to dower, in French, Ne D Latin was still the preferred language for many purposes. With its fixed grammar and spelling, it was easy to abbreviate without misunderstanding.

It remained the medium for international scholarship until the seventeenth century. The history of the French language is rich.

Essentially, French is an evolution of Gallo-Romance dialects, with its origins starting out in Gaul. The Gaulish dialects disappeared, but not before passing on some or so words to Latin. As the Roman Empire expanded, the Latin that was carried across the region was not the literary Latin of playwrights. While the French language has been distinct enough from Latin to be viewed as its own language since the 9th century, the Latin roots are still very much there.

It is thanks to these roots that English speakers may feel they enjoy a head-start in learning to speak French. As such, the Franks ensured the Gallo-Roman population became merged with the German settlers, and from this mixing pot of Germanic, Celtic and predominantly Latin roots, the French language emerged. As with any other language, French has never been immune to strong influences from other languages, particularly Greek, Italian and English — the latter being a huge force on the language throughout the twentieth and twenty first centuries.

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The language of culture French is the international language of cooking, fashion, theatre, the visual arts, dance and architecture. A language for higher education Speaking French opens up opportunities to study at renowned French universities and business schools, ranked among the top higher education institutions in Europe and the world.

A language that opens up the world An ability to understand French provides access to an alternative view of the world. A language that is fun to learn French is an easy language to learn. A language for learning other languages French is a good base for learning other languages, especially Romance languages Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian as well as English, since a significant percentage of English vocabulary is derived from French.

The language of love and reason First and foremost, learning French is the pleasure of learning a beautiful, rich, melodious language that is often called the language of love. For more information 10 good reasons to learn French.