- Ever wonder why the motto on the garter of the Royal coat of arms is written in ancient French? It translates to “shame on him who thinks evil of it”. When Norman King, William “the Conqueror” defeated King Harold's army near Hastings in 1066, French replaced English as the second official language of Britain. The influence of the church ensured that Latin was still the main official language used in all books and official government business. The English language was suppressed for a couple of hundred years. Of course English was spoken quite differently in those days. It resembled the ancient Teutonic language from which both English and German evolved. Geoffrey Chaucer helped to revive English by writing his book of stories called the “Canterbury Tales” and our language slowly regained official currency within the royal court and the government.
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- It seems strange but we may have turned full circle. Here in Canada, despite the decisive victory of the English army over the French at Quebec City in 1759, French is once again an official language in Her Majesty's dominion. And English is spoken quite differently from the way we used to like to hear it. Blimey!
PS: Why does the modern Canadian English alphabet only have 25 letters. Whatever happened to the "ledder d". Honi soit qui mal y pense! ;-)
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