tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4426485731280552659.post4978404379575680660..comments2024-01-22T09:59:19.371-08:00Comments on Life in the Middle Ages: The Norman ConquestC. Dale Brittainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02059138536172925502noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4426485731280552659.post-63343560429094263152015-04-24T17:05:40.149-07:002015-04-24T17:05:40.149-07:00Thank you for the answers.Thank you for the answers.Licorne Negrohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01482272946045965604noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4426485731280552659.post-14338579099189785062015-04-24T08:04:01.495-07:002015-04-24T08:04:01.495-07:00Yes, England was long a land of two distinct langu...Yes, England was long a land of two distinct languages, as different as modern French and modern German are from each other. They only really melded in the 14th-15th centuries. And yes, a lot of the things like castles and knights, that began on the Continent c. 1000, reached England only after 1066. Before then, England had a lot of powerful lords (earls), many of whom were killed at Hastings, but the real political organization was the shire, headed by shire-reeves.C. Dale Brittainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02059138536172925502noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4426485731280552659.post-23056592901572823692015-04-22T16:42:24.647-07:002015-04-22T16:42:24.647-07:00Wow! I didn't know that, before William the No...Wow! I didn't know that, before William the Norman, England didn't adopted the feudal model (in the way we tipically understand the word, with fiefs, knights, castles and so on). I'm curious now: How was England organized politically before the norman invasion?<br /><br />Another question: England became for a time a country of two languages, divided by social strata? Full-blown languages and not only dialects? Anglo-saxon for the common people and french for the nobles?<br />If I remember correctly, there are some instances, in history, of that happening. One language for the high-bornes, and another for the common people. In some cases, there is a classical language to the literates (like ecclesiastical latin and koiné greek, and maybe church slavonic, in Europe, or classical chinese in Korea, Japan and Vietnam) and a vernacular language to the masses; in other cases (like in the norman conquest maybe?) there is a vernacular language to the masses and a foreign vernacular to the nobles.Licorne Negrohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01482272946045965604noreply@blogger.com