Thursday, October 10, 2013
French in the readings
While reading the passages, I started noticing words that look like some french words that I remember from my very limited french background. Like in Spenser's A Letter of the Authors he uses the word 'ensample' to mean our word 'example.' While ensample isn't itself a French word, it definitely looks like one, and because of this I find myself reading the works in a French accent in my head. It makes sense that there would be obvious french influences in the language because of how the court was taken over by french nobility and everything was then changed to fit those aristocrats needs (i.e. language, customs, entertainment, etc) but I kind of thought that that influence wasn't as prominent in this new era that we have moved into. But I guess once something has a hold, it takes a while for it to lose it's grip in anything, whether that be language, culture, or anything else.
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As a Lit. Major, I think I'm going to give up Spanish and start taking French classes. French influences on British literature are huge. Up into the Twentieth Century, French was considered the language of nobility, so I think authors used it more to try to sound classy. In Edmund Spenser's case, I don't think it works, but French is definitely prevalent in all of this literature. Because the Normans invaded England and restructured the society, the upper class was originally predominantly French. So even as the French culture assimilated into what we recognize now as English culture, the language remained distinct and maintained its reputation as the language of aristocracy. That fascinates me.
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