Anglo-Norman Dictionary secures £800,000
The language of William the Conqueror has received a major boost with the announcement of a further Arts and Humanities Research Council grant for the Anglo-Norman Dictionary based at Aberystwyth University. A form of French brought to Britain following the defeat of the Anglo-Saxon King Harold in 1066, Anglo-Norman was widely used in Britain until the end of the fifteenth century – the late Middle Ages. Such was its influence, more than 50% of English words in use today are derived from Anglo-Norman. Amongst the many culinary English words used today that have an Anglo-Norman origin are ‘soup’, ‘lettuce’, ‘pheasant’, ‘pastry’, ‘ginger’, ‘sauce’, ‘chestnut’ and ‘mustard’. In its heyday it was widely used as a language of literature, trade, law, education and administration, well before Middle English emerged in the thirteenth century. Documents such as the Magna Carta and the laws of William the Conqueror, originally composed in Latin, were translated into Anglo-Norman, and medieval...