Some impression of the extent to which the French element has
permeated the language of the law can also be gained by looking
at some random specimens of modern legal English. Here, for
example, is a passage from an endowment assurance policy:
|
Whereas a proposal to effect with the
Society an assurance on the Life Insured named in the Schedule
hereto has been duly made and signed as a basis of such assurance
and a declaration has been made agreeing that this policy shall be
subject to the Society’s Registered Rules (which shall be deemed to
form part of this policy) to the Table of Insurance printed hereon
and to the terms and conditions of the said Table and that the date
of entrance stated hereon shall be deemed to be the date of this
contract and such proposal has been accepted by the Society on the
conditions as set forth in the proposal. |
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If we ignore the words used primarily to
signal grammatical relationships, which are mainly descended
direct from Old English, we find that proposal, effect,
society, assurance, insured, schedule, duly, signed, agreeing,
policy, subject, rules, form, terms, conditions, date, entrance,
contract, and accepted are all derived from French.
The words basis, table, declaration, registered,
stated, and part are derived from Latin. This leaves
us with only life, named, made, deemed, and said
as representatives of Old English. A similarly high proportion
of Romance to Germanic words would probably be found in most
specimens of legal English, and would be equalled by only a few
other varieties.
