How would the language develop within a Franco-English Empire?

The Hundred Years War was successful and the plantagenet somehow managed to keep the empire from collapsing. How would language develop and ultimately look like in the modern age? French with more english words?
 
Less unification of language, IMO. Aquitaine / Gascony is a major Plantagenet holding, which is Occitan speaking. You might get Breton to survive better as well, with less of a centralized imposition of French.

Norman (possibly Anglo-Norman) might well be the prestige dialect, rather than Parisian.
 
It really depends on a lot of other factors. Does everything really go quite miraculously well for England, and Burgundy remains on their side and doesn't demand much French land, and Aragon doesn't invade the vulnerable south of France and Toulouse, and...etc., or does England-France more realistically hold Gascony, Aquitaine, and western and northern France rather well with very limited or even no control otherwise, maybe lip service paid, Occitan and eastern nobles are more independent, etc. If everything goes miraculously well for England then the English-French court may as well move to Paris, since France was so much more populous and wealthy than England was. Not to mention the gentler, more pleasant climate (let's not kid ourselves, for most people it's the truth), and Parisian French could become the English-French language of court and prestige. England however has been developing its own identity for a while, so expect rule to be looser in England, or else more rebellions to pop up. One thing that intrigued me was the idea of the Plantagenets winning the HYW and moving to Paris, then a native English dynasty or at least wholly insular noble family somehow managing a rebellion to take England and Ireland from the Plantagenets.
 
It really depends on a lot of other factors. Does everything really go quite miraculously well for England, and Burgundy remains on their side and doesn't demand much French land, and Aragon doesn't invade the vulnerable south of France and Toulouse, and...etc., or does England-France more realistically hold Gascony, Aquitaine, and western and northern France rather well with very limited or even no control otherwise, maybe lip service paid, Occitan and eastern nobles are more independent, etc. If everything goes miraculously well for England then the English-French court may as well move to Paris, since France was so much more populous and wealthy than England was. Not to mention the gentler, more pleasant climate (let's not kid ourselves, for most people it's the truth), and Parisian French could become the English-French language of court and prestige. England however has been developing its own identity for a while, so expect rule to be looser in England, or else more rebellions to pop up. One thing that intrigued me was the idea of the Plantagenets winning the HYW and moving to Paris, then a native English dynasty or at least wholly insular noble family somehow managing a rebellion to take England and Ireland from the Plantagenets.

Would it be inevitable for the capital to move to Paris, as opposed to another Gallic city? Such as Orléans or what have you.
 
Would it be inevitable for the capital to move to Paris, as opposed to another Gallic city? Such as Orléans or what have you.
Not really inevitable, but if anything the capital would be more to the north. While you'd ideally want a capital close to the geographic or population center of your area, you need to look to defense as well. Orleans is more vulnerable than Paris is to these new English-French kings, being farther from their most concrete center of power and also closer to the unruly vassals (some only paying lip service) to the south. Paris is also the largest, wealthiest city in western Europe at the time, there's no reason not to choose it. The only other good option I see is holding the administration in Rouen or somewhere thereabout, near to the Channel and England while also on the continent for those crucial local decisions. At this time when it took two or three days minimum to cross the Channel, finding ways to adequately exploit the populace was hard.
 
Basically, the dominant language would be Parisian French.

The HYW was not English vs French, it was a French dynastic dispute using soldiers and lands from both inside and outside France. If the king of England wins, he just becomes the king of France with England as extra baggage.

Already the English kings of that era spent most of their time on the continent rather than on the island. Moving the court to Paris is exactly what would happen should they prevail.

Once they’ve set up base in Paris, just like with France in OTL, Paris will be the centre of standardization for language and culture.

So instead of French with more English words it would the opposite - the English people would become even more frenchified.
 
Basically, the dominant language would be Parisian French.

The HYW was not English vs French, it was a French dynastic dispute using soldiers and lands from both inside and outside France. If the king of England wins, he just becomes the king of France with England as extra baggage.

Already the English kings of that era spent most of their time on the continent rather than on the island. Moving the court to Paris is exactly what would happen should they prevail.

Once they’ve set up base in Paris, just like with France in OTL, Paris will be the centre of standardization for language and culture.

So instead of French with more English words it would the opposite - the English people would become even more frenchified.

Respectfully, I think you underestimate English identity at this point and seem to believe that France would somehow not be influenced by England.

To be sure, England would be more francophone in its words and potentially grammar, but it would hardly evaporate though we might see this French-Influenced English merely become a weird pseudo-dialect in which nearly all words are romance based but the grammar remains mostly Germanic. French I think would see some influence from English and maybe even the Old English words left over in OTL English might drift to French in much the same way. We might see "English/Germanic" words become the "commoner" way of saying certain things or we might see the OTL English way in which French/Romance is used for animal meat but the Germanic/Germanic rooted words are retained for most (common) animals. We might also see "English" words being used for swearing, akin to how Old English words for things like excrement and other such things become swear words in OTL English.

Put simply, if we assume this union lasts till today or somewhere after a good hundred or so years that just as England will become more French, France and French will be unable to avoid English influences even if they the court doesn't accept them. Paris might be the basis for standardisation, but I somehow doubt the "English" party of the Plantagenets won't bring any English or Anglo-Norman loanwords with them even if only the kind of things I mentioned above.

The idea that English kings spent all their time in France also depends on which king "wins" the war, as Henry IV and V were very much more English than French at this point.
 
Top