IamNuts writes:
Yes, my understanding of it is there was no english before 800 CE. French is older than english, the latter being a microcosm of several other languages, and became formalised and incepted in England. France tried to impose its language on England, till an english king challenged this by translating all official documents into english, even formulating new english words of the french, such as pattisirie, cafe, and 1000s of other words taken from the french, and from the irish and german.
So let me get this straight: an unnamed English king around 800 decided to
translate the then current language of England, which was, surpisingly, French, into a non-existing language. This brilliant move was of course greeted with great approval by his French-speaking subjects, if only because in the initial stages of the project people must have had belly-aching fits of laughter when they heard their king trying out the new language. (Ever seen "Allo, allo"?)
And they must also have revered their king's great foresight in inventing a word like 'cafe', the use of which had to wait another eight hundred and fifty years or so, after which coffee, from which the word derives, was actually introduced into polite society in England and France.
Joseph, what planet are you from?
"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science." - Charles Darwin.
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