Welcome to the History of English Podcast, a podcast about the history of the English language.

This is Episode 99, the second French invasion.

In this episode, we're going to look at an important development that took place in

England in the first half of the 1200s, and that was the arrival of a new wave of French

influences from across the channel.

William the Conqueror had brought Norman French to England in 1066, but with the loss of

Normandy in 1204, that Norman culture was starting to wane.

The written evidence suggests that fewer and fewer English nobles spoke French as their

first language, and when they tried to learn French, they preferred to study the French

of Paris rather than the Norman French of their ancestors.

But at a time when Norman culture was in decline in England, a new round of French influences

came in from Central and Southern France.

These influences came in the form of military troops and nobles and courtiers, and they

also came in the form of the Central French dialect spoken around Paris.

This second invasion reinforced the French influences that were already present in England,

and it ensured the survival of French as an official language of England for several

more centuries.

So this time we'll look at those developments, and we'll see how they influenced modern

English.

But before we begin, let me remind you that the website for the podcast is History of

EnglishPodcast.com, and you can sign up to support the podcast and receive bonus episodes

at patreon.com slash history of English.

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