Interestingly the old divide left many other traces when I was at university in the 60s there was a serious study that claimed one could trace the old boundary by looking to see if pubs sold pies or not and similarly if one could get a pint of mild or not. Alas we're getting more homogenised now. I do think a pie and mild line is better than a mason dixon one though
And I've read (you lot will have to confirm this for me) that words for meat came from more well-to-do Normans speaking Norman French. Thus beef (boeuf), pork (porc), mutton (mouton), and I suppose even poultry? (poule) Personally I find this part of the richness of the English language.
Uncertain - things may have gone the other way. At the time of the conquest mutton was moton in old French but this seems to have come from multo in Gallo-Roman which meant a wether and became molt in old Irish, mollt in Welsh, mout in old Breton and montone in Italian. What the Normans did was to establish the idea of giving a different name to the flesh of an animal when cooked. The Anglo Saxons would roast an ox and call the result roast ox whereas the Normans had cooks who would reduce the quantity, add a modicum of sauce or something give it a fancy French pronounced name and charge more. Did the Normans have a team of tapestry artists who would produce an image of the meal and send it to their friends by courier?
