This is great, yes it was the upper classes that had to conform to the French language invasion, I remember seeing it on TV (so it must be true, lol). But seriously, many French words were adopted and became common place.

And, the many languages that do make up English also make it very diverse.

regards, Glenn

If I recall correctly it was mostly around court and in the legal profession that French was spoken. I don't think that people were made to conform to it directly, but if you wanted to travel in those circles you had little choice. Eventually though, the English spoken by most lower classes took over from French, although we still keep many words that have origins in the French language. To be accurate though, we were invaded by Normans - France at that time existed but was a much smaller country than it is today. So it was the Norman language which infected us at that time.

Nobody had to conform to speaking French. The defeated Anglo-Saxons, nobles and peasants, carried on with their own language. Some will have picked up Norman-French, some Normans will have picked up Anglo-Saxon. The Normans were descendants of Vikings who had caused that much trouble in France, that the King of France gave them a large chunk of land, Normandy, to get them off his back.

Sure, it is easy to pronounce "ig nore" and "sig ni fy". The consonants aren't pronounced together. I've never heard "GNU" or "Gnome" pronounced without a fake vowel sound inserted.

I'm sat here, talking to myself - time for the Emacs psychotherapist - saying "Ignore GNU signify", and I don't notice any difference. Maybe it's mostly Americans who have this problem.

There is no way to pronounce gnu without a vowel sound before or after the g. I prefer to pronounce it with a silent g

There is certainly a way at least when you are a non native speaker.
The word "gnu" exists in French. It is spelt "gnou" and pronounced exactly /gnu/ with no vowel around the g.
Why you have no problem with "glue" or "grew" but choke on "gnu" is beyond me.

The closest I can come is if I don't exhale during the "g" sound but there is still a vowel sound present. At least is doesn't rip up my vocal cords that way. If I start with my tongue closer to the front of my mount the vowel sound is suppressed but the "g" sound is also.

Oh hell! I've started saying GuNU gunow...gunoing gunuts!!!

OK, I stand corrected on my history, probably went fishing that day.

Thanks for the conversation, all the best, Glenn