Anglo-French (The Shield of Time)

SPOKEN BY

The inhabitants of an alternate future speak Anglo-French in The Shield of Time (1991), the tenth book in the Time Patrol series.

DOCUMENTED BY

Poul Anderson (1926–2001) wrote about the Time Patrol, a group commissioned to fix paradoxes caused by time travel.

BEHIND THE WORDS

In reality, the Hundred Years’ War is the name given by historians to a long series of conflicts between England and France, from 1337 to 1453. Victories swayed back and forth between the two sides, although the French kings of the House of Valois eventually succeeded in reducing England’s holdings in France, and by 1453’s Battle of Castillon, France may be said to have won the war. In Anderson’s alternate history, England won the Hundred Years’ War.

PHILOLOGICAL FACT

Although English and French derived from two different linguistic streams (French is a Romance language, descended from Latin, whereas English’s early roots are Germanic), they have much in common. This is partly due to the proximity of England and France and the extensive traffic between the two; it is more specifically due to the fact that in 1066 William, Duke of Normandy, conquered England after defeating Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings. The outcome was an influx of French words, which in many cases crowded out the earlier Anglo-Saxon terms. The end result was a language that was a hybrid between Germanic Anglo-Saxon and Latinate French.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Review the work listed above, the resources listed in the bibliography, and the web pages: “The Shield of Time” (www.amazon.com/Shield-Time-Poul-Anderson/dp/0812510003) and “Thoughts on Poul Anderson” (www.scifibookspot.com/markley/?p=48).