> we just spell it "wrong", likely out of French/Norman influence

Could it be that we spell it differently because the word was adopted before spelling was standardised in either language?

> If you take away the words brought in by immigrants and invaders there is very little recognizable left.

This is not true at all. Most of the core vocabulary is derived from Old English. We’ve borrowed a ton of vocabulary to expand new concepts, but the core has remained relatively stable.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_of_Old...