With a POD after the 11th century, have a substantial portion of England adopt Norman French as the vernacular language, and maintain the use of Norman to the present day.
I'm assuming the Channel Islands don't count
Being as I'm in guernsey at the moment I can tell you that it's almost died out.
The closest thing I can think of a workable PoD, is a less sucessful William of Normandy whom English realm doesn't expand outside Wessex, Sussex, East-Anglia.
It eventually means more dense Norman population and influence and strengthen the possibility of a Norman settlement in precise places that could last up to nowadays.
I think that English would nevertheless prevail in England, would it be only for feed the "nationalism" that appeared on each side of Channel and because Normans couldn't care less about imposing their language to peasantry.
Still, having isolated places using Norman as a minoritary language up to nowadays (like Channel Islands or Wales) could work. I'm thinking of Isle of Wight, by exemple : being strategically important, a continental settlement in order to control it could make sense.
I doubt you'll have more than that.
It'd be an interesting situation for sure, though I'm not sure how long that situation could last. The two states - Norman England and the Anglo-Saxon successor state of sorts - would be honour-bound to be enemies to the death, and eventually one of them would gain the upper hand and sweep the other from the country.
It'd be an interesting situation for sure, though I'm not sure how long that situation could last. The two states - Norman England and the Anglo-Saxon successor state of sorts - would be honour-bound to be enemies to the death, and eventually one of them would gain the upper hand and sweep the other from the country.
I can't see it happening in England itself as Norman is the language of the minority conquerers.