Talk:Norman language

Revision needed

This article needs revision and referencing, especially for the medieval period. Regional spelling differences at a time when French orthography had not consolidated hardly warrant classification as a language proper. Jouvencel 23:10, 11 April 2023 (UTC)

Modern Swedish

Having Swedish as my first language, the "Modern Swedish" column seems off its rocker (to use an anglicism). "Böle" is a very old word, essentially only surviving in place names and rural dialects. "Greja" is 20th century slang that has made it's way into the Swedish proper. How is that relevant to the subject matter? "Skrida" does not mean "to skate", it means "to stride". "Järnad" is an adjective form of the rather odd "järna", "to make ironclad"; this is not a proper word. "Holma" is an 19th century fem. form of "holme", which is certainly not modern and was only ever used in dialect, since "holme" was masc. -- the following "holm" isn't a complete word and _only_ occurs in place names (eg Stockholm). More than 30 years of Swedish as my first language, and I have never heard "wicket" as a loan-word in Swedish.

It definitely isn't "modern Swedish" and at least that column should be removed, in my opinion. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.237.142.7 (talk) 13:33, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

Also, it is VERY unlikely that there existed an Old East Norse word "jordnothr", since it was the Spanish who brought back peanuts from South America in the 16th century. This gives me the impression the entire table is simply made up. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.237.142.7 (talk) 13:41, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

This seems to be the appropriate section to ask this, but I immediately wondered why Old East Norse and Swedish are used for the comparisons, rather than Old West Norse and modern Danish, since it was Denmark that as far as I understood the settlers from Nordic lands mostly came from.....did older versions of this page not have Danish and Old West Norse, in fact? I haven't looked at it in a while, was prepping to send someone the link re a discussion on European local languages.....112.209.51.156 (talk) 11:16, 22 October 2012 (UTC)

Norse "hóra"

I am not a norse expert, but the word "hóra" seems to be the same word as english whore. Of course, it isn't sich a strange semantic shift, anyway. I heard that the common swedish word "flicka"(girl) originally meant slut, at least it does in norwegian...

Norman Wikipedia

Work is currently underway on a test Wikipedia in Norman. Contributions and comments welcome. Man vyi 14:18, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

Norman Wikipedia now up and running, and awaiting contributions! Man vyi 18:06, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

Dialect Comparison

It would be really nice to see a comparison of Insular and Continental dialects at some point. The Jade Knight 23:28, 4 February 2006 (UTC)

Proposed move

It has been proposed that Languages of Oïl be renamed and moved to Langues d'Oïl. Comments and votes on Talk:Languages of Oïl, please, if you're interested. Man vyi 09:12, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

Infobox

I've added an infobox, copying the family information from the one on French language. The number of speakers and the ISO codes aren't yet filled in - I suspect there are no ISO codes, but there ought to be information on the number of speakers. If I've made any errors, please correct them. Hairy Dude 04:47, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

Sadly, I've searched and searched and cannot find accurate numbers for Norman speakership in France. Numbers are available for Channel Island speakership, however. The Jade Knight 06:46, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

The French state permits no language questions in the census - there are really no reliable stats for regional languages in France (of course, whether a census question would give reliable figures is another matter...) Man vyi 07:00, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

I did notice that in a recent census or survey there was a question about Oïl langues (other than French). However, it did not distinguish between which Oïl langues (and as such is of limited use). The Jade Knight 08:43, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

I've added the ISO 639 codes. Ethnologue, the registering authority for ISO 639-3 is really not good on Oïl languages, and seems to let the codes for French cover all of them. In the meantime, roa is the ISO 639-2 code for any Romance language not covered by a more specific code. — Gareth Hughes 18:10, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

Update: Màgene claim 20,000 continental speakers of Norman. I don't know where they get this number, though. The Jade Knight 18:42, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

More linguistics, please

More discussion of phonology, syntax, even orthographic evolution -- not just word comparison or literature -- would be nice. Comparison with standard French would be a good way to go about this. A-giau 12:03, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

Many of the Norman Wikipedia articles now feature phonology and orthography comparisons between the various dialects of Norman. You may find this useful, if you can navigate the language. The Jade Knight 23:21, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

