Appendix:Anglo-Norman spellings

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

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