The NormanFrench (or Anglo-Norman) influence on Middle English lexis

Language contact is one of the main factors resulting in an enriched lexicon as languagesborrow and assimilate foreign "loan words" while they spread their own lexis as well as theirmorphological and syntactic peculiarities. Like any other language, English and French have beentaking part in such a phenomena. Since the Norman Conquest of 1066, French borrowings havepermeated through the English lexis due to the common history shared by these two languages.Several stages can be observed in which major influxes of French words, especially Norman andAnglo-Norman words, were brought about in Middle English. Such words are nowadays fullyintegrated in Modern English and give evidence of the close relationship between French andEnglish.