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Anglo-Norman from Ireland

Started by FOG, September 10, 2010, 03:16:53 PM

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FOG

I found a record of a namesake of my grandfather who had been pardoned, along with several others with the same last name, by King Edward II.  I assume that the pardon of several Anglo-Norman surnamed individuals at the same time reflected some kind of dispute over legitimacy of some royalty.  I am going to assume that the namesake of my grandfather was the family heir, and a hereditary knight, as well as a real swordsman and fighting leader.  I have learned that the family was one of a handful mentioned in histories of the Yola language, spoken in the Wexford area, and apparently was not above flouting English authority.  The adjective used to describe my ancestors' family was "false," apparently because they had intermarried with the Irish nobility.  The Irish version of the family crest shows that one member had saved King Henry II from a wild boar, thus securing a sizable land grant.  The earlier crest is used by the branch of the family remaining in England.  If in England, my character would have been most concerned about the threat of plantations given to court insiders, carved from Anglo Norman and Irish lands, as well as the threat of unsettling the Irish population working on the Anglo-Norman lands, as the Anglo-Normans were know to the Irish as "English."  The Anglo-Normans could not afford to offend either the English crown, nor the Irish, with impunity, but their fierce Norman heritage and demeanor guaranteed that they would get into a fight were one available.

Evidence shows the Anglo-Normans of this area wrote in contemporary English when dealing with the powers in England, spoke Yola among themselves, which is apparently derived from English like Chaucer's English, containing many Irish words, and with some Flemish pronunciation tendencies, as these followers of Strongbow had been recruited from areas where Flemish was developing.  They also probably spoke Irish, if they had successfully intermarried.  Lastly, they may well have been able to speak with speakers of Fingal, a Viking-derived dialect spoken on the coast on the other side of the Dublin area.  Yola is considered a derivative of English but may have been a Norse language instead.  At the time, no one insisted that the languages be kept separate, and they could well have been merged and separated several times.

At present, I am trying to figure out what a Yola accented version of Elizabethan English might have sounded like.  I would like to be able to sing the Yola songs I have found, although I have as yet no music to go with the words, and the pronunciation is somewhat uncertain, Yola have no speakers extant.

As for garb, I am going to assume that my character dresses in modest, high quality clothing that is not particularly stylish for the time, with an unusual addition of the family crest to the clothing, to advertise that one of my ancestors saved the King's life, and without that act the current sovereign would never have been born.  I also intend to carry a relatively plain, but, to outward appearances, functional sword (a Han Wei Practical Knightly Sword).