England keeps most of its French possessions

[pompejus]

This has an effect on the middle classes, especially social climbers and they too will adopt this prestige language and become de facto bilingual. This is something, which was also seen IOTL in the various countries referred to in this thread.

Assuming roughly similar social development in Europe, I would say that in the 17th and 18th the rising middle class will try to emulate the upperclasses, including speaking their language, but once in the 19th and early 20th century the people will become richer and the middle class grows with people from the lower classes, I think you'll see more and more middle class people speaking the local languages until in the middle 20th century the upper classes will speak the local language themselves. This will be the point when Franco-Britain could split. If the Francophone elite will enforce their language on England, you will see trouble arising and a split. If they are willing to accept a bilingual and cultural country, the union can continue, at least for a while.

 

[Simreeve]

For the same reason that Occitan, Breton, Basque, Alsatian, etc were suppressed in France (and regional languages in most other European countries) - the logic of 19th/early 20th-century nationalism dictated that a country should have only one language spoken and that others were an obstacle to national unity.

But that presumes England and France would be seen by the kings as one single (and 'French') "nation", despite England already having a well-established national identity of its own well before this, rather than as two kingdoms under a single line of kings.

And after all, which is more prestigious, having one nation's crown or having two of them?
^_^

 

[funnyhat]

But that presumes England and France would be seen by the kings as one single (and 'French') "nation", despite England already having a well-established national identity of its own well before this, rather than as two kingdoms under a single line of kings.

And after all, which is more prestigious, having one nation's crown or having two of them?
^_^

True, we can't assume this for certain. It's possible though. For awhile the trend seemed to be toward the consolidation of kingdoms, as in Spain (formerly Castille and Aragon) and the United Kingdom. On the other hand we had the Austrian Empire becoming Austria-Hungary, so I guess we can't know for sure.

 

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

@ Socrates: the English elite is very likely to mostly speak a Langue d'Oil dialect (could be Anglo-Norman too), so not necessarily (Ile de France) French.
This has an effect on the middle classes, especially social climbers and they too will adopt this prestige language and become de facto bilingual. This is something, which was also seen IOTL in the various countries referred to in this thread.
However the lower classes are indeed unlikely to stop speaking their native language. It would be situation like the OTL Southern (Spanish & Austrian) Netherlands and later Belgium, only instead of Dutch it will be English.

Not necessarily, actually. Sure, the Anglo-Norman ruling class is likely to speak Langue d'Oil, but if they lose Normandy and Aquitaine becomes the richest part of the Empire, you might even see Langue d'Oc becoming the norm. ...