NORMAN-FRENCH. The well-known "oaths of Strasburg" A.D. 842, though by no means showing any pronounced dialects, are indicative of the state of the Romance languages when the Northmen first began their incursions into France. Rollo (Hrolf, whether contracted for Thinilf, Hraudulf, or Hroarulf, that is, high, red, or fierce wolf, is hard to say) received Neustria as a fief in 911. The number of his men was evidently much exaggerated by the monkish chroniclers of the time, and though the Saxons had long possessed settlements there, though there had once been a ruling Frank population, and though the Northmen must, in their usual fashion, have continued a desultory immigration for years, yet the proportion of Teutonic words (except sea-terms) is little larger than in the other Languedoil dialects, and by the third generation, except at Bayenx, only Norman French was in general use. The northern Romance, or langue Toil, ultimately counts five dialects, Walloon, Picard, Normand, Franke's, Bourgoin. The fifth of these is the parent of modern French, yet, until the Italian campaigns of Francis I., there is, from the modern point of view, no French language. Each man writes his own patois, and it follows, from varying influences and successive dynasties, that French, the ultimate survivor, will contain a certain admixture of other dialects. It happens that many of the Normand peculiarities have appeared in modern French, and this it is which gives a certain color to those works which institute comparison between English and modern French, a process applicable to a certain number of technical and scientific words which, in truth, are neither French nor English, hardly even Latin. The rule of transformation from Latin to any neo-Latin dialect. is, the accented,syllable (tonic) is preserved, unaccented syllables (tOneless) are or contracted; precession is applied sparingly, but later generation of secondary mutes takes place throughout. Vowels undergo changes which vary with the dialects. The only apparent exceptions to these rules are formed, not from the Latin, but from a rustic word, usually derivative, and with its accent corresponding to the French. The infliction of Norman-French upon English, little in the 12th c., becomes overbearing in the 13th. From 1220 to 1290 at least one-seventh of the Teutonic words are lost, including the power of com pounding. The gaps are filled by French importations. In examining Norman-French trout the stand-point of its bearing on English, it is particularly necessary to direct our attention to this century, to the spelling and form of Norman words at that time; the changes in English since are simply these: The Norman accent, already called identical with the Latin, is, in two-syllabled words, on the first, if the word is female (poetically speaking), on the second if male. The English throws back (and the process was evi dently.only half finished in the time of Shakespeare) this accent to the first syllable, and it is this retrocession which makes it difficult to distinguish between a modern and hybrid word from the French, and an old though wrongly accented word from the Norman. We have, besides, applied a cumbrous and arbitrary system to indidate secondary mutes, notably g and j, and have, under the influence of the'pedants of the 17th c., restored many letters, dropped or contracted in passing from Latin to Norman. These are the rules of change from 'Latin to old French, most examples being either Normand or Frankes (Ile de France); the particular distinctions for Norman will follow: I. Toneless Syllables after the Accent.
a. Paroxytons:--disappear—frfictus—fruict; dilmnurn—dam; —or change to mute e: rosa—rose ; gra n um—graine—grain. b. Proparoxytons : ntract—lingul —angle. Both syllables become e mute; domina—dom'ne—dame; or disappear entirely; dominus—dom—Eng. dan. (Blasphemes, in lingua Rustica bltispelimus, blasme, Eng. blame. Encaustum, pronounced like Greek egkauston, enque—Eng. ink, Fr. encre.) e. Formative terminations, two-syllabled and toneless: icu.—ira—lcum; i drops, c prccessed—fabrica—farge 'and granica—granclie, grange; citicus, con tracted first into atge—missaticus—message; icus—ica—ieum=e mute—publicus—pople, not public; scholasticus—escolastre, scollard. • Termination wholly dropped: Miens—laic or lay (birica, Fr. Gr. beds, barge, modern barque; phantasticus, fantasche, mod. fan tasque). There are a few exceptions, liturgical words or technical: icus, i long = 2'c or 2'; tea• = ic—amicus, amic, ami; ieem—i drops, c is softened or precessed—panticem, pence, paunch; icem--i long = is, isse, icke—cornicem, corniche; idus, ides, ida. i drops, d final should be t—vapidus, fade; viridis, vert. Without final d—pillidos, palle, pale; Ws, ilos, eta. Contraction—aquila, aigle, eagle; titilis, title, not utile; ills = 2:1,--avrilis, April; gentilis, gentil, genteel; Otis, ula, iitum. Dropping of u, and con traction—tabula, table, etc. Vocalization of the consonant: bajulus, bail; macula, mail; aculus, iculus, iteu/us—trabactilurn, travail, travel. Change of 1 to r: Reflex action of u in the penult; regula, ricule, rule; 'emus, 6 drops, tl = tr in French, but remains iu English—apOstolus, apostle, Fr. apotre; i drops, final e mute—decimus, disme, dime; inns, inem. As before, and u drops—fisinus, asne, Eng. ass; n changes to m—consuettidinem, coustume; it changes to r—cOphinus, coffre; n drops—imaginem, image; 5rem, etc., brew", iirct—cuctimerein, cucumbre, Fr. coneombre; item, etc.; drops—enciirbita, goourds, gourd. Without e mute: paepOsitus, prevost. (Spiritus, made iu Norman espri, though in Fr. esprit, which is contrary to rule. The English word is.later.) ens, ios (a. urn.). The short vowel becothes j, or cli—caltimnia, calonge, challenge. The vowel liquid in Fr., but not in Eng.: ftiliuum, foil, Fr. feuille. Reflex action of the vowel when dropped: ingenium, engein, engine. Vowel disap peai•s; facies; face; etc. • Note an exception: A low-Latin termination, err,, which, especially in Languedoc, serves as a derivative, and is, applied to a bastard Latin form, itself derived from a neo-Latin word. Such are: competing, compagnie, company; jalos, jalousie, jealousy etc. Strengthened by r, it applies even to words derived from the Teutonic, viz., fitiddlia, old Eng. to flyte, flatter, to flatter. And from this ie came our true English geographi cal forms in y, Italy, Araby, etc. Verbs in thee drops they become verbs of the French conjugation in re; so they were, but after the invention of the third in air they were, owing to a too close juxtaposition of consonants, changed to others. Thus, empreindre, to imprint, is in mod. Fr. emprime•. But as most Norman verbs are changed to English by the summary process of chopping off their tails, little shows of the old forms in our language. But some mistaken transformations of ere can still be dis cerned: morere, muevre, to plaise•, to please.