Is the Norman language considered a dialect? Did it change from Ancient French to Middle French to Modern French? Is it several dialects? It would help to know if there were more distinctions based on dialect (s) in the region of Normandy at various intervals in the last 1,000 years or so. Stevenmitchell 20:11, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

Any linguist that has taken a close look at Norman can easily see that it is not "a dialect"—it is most certainly not a dialect of French. Norman does not come from Ancient French, but rather descends from Old Norman, which was a distinct langue d'oïl (arguably, Old Norman was simply a different dialect from Old French. But that was 1,000 years ago). Modern Norman contains, however, several dialects, which are often grouped into Insular Norman (spoken in the Channel Islands) and Continental Norman (which share a unified orthography). Even within a single dialect, such as Jèrriais, there are numerous regional accents (/"dialects") which can differ substantially in pronunciation. The Jade Knight 22:10, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

Clearly, you're not any linguist. Because "Norman" is a complete English fantasy designed at reassuring them that they were enslaved by Vikings and not by Frenchmen. Sadly, though, history speaks for itself. William's army was composed mostly of Picards, Bretons, and Normans (who were 7th generation French-born and spoke only French. If that ain't enough yet to qualify as French, then 80% of Americans are Europeans. Have fun explaining them that). And those people spoke French. Maybe an older version of modern French, but we can't blame them for not speaking a language which still didn't exist in their days. They spoke contemporary 11th century French. Honni soit qui mal y pense, Brits. Soyez honnis, donc. 95.115.46.128 (talk) 20:52, 14 June 2011 (UTC)

I do not agree with that. 1st statement : Normans "were 7th generation French-born". Not true : Old Norse and Old Danish were probably still spoken by people living in the Cotentin region and maybe some other places in Upper Normandy until the generation of William's father, as it is attested in the recorded place-names with a typical Nordic spelling until the 11th century. An important immigration of Anglo-Danish and Anglo-Norse farmers from England, Danemark and Norway could have continued until the end of the 10th century. About the feeling to be "French", Georges Duby demonstrated with historical facts, that the regional identities remained essential among the knights and the population until the 13th century at least and still in the 14th century during the first period of the hundred year war. There are many documents showing these facts, for example : « Baivier e Saisne sunt alet à cunseill, e Peitevin e Norman e Franceis; asez i as Alemans e Tiedeis. » (the Saxons et Bavarians went to the council, together with the Poitevins, the Normans and the French...., Chanson de Roland verse 3795). Other wrong statement : "William's army was composed mostly of Picards, Bretons, and Normans". No, about a half of his army originated from Normandy. Concerning the language they spoke, there were probably different languages in William's army, even if the majority could speak the langue d'oïl and Wace who wrote in the 12th century said :

<< a Chaem fui petiz portez, illoques fui a letres mis, pois fui longues en France apris ; quant jo de France repairai, a Chaem longues conversai, de romanz faire m'entremis, mult en escris et mult en fis >> (then, I studied in France for a long time...when I came back from France, I stayed for a long time in Caen..I began to write in Romanz) Other citation << e de Normanz est apelee Normendie que il unt poplee. Neustrie aveit nun anceis, tant cume ele fut as franceis >> (Normandy was called Neustrie, when it belonged to the French). Other wrong statement : English people would say "Normans" instead of "Frenchmen" and French people would say "French", that is exactly the contrary. In England, the Normans were considered as French, because they came from the "French continent". Other thing : the expression Norman-French is typical English and it does not exist in French. If you feel French, that's your right, because your ancestors are mixed, but there are Norman people who feel Norman and continue to speak Norman. That is probably not your case. Nortmannus (talk) 16:53, 15 June 2011 (UTC)

