Arising_uk wrote:Melchior wrote:Latin is the language of the court!
The Normans not the Romans.
Forgive an historian butting in.
The Lex Romanum is the bedrock of all European systems of law including the Lex Britanica. When the Normans came to Britain they brought the legal systems of the Franks, who had adopted the local lex Romanum, but when they got here, there were still elements of the Lex Romanum that the Saxons, themselves, had adopted.
The Germanic invasions were the result of an already Germanised Roman Empire which in the fourth century had it capital moved from Rome to Mainz.
The "fall of Rome" was more like a regime change in an already Germanised Europe.
The Germans in France, were smart enough to change the superstructure, leave the infrastructure alone, and steal the Base piecemeal. This gave institutional stability whilst preserving the running of the economy. The greatest asset in this change was the adoption of the legal and religious systems.
There is plenty of evidence for this sort of change. For example the Franks were the lightest touch of all, adopting the local Romance language, and adding only the
military lexicon to the proto-French language that was emerging.
If you look at words of German origin in French you will find they relate to arms, armour, horses, and military ranks.
