In the northern French we must recognise not only a Celtic and a Classical, but also a Gothic element: since Clovis and Charlemagne were no Frenchmen, but Germans; their language being High-Germanic. The High-Germanic element in French has still to be determined.
In the northern French of Normandy there is a second Gothic element, viz., a Scandinavian element. By this the proper northern French underwent a further modification.
Until the time of the Scandinavians or Northmen, the present province of Normandy was called Neustria. A generation before the Norman Conquest, a Norwegian captain, named in his own country Rolf, and in France Rollo, or Rou, settled upon the coast of Normandy. What Hengist and the Germans are supposed to have been in Britain, Rollo and his Scandinavians were in France. The province took from them its name of Normandy. The Norwegian element in the Norman-French has yet to be determined. Respecting it, however, the following statements may, even in the present state of the question, be made:—
1. That a Norse dialect was spoken in Normandy at Bayeux, some time after the battle of Hastings.
2. That William the Conqueror understood the Norse language.
3. That the names Jersey, Guernsey, and Alderney are as truly Norse names as Orkney and Shetland.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE POSITION OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AS INDO-EUROPEAN.