If I may interject, your counterpoint is somewhat misleading. Quote: "Not true : Old Norse and Old Danish were probably still spoken by people living in the Cotentin". You are referring to bilingual coastal towns like Bayeux, where more Danish immigrants may have settled in the middle of the 10th century. We know from Adémar de Chabannes that whatever Danish was still spoken there quickly disappeared. Which goes back to the premise of the previous post, caustic as it was: that the Norman settlers of the late 9th and early 10th century were almost all men, and those who had descendants had to marry local women, so that the mother tongue of the 2nd generation was Old French. Moreover, 10th-century Normandy became a much larger territory than the original concession of 911, absorbing an even greater population of Franks. So much so that many of those Norman towns from which William the Conqueror raised troops dated back to Neustria. Lastly, in your 12th-century quote from Wace "France" refers to Île-de-France, the land under direct control of the French crown. Inhabitants from other parts of the kingdom were typically referred to by their provincial name. See my other reply below. Old Brunswicker (talk) 19:15, 19 January 2024 (UTC)

Thankfully the French historians I've read don't pursue this noxious Parisian revisionist fantasy that 11th century 'Normans' and 'Bretons' didn't exist. They were very distinct people - the Bretons are still. No one in the 11th century conflated the French and Normans, especially the Normans who were exceptionally proud of their 'Gens'. The English didn't actually call the Normans 'French' as modern translations via Latin erroneously make out. Their term for Normans was 'Frenciscan', different to what they called the French, which was 'Francan'. In Old English a 'Norman' was a Norwegian as is still the case in the Scandinavian languages. And even when the Latin uses the term Franci - the term was still a loose one covering the various peoples from the former Carolingian world, so it worked for the Normans, Bretons and Flemings who far, far outnumbered the Poithevins or Angevins (and obviously the 'Romanz' language as old French/Spanish/Italian were then known were acquired second languages for the Bretons and Flemings). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.184.115.220 (talk) 09:10, 17 December 2013 (UTC)

A lot of wrong assumptions here. "They were very distinct people" The 11th century marked the peak of feudal France, which comprised several fiefs each with a strong sense of provincialism. Both Norman and Poitevin chronicles, for example, could refer to their inhabitants as Normani and Pictavensi regardless of their actual ancestry. The duchy of Aquitaine was even called a "monarchy" of its own in the Chronicon Aquitanicum et Francicum. Its author Adémar de Chabannes also uses different names to distinguish between Frenchmen from inside and outside the duchy. That does not mean they were distinct people. It means their distinction was based on their local provenance within the realm. By definition they were all French, to paraphrase Christine de Pisan, because they were "born in the kingdom of France".

"No one in the 11th century conflated the French and Normans". Well no one except the Normans themselves: in the tapestry of Bayeux the soldiers fighting the English at Hastings are all described as Franks. In his crusading speech, Bohemond I of Antioch, the son of Robert Guiscard, explicitly boasted of his French ancestry. None of your speculations have more weight that these direct testimonies. "Their term for Normans was Frenciscan, different to what they called the French, which was Francan". Sorry but that's nonsense. Those were some of the many Latin-derived variants for Frank/French corrupted by Old English. Charters of William the Conqueror are full of them, and if anything further reinforce my point. Old Brunswicker (talk) 19:02, 19 January 2024 (UTC)

Nrm

I note the Norman Wikipedia is at nrm: but there is no mention of this code in this article - from what is it derived? Should there be a link from the NRM TLA disamibg page? Thryduulf 14:54, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

Archived discussion on Meta may provide some enlightenment. Man vyi 15:19, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

Although that discussion was interesting, it wasn't particularly enlightening regarding the choice of "nrm" over the other suggestion of "nor". Thryduulf 16:39, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

"Nor" is reserved for Norwegian (in terms of ISO codes); despite the fact that this is not currently being used by the Norwegian Wikipedias, someone felt it was best to find an entirely new code to use for the Norman wikipedia. nrm may have been my suggestion; I do not entirely remember. It has the advantage of working in all relevant languages/dialects, however (Norman/normand/Nouormand/normaund), where "nor" doesn't work with Jèrriais. The Jade Knight 08:45, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

Etymologies

• What the OED says about "mug" (which is what I meant to write instead of "catch" in my edit summary, sorry) is:

Origin uncertain; app. related to Dutch mok mug (late 19th cent.), German regional (Low German) muck, German regional (Low German: East Friesland) mukke mug, Norwegian mugge open can or jug, Danish mugge, Swedish mugg mug, and also French regional moque, (Guernsey) mogue jug, cup, but the relationships between these words are unclear, and their further etymology is unknown.

