Page 26 - August 2018

Masonic Couplets
R. Stephen Doan, MWPGM - CA , President Philalethes Society

Ever wonder why our Masonic ritual sometimes 3. This Pidgin English borrowed many words from
has us say things in pairs? “Free will and accord” and French. An example as background: You will see
“promise and swear” are two examples. I call these “puerco” on the menu in a Mexican restaurant, and
Masonic couplets. What is a Masonic couplet? A “puerco” is the barnyard animal whence this dish
Masonic couplet is two words used in sequence which comes. Not so in English. We eat pork, but the meat
have the same original meaning, although through use comes from a pig. In feudal England, sumptuary laws
over time may have acquired slightly diff erent colors prevented peasants from eating meat cutlets. Only the
of connotation. Why do we have Masonic couplets? nobility could. Therefore, a Norman nobleman would
ask an English speaking servant to bring him pork for
Before 1066, the people in what we know today as dinner, pork being derived from a word in Norman
England spoke what is known now as Old English, French, but the servant would go to the barnyard and
although often with distinct local dialects. In 1066, order the attendant of the swine to slaughter a pig
William the Conqueror came from Normandy in France for the meal, pig being derived from a word in Old
and conquered England, replacing the indigenous elite English.
with his own supporters, whose predominate language
was the French of Normandy, known now as Norman Norman French words were therefore borrowed by
French, although his army included mercenaries from English, but often were used to describe the doings
Italy and elsewhere in Europe. of the aristocracy while the doings of the peasants
retained the English derived word.
For the next 200 years, the language of the English
court, government and the elites was Norman French. This dual language system found its way into the
It varied from French elsewhere in France because the law. Royal edicts had to be in two languages so that
Normans were largely descendants of the Norwegian the Norman French and English speakers could both
Vikings, and therefore Viking words had found their understand. Because even many of the aristocracy
way into Norman French. Also, the Norman French were illiterate, these edicts had to be read. There are
dialect had certain pronunciation changes from the two ways in which this could have been done. The
French of Paris, such as the substitution of the g sound messenger could read it entirely in Norman French
with the w sound. The writing of Norman French and then again but in English. Alternatively, he could
preserved these distinctions. read it once but use both French and English words in
couplets, thusly: People and People, hear this and hear
There were three major consequences linguistically this, by order and by order of your king and of your
from the Norman French conquest of England: king, all inhabitants and all inhabitants are ordered
and are ordered . . . Every word was said and then
1. English was no longer written. The English soon repeated once again as the edict was read, but the fi rst
became illiterate in their own language. The displaced use would have been Norman French and the second
indigenous English elites became subject to the use English (here in italics for emphasis).
Norman French and had to learn Norman French to
maintain any position. When a language is no longer By the late 1200’s, this Pidgin English, greatly
written, it loses its anchor and can drift more quickly. simplifi ed from Old English and with many Norman
French borrowed words, became Middle English and
2. In order for the Norman French rulers and the Old was spoken at court and in the government. Modern
English speaking peasants to make themselves known English evolved from Middle English largely by the
to one another, a Pidgin English evolved. While Old time of Shakespeare. Once Middle English was spoken
English was highly infl ected, like German and Latin, at court and in the government, the use of Norman
with word endings denoting the part of speech, like French in England largely disappeared. However,
subject and object, word endings were eliminated and many traditions which emerged in the bilingual
sentence order became important. With the need England of the Eleventh through the Thirteenth
for eff ective communication between the rulers and Centuries remained. Importantly for this discussion,
the subjects, and freed from the anchor of a written the tradition continued of using in formal, legal
language, English became simpler and more modern documents couplets with one Norman French-derived
relatively quickly. word and one Old English derived word.
Page 26 Montana Freemason August 2018