Law French

The Norman French language, introduced into England by William the Conqueror, and which, for several cenfuries, was, in an emphatic sense, the language of the English law, being that in which the proceedings of the' courts and of parliament were carried on, and in which many of the ancient statutes, reports, abridgments, and treatises were written and printed. It is calied by Blaekstone a "barbarous dialect," and the later specimens of it fully warrant the appellation, but at the time of its introduction it was, as has been observed, the bast form of the language spoken in Normandy.

Burrill.