There's nothing there to indicate that the idea the word came from Norman French is preferable to any other source (fwiw, the Online Etymology Dictionary, Dictionary.com, and the American Heritage Dictionary all suggest or claim it comes from a Scandinavian language)

• I had removed "causeway" because only the "cause" part comes from Norman French; I didn't make that clear, though, and it's still correct to leave it in, so sorry about that

--Miskwito 03:34, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

My edits reflect all this, and provide citation where available. With a great many words of Scandinavian and langue d'oïl origin in English, it is difficult to tell exactly which language they come from. In the case of "mug", the earliest attestation is from 1400 and spelled "mogge"—clearly not a Dutch or German borrowing, and the timing makes it highly unlikely that it is a Scandinavian borrowing. The most reasonable explanation of the timing and spelling of the earliest forms of this word is that it comes from Norman. The Jade Knight 04:28, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

The old Normans spoke Old East Norse

I have corrected the table with etymologies for some Norman words according to how the old normans actually spoke. They didn't speak Old West Norse anno 1300AD, but rather Viking age Old East Norse. Very similar languages, but definitely some crucial differences. // Jens Persson (213.67.64.22 21:41, 29 April 2007 (UTC))

South East Ireland

I am going to remove the following from the article:

In Ireland, Norman remained strongest in the area of south-east Ireland where the Normans invaded in 1169. In particular a distinctive variety of "Norman French" remained alive in the barony of Forth and Bargy in Wexford until very recent times.

I am from Wexford and I can say without doubt that Yola, as the extinct local dialect is known, was a variety of Middle English NOT French. There is even a glossary with examples of poetry and song in the Yola dialect which were collected by Jacob Poole, a Quaker preacher from the barony of Forth and republished with additions by Dr Diarmuid Ó Muirithe. An Muimhneach Machnamhach 16:50, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

As for the Irish Folklore Commission possessing recordings of supposed Norman French speakers from Forth and Bargy, this is total nonsense. Yola died out long before tape recorders were even invented! An Muimhneach Machnamhach 16:56, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

new link to Yola: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forth_and_Bargy_dialect 194.174.73.33 (talk) 18:59, 28 October 2013 (UTC) Marco Pagliero Berlin

Forgive me

Being new to wikipedia, I'm not sure of exactly the right way to contradict your editing of this article, but anyway; I think you need to elaborate on your assertion that the Irish Folklore Commission do not possess recordings of French being spoken in Wexford. Do you work at or have access to the archives of said Commission? Or does simply being from Wexford equip you with this knowledge? Your assertion seems, as is, to rely on a further assertion that the Yola language must have been mistaken for French by the author of the original, removed article. Your argument appears approximately thus;"Yola is not French, Yola died out before tape recorders were invented, therefore there cannot be any recordings of French". Which is, literally, nonsense. It is of little consequence, as I cannot remember the name of the program in question, but I remember seeing on the telly (in the UK) some years ago footage of an elderly Irish man singing a song in what was claimed to be Norman French. This does not mean I am convinced of late survivals of Norman French in Ireland. It does, however, give me cause to think it would be better to put the removed item back until there is even the slightest sliver of a good reason for removing it. Bhasmanath

Welcome to Wikipedia, Bhasmanath! Articles here are not written by individuals, but by everyone who's interested and thinks they can contribute something. You're welcome to Be Bold and edit the article yourself to make it more accurate! The very best thing you can do would be to find citations/references which back up your claims and include them with your changes, but if you feel certain that something should or should not be in the article, you can always change it and then see if someone else objects. The Jade Knight 04:04, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

French Dialect

Why isn't Norman considered a French dialect? I've read some sources that regard it as a dialect of French and some others that don't. For which reasons does Wikipedia consider it a separate language? Aaker 16:52, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

It's a language of France, for a start - the French state classes it as a separate language from French (without permitting it any official status though). Have a read of the Oïl languages article for more on the classification and division of the family. Man vyi 19:49, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Excuse me but how similar is Norman to French User:Doktoreggman —Preceding unsigned comment added by Doktoreggman (talk • contribs) 15:26, 11 February 2008 (UTC)

