Poitou, as well as from the Central French
of Paris. It was thus developed in a way of its own, and must always
be considered, in preference to Old Continental French, when English
etymologies are in question. It is true that it came to an end about
1400, when it ceased to be spoken; but at an earlier date it was alive
and vigorous, and coined its own peculiar forms. A very simple example
is our word _duty_, which certainly was not borrowed from the Old
French _devoir_, but from the Anglo-French _duetee_, a word familiar
in Old London, but absolutely unknown to every form of continental
French.

The point which I have here to insist upon is that not only does our
literary language abound with Anglo-French words, but that they are
also common enough in our dialects; a point which, as far as I know,
is almost invariably overlooked. Neither have our dialects escaped the
influence of the Central French of Paris, and it would have been
strange if they had; for the number of French words in English is
really very large. It is not always possible to discriminate between
the Old French of France and of England, and I shall here consider
both sources together, though the Old Norman words can often be easily
discerned by any one who is familiar with the Norman peculiarities.
Of such peculiarities I will instance three, by way of example. Thus
Anglo-French often employs _ei_ or _ey_ where Old French (i.e. of
the continent) has _oi_ or _oy_; and English has retained the old
pronunciations of _ch_ and _j_. Hence, whilst _convoy_ is borrowed
from French, _convey_ is Anglo-French. _Machine_ is French, because
the _ch_ is pronounced as _sh_; but _chine_, the backbone, is
Anglo-French. _Rouge_ is French, because of the peculiar pronunciation
of the final _ge_; but _rage_ is Anglo-French; and _jaundice_ is
Anglo-French, as it has the old _j_. See Chapters III-VI of my
_Principles of English Etymology, Second Series_.

A good example of a dialect word is _gantry_ or _gauntree_, a wooden
stand for barrels, known in varying forms in many dialects. It is
rightly derived, in the _E.D.D._, from _gantier_, which must have been
an A.F. (Anglo-French) form, though now only preserved in the Rouchi
dialect, spoken on the borders of France and Belgium, and nearly
allied to Norman; in fact, M. Hecart, the author of the _Dictionnaire_
_Rouchi-Fran{c,}ais_, says he had heard the word in Normandy, and he
gives a quotation for it from Olivier Basselin,