Old English has been developed to the year 1066 Norman invasion of France｡ Prior to this, due to the impact of the Nordic and the Romans, and many Scandinavian words and Latin words entered｡ former solvent, such as egg, cake, skin, leg, window, husband, sky, fellow, skill, anger, flat, ugly, odd, get, give, take, raise, call, die, they, their, them; the latter, such as street, kitchen, kettle, cup , cheese, wine｡ Celtic remain in the names of the remains of most, such as the Thames, Kent, Dover｡
Norman invasion of English has brought a lot of French vocabulary, which makes the modern English is now kept a large number of synonyms / synonyms: shut / close, answer / reply, smell / odor, yearly / annual, ask / demand , room / chamber, wish / desire, might / power (English words / French words)｡ there is an interesting phenomenon is that meat and animal products are mostly English words, such as ox, cow, calf, sheep, swine, deer, and they The meat is the French word, such as beef, veal, mutton, pork, bacon, venison｡ presumably were mostly French-speaking aristocracy ruler, only pay attention to the meat on their table, and do not care what the animals are called｡
Also in the existing English / Scandinavian languages based on synonyms, such as the wrath of English and the Scandinavian language, anger, the French also added a ire｡ that even we Chinese have contributed a number of words: kowtow (kowtow), typhoon (Typhoon), sampan (sampan), kaolin (kaolinite), tea (Fujian dialect), shanghai (not the names）｡
The English as a foreign language so expressive a language-rich｡ While integration into such a large number of “foreign language”, the ancient English still constitute its core - less than 5000 of the Old English words remain to this day during this period｡ English gradually to the high-level development, and in 1399 succeeded to the throne of Henry IV is the first English-speaking｡ King of England towards the end of the fourteenth century, when Chaucer (Chaucer) completed The Legend of Canterbury (Canterbury Tales), the London dialect as the representative of the modern English finally began to appear: one from the Past “corner” language｡
Leo Peng