Appendix:Anglo-Norman spellings

Anglo-Norman is a dialect of Old French that developed in what is now the United Kingdom after the Normans invaded. While it remained extremely similar to continental Old French, over the centuries, certain spelling differences arose.

Spellings

Anglo-Norman retained some features of Latin that were lost in standard continental Old French (OF). For example Latin rēgālis (“regal”) gave OF roial and Anglo-Norman reial. See the table below for more examples.

Generally speaking, -oi- in OF becomes -ei- in Anglo-Norman. This also applies to conjugated forms. -o- becomes -u- in words like encuntrer, which itself later becomes encountrer

Over the centuries, some single vowels becames dipthongs. Franceis became fraunceis (“French”), cunter (more rarely conter) became counter (“to recount, to retell”). Many of these words influenced English more than OF. For example leisure is more similar to Anglo-Norman leisir and OF loisir

Examples

Latin (if from Latin)	Anglo-Norman	continental Old French	Modern French	English	Comments
ratiō	raisun	raison	raison	reason	Later spelled raisoun with -u- -ou- substitution
vīcīnus	veisin	voisin	voisin	neighbor
computō	cunter	conter	-	-	Later spelled counter
rēx	rei	roi	roi	king
cantāre	chanter, canter	chanter, canter	chanter	to sing	Later spelled chaunter
amābam	ameis	amois	aimais	loved	-ei- substitution also applies to conjugated forms, in this case the first-person singular imperfect