Scandinavian Influence on Old English and Middle English
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- Date Submitted: 12/13/2011 07:53 PM
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The Scandinavian influence in late Old English and early Middle English.
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Question: The Scandinavian influence in late Old English and early Middle English. Trace & Discuss. Provide illustrative examples.
“In the eight century, people in the present day Sweden, Norway and Denmark began to leave their homes and settle in other parts of Europe. The Swedes went to Russia, The Norwegians went to Iceland and western parts of the British Isles and the Danes went to France (Normandy) and east England” (Gelderen,2006). It is difficult to estimate the extent of the Scandinavian influence in late old English and early middle English period .Baugh (1993) states: “If we restrict the list of borrowed words that exist in standard English which is fully convincing, it’s about nine-hundred”. However other sources say around the figure of 1,530 (Bouza,2010). It is important when tracing the history of the English language, not to just view the extent, but indeed view how, and in what ways, the language changed.
Old Norse (Scandinavian language) and Old English had some similarities. The Scandinavians and the speakers of old English had basic words in common, such as man, wife, folk, winter and summer. This connection thus aided the communication between speakers of Old English and Old Norse. Due to these similarities it allowed borrowings of vocabulary from Old Norse to Old English, It was also possible to borrow words twice in a different form (Gelderen,2006).
The change that set Old English from Old Norse was palitalization; this allowed words to be re-used as the Scandinavian language did not undergo palitalization. It was possible to borrow a non-palatalized Old Norse word which, in turn, was a version of a palatalized Old English word. This change is now seen in Modern English with such words as: Shirt, Skirt, Shatter and Scatter. The usage of Shirt (OE) and Skirt (ON) today, has a more specialised meaning. Gelderen (2006) provides an example of meaning shift, it...
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Question: The Scandinavian influence in late Old English and early Middle English. Trace & Discuss. Provide illustrative examples.
“In the eight century, people in the present day Sweden, Norway and Denmark began to leave their homes and settle in other parts of Europe. The Swedes went to Russia, The Norwegians went to Iceland and western parts of the British Isles and the Danes went to France (Normandy) and east England” (Gelderen,2006). It is difficult to estimate the extent of the Scandinavian influence in late old English and early middle English period .Baugh (1993) states: “If we restrict the list of borrowed words that exist in standard English which is fully convincing, it’s about nine-hundred”. However other sources say around the figure of 1,530 (Bouza,2010). It is important when tracing the history of the English language, not to just view the extent, but indeed view how, and in what ways, the language changed.
Old Norse (Scandinavian language) and Old English had some similarities. The Scandinavians and the speakers of old English had basic words in common, such as man, wife, folk, winter and summer. This connection thus aided the communication between speakers of Old English and Old Norse. Due to these similarities it allowed borrowings of vocabulary from Old Norse to Old English, It was also possible to borrow words twice in a different form (Gelderen,2006).
The change that set Old English from Old Norse was palitalization; this allowed words to be re-used as the Scandinavian language did not undergo palitalization. It was possible to borrow a non-palatalized Old Norse word which, in turn, was a version of a palatalized Old English word. This change is now seen in Modern English with such words as: Shirt, Skirt, Shatter and Scatter. The usage of Shirt (OE) and Skirt (ON) today, has a more specialised meaning. Gelderen (2006) provides an example of meaning shift, it...