I'd say very similar. At least the written languages. Aaker (talk) 19:03, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

The spoken form is somewhat less similar, but still similar. Vocabulary is highly similar (at least 70-90% or more words are cognates with French, and a great many of them nearly identical), though many cognates contain different shades of meaning. Grammar is very similar, but there are crucial differences, among which is the existance of a different tense system than that found in French. Idioms are generally totally different from French. The Orthography varies from being extremely similar to French (Jèrriais) to being moderately similar (Continental Norman) to being totally different (Sercquiais). The Jade Knight (talk) 23:40, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

Merci pour la clarification! Aaker (talk) 22:34, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

Are Norman French and French mutually intelligible? Thats the normal dividing line between language and dialect, after all.Lexington1 (talk) 14:06, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

So Swedish and Danish are just dialects of the same language? Ditto Urdu and Hindi? 63.224.229.160 (talk) 00:02, 23 November 2009 (UTC) 63.224.229.160 (talk) 00:02, 23 November 2009 (UTC) 63.224.229.160 (talk) 00:02, 23 November 2009 (UTC)

Written Jèrriais is artificially close to French and largely intelligible to French speakers. I believe (though I am not particularly qualified to make this statement) that the spoken forms are not mutually intelligible (and even though I am fluent in French and have studied written Norman extensively, I still have difficulty understanding the spoken [or sung] form!). That said, virtually all Norman speakers understand French (certainly on the Continent; I am unsure to what degree this is the case in the Isles), but French is an official language at all locations where Norman is spoken, and this may be the primary reason for this comprehension. The Jade Knight (talk) 08:32, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

If I've understood it correctly, all langues d'oïl were considered varieties of the same language (Vulgar Latin => Old French => langues d'oïl) until Standard French became universally spoken. The reason why Danish and Swedish are considered different languages is more political than linguistic, the same goes for Hindi/Urdu and Serbian/Bosnian/Croatian, Catalan/Valencian and many others. The differences between Danish and Swedish are however much bigger than many people think, most Swedes and Danes have severe difficulties understanding each other, pronunciation is very different and grammar and orthography are quite different (unfortunately IMHO!). Aaker (talk) 18:05, 4 February 2010 (UTC)

Dalles - Norman origin?

Usually in French dalles is flagstone or paving stone; other meanings given in French wiki vary quite a bit, but none jibe with a meaning common in western North America - a particulary type of river rapids. It's that meaning of the homonym I"m wondering if it might not come from the Danish input into Normand; usually quebecois/canadien is associated with Brittany, "but"....anyway please see this discussion] on Talk:Dalles where I raise the possiblility - just a guess - that the etymology is via Norman French, from Danish/Norwegian dal (valley), which in certain cases is dale - vs the OED's intimation that the flag/pavingstone meaning is a loanword into French from Ger. diele. Or is there a Latin root in any of these cases? Anyway, any etymologists or French-language historians hereabouts, please drop by the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Skookum1#Dalles discussion] and give us your thoughts.Skookum1 (talk) 03:40, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

dalle pl. dalles recorded in French in the 14th century (Larousse -étymologique, 1971) may come from the Norman dialect dalle that means "sink" (of a kitchen). It may be a confusion between 2 Old Danish words dal and doeli. The word "dal/le" "valley" is common in Norman place names: Dieppedalle, dipdal (Cf. deepdale GB), Eurdal, Bruquedalle ("brookdale"), Croixdalle (Craudalle 1253, "Crowdale"), Oudalle ("Wolfdale"), Les Petites Dalles, les Grandes Dalles, Daubeuf (Cf. Dalby GB), Becdal, etc...and is considered as Anglo Danish. Nortmannus (talk) 17:52, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

National Categorization

Jersey and Guernsey are not part of the UK. Should the nation bit in the infobox be fixed? The Jade Knight (talk) 08:36, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

Language code

Er....the ISO code given is wrong. "nrm" represents Narom language - see [1]. As far as I know, Norman has not been assigned a separate code in ISO 693-3. Widsith (talk) 13:44, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

I went ahead and created a {{lang-roa-nor}} template for Norman. May not be official but it's the code Wiktionary uses. — LlywelynII 16:53, 27 December 2014 (UTC)

