22. +Latin of the Third Period+ (i).-- The Latin element of the Third Period is in reality the French that was brought over to this island by the Normans in 1066, and is generally called +Norman-French+. It differed from the French of Paris both in spelling and in pronunciation. For example, Norman-French wrote +people+ for +peuple+; +léal+ for +loyal+; +réal+ for +royal+; +réalm+ for +royaume+; and so on. But both of these dialects (and every dialect of French) are simply forms of Latin-- not of the Latin written and printed in books, but of the Latin spoken in the camp, the fields, the streets, the village, and the cottage. The Romans conquered Gaul, where a Keltic tongue was spoken; and the Gauls gradually adopted Latin as their mother tongue, and-- with the exception of the Brétons of Brittany-- left off their Keltic speech almost entirely. In adopting the Latin tongue, they had-- as in similar cases-- taken firm hold of the root of the word, but changed the pronunciation of it, and had, at the same time, compressed very much or entirely dropped many of the Latin inflexions. The French people, an intermixture of Gauls and other tribes (some of them, like the Franks, German), ceased, in fact, to speak their own language, and learned the Latin tongue. The Norsemen, led by Duke Rolf or Rollo or Rou, marched south in large numbers; and, in the year 912, wrested from King Charles the Simple the fair valley of the Seine, settled in it, and gave to it the name of Normandy. These Norsemen, now Normans, were Teutons, and spoke a Teutonic dialect; but, when they settled in France, they learned in course of time to speak French. The kind of French they spoke is called Norman-French, and it was this kind of French that they brought over with them in 1066. But Norman-French had made its appearance in England before the famous year of ’66; for Edward the Confessor, who succeeded to the English throne in 1042, had been educated at the Norman Court; and he not only spoke the language himself, but insisted on its being spoken by the nobles who lived with him in his Court.