word spell check in french instead of english

The letter was retained but, although it was still called ‘thorn’ in the 14th century, it seems in Geoffrey Chaucer’s time to have been regarded as a mere compendium for th, which generally took its place except initially. In addition to the two original values of the ‘yok’, it very early obtained a third use, being employed (without indicating any change of pronunciation) instead of the Old English h in certain positions, as in knit, ibrot, rou, for which the older spelling was cniht, gebroht, ruh. It may be remarked in passing that the ambiguity of pronunciation of this letter has misled modern writers into calling the author of the Brut Layamon instead of Laghamon the incorrect form, however, has become too well known to be displaced. A new letter was thus added to the alphabet, and, though it came to be written exactly like the contemporary form of z, it preserved its name ‘yok’ until the 14th century. And in the 12th century, though the continental variety of the Roman alphabet was generally used for writing English, it was found convenient to retain the native form of the letter g for those two of its sounds that the French g lacked, namely, those of gh and y (as in year). The letters, þ, ð and were used, though often blunderingly, even by scribes who, in other respects, were thoroughly French in their spelling though often the sounds were awkwardly rendered by t, th, ht, or d, and u. Some few English sounds admitted of no tolerable representation in the French alphabet and for the expression of these the native characters were retained in use. It is not to be supposed that no one ever read an Old English Manuscript and there was, for a long time, some mixture of the traditional spelling with the new one. Of course these changes did not take place all at once. The sound of the Old English y, in the dialects where it survived, was expressed by u and that of the Old English long u was written ou, as in French. The Old English symbol æ was dropped, its place being taken by a or e. The f between vowels was replaced by u or v (these being still, as long afterwards, treated as forms of one and the same letter, used indifferently for vowel and consonant).

The sound of the Old English sc in sceamu ‘shame’, which did not exist at that time in French, was rendered by ss,ssh,sch, or sh.

They used ch instead of the old c, when it was pronounced as in cirice ‘church’. When, therefore, the mass of the new generation tried to write English, they had no orthographical traditions to guide them, and had to spell the words phonetically according to French rules. After the Norman Conquest children ceased to be regularly taught to read and write English, and were taught to read and write French instead. The striking change in the written language of England during the 12th century was, to a considerable extent, a matter of mere spelling.

Word spell check in french instead of english