Channel Islands: United Kingdom

I thought the Channel Islands were not part of the UK, but independent crown dependencies like the Isle of Man. The only thing the UK does for the islands is defence and other reserved matters depending on the issues involved e.g. Foreign affairs. I'm sure though a Crown Dependency is not the United Kingdom. Please look into it. 82.11.221.164 (talk) 08:46, 23 May 2008 (UTC)

Yes, the problem has been reflecting use in the bailiwicks and the survival of fossilised usage in the UK. I've rehierarchised the list to clarify the situation. Man vyi (talk) 06:34, 24 May 2008 (UTC)

Number of speakers

So how many people speak Norman nowadays? Some figure needs to be in here. Funnyhat (talk) 21:46, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

Magène claims 20,000 speakers of Continental Norman. C'valyi d'Jade (talk) 05:46, 23 September 2010 (UTC)

"Most of part modern French and Norman is intercomprehensible"

Grammatically, this sentence doesn't make sense to me. I'd change it, but I have no idea how close modern French and Norman actually are. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.191.35.75 (talk) 12:11, 18 August 2011 (UTC)

It should be suppressed, because I do not think that somebody who accentuates French the Marseilles way would understand Norman French.Nortmannus (talk) 20:22, 13 February 2012 (UTC)

are you joking?

you try to read this==> http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=2j46AAAAcAAJ&pg=PP9&dq=Le+roman+de+Rou+et+des+ducs+de+Normandie&hl=it&sa=X&ei=GaWjT9ebLc7E4gSnib2iCQ&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Le%20roman%20de%20Rou%20et%20des%20ducs%20de%20Normandie&f=false — Preceding unsigned comment added by Oidbeco (talk • contribs) 09:46, 4 May 2012 (UTC)

irrelevant, because Wace wrote in Old French, printed with some limited Norman influences.Nortmannus (talk) 10:50, 4 May 2012 (UTC)

Boucaner doesn't come from Norman, it come from Arawak

Perhaps Norman speakers brought the word Boucaner to Canada, but it's not a Norman word, see wikipedia entra on Buccaneer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buccaneer#History. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.173.78.131 (talk) 18:13, 14 September 2015 (UTC)

Assessment comment

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Norman language/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

The use of the term Norman language is simply preposterous. It completely lacks any support from published literature. The 'Norman language' is simply a dialect of French in the same way as Picard. The use of the term Norman language gives the reader the impression that the article has been written by a special interest group or an obsessive of some sort, which is a pity as it is a informative article in many ways. Oswy (talk) 21:09, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Last edited at 21:09, 15 September 2008 (UTC). Substituted at 01:29, 30 April 2016 (UTC)

'Norman language' versus 'Norman French language'

Although I am not an expert, I object to the Norman language being suddenly labelled as 'only' a dialect of the French language in some parts of this page.

This is contrary to other statements in the article itself, as well as in other articles referring to other regional languages or dialects in France, and seems to be the intensive work of one particular user who seems to have some sort of agenda, apparently without concertation with other users/authors/editors.

The numerous recent changes in this and other pages are often poorly stated, and not always in line with the content into which they are landed, as well as showing what in my humble opinion is bias. [For the moment there is no way I want to start reversing out or rewriting/improving these numerous changes].

In addition it should be noted that the user in question, who was recently suspended for edit-warring, seems to be unwilling to enter into discussion with others (not me, cf. previous para), preferring to 'be bold'. -- jw (talk) 12:45, 10 March 2020 (UTC)

I feel this situation needs review, for this and other affected pages.
Fellow-wikipedians, what are your reactions to all these recent changes ? -- jw (talk) 12:45, 10 March 2020 (UTC)

