Appendix:Anglo-Norman spellings
Anglo-Norman is a dialect of Old French that developed in what is now the United Kingdom after the Normans invaded. While it remained extremely similar to continental Old French, over the centuries, certain spelling differences arose.
Spellings
[edit]Anglo-Norman retained some features of Latin that were lost in standard continental Old French (OF). For example Latin rēgālis (“regal”) gave OF roial and Anglo-Norman reial. See the table below for more examples.
Generally speaking, -oi- in OF becomes -ei- in Anglo-Norman. This also applies to conjugated forms. -o- becomes -u- in words like encuntrer, which itself later becomes encountrer
Over the centuries, some single vowels becames dipthongs. Franceis became fraunceis (“French”), cunter (more rarely conter) became counter (“to recount, to retell”). Many of these words influenced English more than OF. For example leisure is more similar to Anglo-Norman leisir and OF loisir
Examples
[edit]Latin (if from Latin) | Anglo-Norman | continental Old French | Modern French | English | Comments |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
ratiō | raisun | raison | raison | reason | Later spelled raisoun with -u- -ou- substitution |
vīcīnus | veisin | voisin | voisin | neighbor | |
computō | cunter | conter | - | - | Later spelled counter |
rēx | rei | roi | roi | king | |
cantāre | chanter, canter | chanter, canter | chanter | to sing | Later spelled chaunter |
amābam | ameis | amois | aimais | loved | -ei- substitution also applies to conjugated forms, in this case the first-person singular imperfect |