artificially-stable form as the written language of the elite, which was the only version of English to be preserved in writing. After the Norman conquerors removed Anglo-Saxon rule, the dialects of the general population, which would have included Brithonic and Norse-influenced versions of English, were eventually recorded and appear as Middle English.

That kind of variance between written and spoken language is attested historically in other cultures, notably in Latin, and may occur commonly. For instance,