Neither have our dialects escaped the
influence of the Central French of Paris, and it would have been
strange if they had; for the number of French words in English is
really very large. It is not always possible to discriminate between
the Old French of France and of England, and I shall here consider
both sources together, though the Old Norman words can often be easily
discerned by any one who is familiar with the Norman peculiarities.
Of such peculiarities I will instance three, by way of example. Thus
Anglo-French often employs _ei_ or _ey_ where Old French (i.e. of
the continent) has _oi_ or _oy_; and English has retained the old
pronunciations of _ch_ and _j_. Hence, whilst _convoy_ is borrowed
from French, _convey_ is Anglo-French. _Machine_ is French, because
the _ch_ is pronounced as _sh_; but _chine_, the backbone, is
Anglo-French. _Rouge_ is French, because of the peculiar pronunciation
of the final _ge_; but _rage_ is Anglo-French; and _jaundice_ is
Anglo-French, as it has the old _j_. See Chapters III-VI of my
_Principles of English Etymology, Second Series_.
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