Languages and dialects fall along a continuum and there is no precise definition that unambiguously separates the two, but this editor has been pushing a POV on a lot of articles mentioning the Norman language to highlight its Frenchness and minimize the contribution of Old Norse. Agricolae (talk) 16:53, 10 March 2020 (UTC)

i think these changes are needed. take this page as an example, it shows only words borrowed from old norse but completely ignore the vocabularies inherited from old french. it's just not thorough. while pages of dialects of other langue d'oil such as picard would show comparisons between standard french, old french and that regional dialect. it's inappropriate to exaggerate limited influence of nordic languages while overlooking the fact that it's a french dialect / dialect continuum. so consistency is needed. also editors of this page must first understand the concept 'dialect continuum' or have a fair knowledge of french language before making any objections. otherwise, these points are nothing more than personal imagination. Berserk Kerberos (talk) 17:45, 10 March 2020 (UTC)

It is also inappropriate to push a POV that downplays the Norse influence on Norman, based on your own personal opinion. Also, you don't get to decide who is allowed to edit a Wikipedia page. Agricolae (talk) 18:56, 10 March 2020 (UTC)

Please refer to my response to objections/insinuations re. understanding of French and/or dialect continua, below -- jw (talk) 21:36, 10 March 2020 (UTC)

Lists of words

All of these lists need sources, or they look like WP:OR. Agricolae (talk) 16:49, 10 March 2020 (UTC)

sources : http://www.atilf.fr/dect (run by University of Ottawa and University of Lorraine) http://txm.bfm-corpus.org/ ( run and supported by Agence National de la Recherche, Institut d'histoire des représentations, institute universitaire de France, école normale supérieure de lyon, Huma Num and CNRS) you can find add many more words to the table if you wish. and i'd appreciate your efforts in completing the list Berserk Kerberos (talk) 18:03, 10 March 2020 (UTC)

The linked sources, at least as far as I can see, do not contain a list of words in the Norman language that preserve Old French words lost in modern French. This appears to be you. doing your own research. Agricolae (talk) 18:50, 10 March 2020 (UTC)

thanks for your reply. sorry but you're wrong. first, these words are also listed in french version of wikipedia. second, you need to learn how to use both websites cited here. follow the instructions carefully when you use both databases. also i don't recommend using google translate. it's far from being accurate. Berserk Kerberos (talk) 18:53, 10 March 2020 (UTC)

Again, you don't seem to understand how Wikipedia actually works. Digging data out of a database is WP:Original Research, which is not permitted, and WP:CIRCULAR says that Wikipedia pages (whether in the same language or in another language) are not appropriate sources for other Wikipedia pages. Agricolae (talk) 19:08, 10 March 2020 (UTC).

however, this is also listed in french version of wikipedia. i'm simply copying this chunk of info. and pasting it in english version. i suppose all language versions of wikipedia are bound by the same set of rules right? since this table is approved in french version, i see no reason why english version should ban it Berserk Kerberos (talk) 19:11, 10 March 2020 (UTC)

I guess you didn't read it the first time: WP:CIRCULAR says that Wikipedia pages (whether in the same language or in another language) are not appropriate sources for other Wikipedia pages. Just because you find material on a Wikipedia page doesn't mean its presence there is appropriate, approved, or consistent with policy. If the French page contains unreferenced Original Research, it shouldn't. It would be a violation of policy there, just as it would be a violation of policy here. There is no special dispensation granted to unreferenced information "found on another Wikipedia page" that somehow allows it to be absolved of Wikipedia's standards for WP:Verifiability. Agricolae (talk) 19:21, 10 March 2020 (UTC)

sorry but you're taking the whole thing personally. this is not original research. french wikipedia also approves that this is not original research. i have to stop talking to you unless you become rational again. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Berserk Kerberos (talk • contribs) 19:38, 10 March 2020 (UTC)

Please don't stop talking to me! I had been pleased to see that conversations are now happening on the Talk page rather than disrupting the combined and consensual work of numerous other editors on the page. Please continue this progress: you could state your intentions on the other Talk pages before you make future changes.
In addition, if you prefer, since you have been intensively editing several pages, we could transfer this discussion about your methods to your own talk page.-- jw (talk) 21:36, 10 March 2020 (UTC)

Quant à la question de la compéhension de la langue française (posée ci-dessus) ou bien celle du concept de continuum linguistique, je vous remercie d'arrêter vos insinuations, et de revenir à un dialogue respectueux, comme il se doit.
Merci, ça suffit ! -- jw (talk) 21:36, 10 March 2020 (UTC)