How French changed English spelling

How to make things more complicated

French not only expanded the word stock of English, it also influenced its spelling conventions. There exists a multitude of ways in which French had an impact on the writing of English, however here are four of the most influential ones:

(1) In Old English, the letter c could only be pronounced [k] (as in modern calculus) or [ʧ] (as in modern chocolate). However, in French the letter c could either be pronounced [k] in front of the vowels a, o, u, or [s] in front of the vowels i, e, y. Therefore to avoid ambiguity, a [k]-sounding c in Old English — such as in the word cynn — was replaced by a k in Middle English to reflect the French writing conventions: cynn became kin or kyn.

(2) The introduction of the French ch modified the spelling of some Old English words starting with the letter c: for example the Old English word cild /ʧild/ became child in Middle English.

(3) The French qu replaced the Old English spelling cw in words such as quellen or queen which in Old English were spelled respectively cwellan and cwēn.

(4) The /θ/ (as in modern thorn) and /ð/ (as is modern the) sounds were spelled th rather than with the Old English letters þ (thorn) and ð (eth), which did not exist in Norman.

Source: Algeo, John, and Thomas Pyles. The Origins and Development of the English Language. 5^th ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2004. Print. / “History of English.” Wikipedia.org. Wikimedia Foundation Inc. 2010. Web.