English as a Romance language

I've been thinking about an alternate Norman conquest TL, partly because I think it would be interesting if English was a Germanic-influenced Romance language rather than the other way around.

One way I was thinking of achieveing this is through a much more violent and bloody Norman conquest. Perhaps Harold survives Hastings, and although William eventually wins, the whole conquest is much more devastating. Maybe William even brings in Norman and French settlers to help repopulate some of the more devastated areas?

Also, what would the "Anglais" language possibly look like? Perhaps it develops into something comparable to Walloon?
 
If you speak of bringing in Norman and French settlers to repopulate, then I suspect there wouldn't be too terribly much Germanic/Anglic influence at all on their language. Certainly much less of that than the Romance influence on the eventual modern forms of English. Actually, there was the Anglo-Norman language, and it would be interesting to see how that would have evolved over the years, especially without the standardization of the Oil dialects by Parisian French on the mainland.

If you mean "English" as in the Germanic language we speak right now, then I'm not so sure if we can get what you're aiming for. English is rather Romance-influenced as is, I can't see it being transformed into a Romance language anyway. The French dialects had rather strong prestige in England, and I can't see them being willing to adopt too terribly many Germanic-based words and phrases if they can help it. Still, your best bet is that possible adaptation of Germanic-based English vocabulary into the potential Anglo-Norman language.
 
I've been thinking about an alternate Norman conquest TL, partly because I think it would be interesting if English was a Germanic-influenced Romance language rather than the other way around.

One way I was thinking of achieveing this is through a much more violent and bloody Norman conquest. Perhaps Harold survives Hastings, and although William eventually wins, the whole conquest is much more devastating. Maybe William even brings in Norman and French settlers to help repopulate some of the more devastated areas?

Also, what would the "Anglais" language possibly look like? Perhaps it develops into something comparable to Walloon?

I posted a thread on this subject some time ago, and it generated quite an interesting discussion. It can be found here. The basic solution that was arrived at was as follows...

1) A much larger segment of the population of England is killed or forced into exile following the Norman conquest, perhaps as the result of Norman reprisals after a successful southern revolt of Anglo-Saxons lead by Hereward the Wake.

2) Following this, the Norman Kings bring in a lot of French peasants to work the land. They also make active efforts to destroy English culture and discourage use of the English language. The remaining Anglo-Saxons are absorbed by the Francophone population and disappear as a separate group.

3) Some political event occurs in the 1100s to sever the political and cultural connections between England and Normandy for good. The Norman Kings and nobility of England gradually become more nationalistic and make active efforts to encourage differentiation between Anglais and French. Monks and other learned people in England begin introducing variations in the spelling of the language, which eventually translate into differences in the way it is spoken.

4) The Kingdom of England, for whatever reason (perhaps a side effect of killing or exiling such a large segment of its population following the Norman conquest, perhaps?) is less powerful in the ATL. As a result Wales, Scotland, and Ireland all remain independent, with their own languages. Cross-border population filtration cause some exchange of words between the languages which did not occur in OTL, which causes Anglais to diverge from French even more.

5) The process of divergence accelerates when printing comes on the scene, and the first dictionaries and grammars ofAnglais are printed. Now the "language nationalists" in England can actively control the development of the language by controlling the content of the dictionaries, spelling, and grammar textbooks. By the 20th century, Anglais has diverged so far from mainstream French that it has become unintelligible to French-speakers, and it is a fully-fledged separate language.
 
HA! I found it, which was surprisingly difficult. What I was looking for was this: Brithenig, a conlag about something quite similar to what you're talking about. However its fairly welsh influenced, so that might not be it. Also ,for some reason the page is down, so there's actually very little information up about it right now.
 
5) The process of divergence accelerates when printing comes on the scene, and the first dictionaries and grammars ofAnglais are printed. Now the "language nationalists" in England can actively control the development of the language by controlling the content of the dictionaries, spelling, and grammar textbooks. By the 20th century, Anglais has diverged so far from mainstream French that it has become unintelligible to French-speakers, and it is a fully-fledged separate language.

A French-controlled printing industry might be the best bet. After all, wasn't printing the biggest factor in making the London dialect "standard" English?
 
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