Hacker News Reader

English does not descend from Latin. It descends from Old English, a language that is entirely unrelated to Latin besides both being Indo-European, and has been influenced to a substantial degree by Norman French (which does descend from Latin) since the 11th century.

At least that is the conventional view. Apparently, according to this author, it actually descends from French. But that is a very fringe take.

View on HN

The conventional view is that the aristocracy spoke French and the hoi poloi spoke old English.

This is why modern english is a mix.

The author does not actually make this claim, he only does tongue in cheek to show that Norman has a much larger influenced on the evolution of English vocabulary than usually thought.

This is right on point. I read this book recently, by coincidence, and it's funny and fascinating at the same time (at least for someone who speaks both English and French).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com