The formation of the English national language. After the Norman conquest the language situation was the following: the nobility spoke French, the English people spoke English

After the Norman conquest the language situation was the following: the nobility spoke French, the English people spoke English. There was no written language for two centuries or even more in England and thus the language was broken into several local dialects. There was standard which could be understood in all parts of the country. As time went on there appeared rather many people who could speak both English and French. During the 12^th-14^th centuries there was struggle between 2 languages. In the second half of the 14^th century the victory of the English language became quite evident but it was only in the 15^th century that the French language was substituted by English.

After the Norman conquest the kings didn’t speak English. The first English king who spoke English was Henry IV. All the laws of the country were translated from Anglo-Saxon first into Latin and then into French. All the official documents were written in Latin and later in French.

In 1258 the king Henry III addressed the population of London in his Proclamation written in English. In the middle of the 14^th century after the petition of the city of London the parliament sittings were conducted in English. With the process of reestablishment of English as the language of England there developed another process of formation of the English national language. The national languages usually developed together with the development of the national bourgeoisie. The English bourgeoisie appeared in the 14^th century. The appearance of the national English bourgeoisie meant civilization of industry, of the state power and of the language. National languages usually use one of the dialects for their basis. The dialect which may grow into a national language must be well known and understood for all the people. It is usually the dialect of the capital of the country because it is richer as compared to the rest of the dialects and economically and culturally more important. The basis of English was the dialect of London which was situated where all roads crossed, where people brought characteristic features of their local dialects. The London dialect is a mixture which consists of Southern and East Middle dialects. In ME there were 3 dialects. They almost coincided with the OE dialects locally but traditionally the ME dialects were not called as they were in OE, now they are the Northern, the Midland and the Southern.

In the 14^th century London had a great influence on the other parts of England because it becomes an important economic centre of the country. The London dialect was used by Chaucer and by other contemporary writers because he understood better the growing significance of the London dialect. Foreign linguists call Chaucer the father of the English national language, but we can’t agree with that, because one person cannot create the national language for the whole people. He only popularized the London dialect and helped its development.

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