Scandinavian influence on english language. Scandinavian Influence on the English Language 2022-10-26

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The English language has a long and complex history, with roots that can be traced back to a variety of sources. One significant influence on the development of English is the Scandinavian languages, particularly Old Norse.

Old Norse, also known as Old Scandinavian, was spoken by the Vikings and other Scandinavian peoples during the Middle Ages. It is closely related to the modern Scandinavian languages of Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish, and it had a significant impact on the development of English, especially in the areas of England that were conquered by the Vikings.

One of the most notable ways in which Old Norse influenced English is through the introduction of new vocabulary. Many words in English that are related to seafaring, such as "skiff," "keel," and "cargo," can be traced back to Old Norse roots. Other words, such as "husband," "sky," and "cake," also have Old Norse origins.

Old Norse also influenced the grammar and syntax of English. For example, the use of the word "they" as a singular pronoun can be traced back to Old Norse, as can the use of the word "them" as an objective pronoun. The use of the word "get" in the sense of "obtain" or "acquire" is also derived from Old Norse.

In addition to Old Norse, the Scandinavian languages have continued to influence English in more recent times. For example, many modern English words have been borrowed from Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish, such as "tourist," "smorgasbord," and "Ombudsman."

Overall, the Scandinavian languages have had a significant impact on the development of English, and the influence of these languages can still be seen in the modern English language. From vocabulary to grammar and syntax, the influence of Old Norse and the modern Scandinavian languages on English is undeniable.

Scandinavian Influence on the English Language

scandinavian influence on english language

There is also a large number of so called hybrid names, where one element is Scandinavian and the other is English. They include common, familiar, everyday words. Scandinavian loanwords are very interesting because they refer to ordinary things and because they retained in the language. Introduction LNG 2100 The History of the English Language Assignment 2 SCANDINAVIAN INFLUENCE- Compare and contrast with French influence. Of course, since the development of the Old English pronouns had led to them being very similar and a cause of ambiguity and misunderstandings, it was easy to accept the Norse variant Loyn 1994:82. The following list serves only illustrative purposes and is not in any way exhaustive, as there are around 900 Scandinavian words in Modern English. These kinds of tests, based on sound-developments in the two languages, are the most reliable means of distinguishing Scandinavian from native words.

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The Scandinavian Influence On The English Language English Language Essay

scandinavian influence on english language

In OE, this sound was palatalized to sh written sc , except in the combination scr while in ON it retained its hard sk sound. In this essay, I want to examine the influence of the Scandinavian language on English and to what extent it was responsible for the general changes mentioned above. For instance, borrowings such as sister, husband and birth are intimate family words and would most likely not have been borrowed unless the different peoples were living closely together. The issue of pronouns in Old English might seem far removed from contemporary life, but language, of course, is the currency of culture and life. Furthermore, they appears to have been brought into the language earlier than the other pronouns; writers in the 15th century used they but were still using the older forms her their and hem them Odenstedt 2000:87. Thus the word sister is taken from Scandinavian.

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Scandinavian Influences on the English Language

scandinavian influence on english language

Something like this could have lead to a lack of fertile land and therefore forced the leaders of their local societies to use an ancient custom to resolve this problem, the drawing of lots. In OE, this sound was palatalized to sh written sc , except in the combination scr while in ON it retained its hard sk sound. Video on Viking influence on the English language The losers were forced to leave their homeland with all their belongings and were condemned to live abroad. This essay will mainly focus on the French and Scandinavian language, and the impact these had on the English language, infiltrating its vocabulary and grammar, and discuss, as a whole, which made the biggest impact to form modern day English. Examples are till, dale, rim, blend, run and the Scottish bairn. The reasons for their sudden attacks and voyages are unknown; it is possible that they were of economic or political nature. Form grammatical words Scandinavian words that made their way into English were not only open class words nouns, adjectives and verbs.

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Scandinavian Influence on the English Language

scandinavian influence on english language

Some examples are burn, cole, drag, fast, hang, murk y , scrape, thick. This opened up the sea-routes and thus enabled the Scandinavians to travel south Barber 1993:127. And of course, either the Danes or the Norwegians speak the same language as they did 1000 years ago in Scandinavia. Verbs: call, gape, take, give, thrust. English became a language of free stress and became more open to lexical borrowings. The pronouns they, their, them are Scandinavian OE were hīe, hiera, him. Those who know one or the other can easily see the relationship to English, but English is certainly the one that has broken away the most from the others.

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The Scandinavian Influence on The English Language

scandinavian influence on english language

With this being projected on numerous occasions, it is clear how the internet could be used to teach non-standard English, without anyone aside from the linguist perceiving it. In fact, the words you use on daily basis, when you speak English, are full of old Norse words. We cannot even imagine the English vocabulary without them. The fact that even the pronouns they, them and their were accepted into the language shows what massive effectsthe Viking settlement had. The Vikings were the Germanic tribes of the Scandinavian Peninsula and Denmark. Baugh 1993:92 estimates the number of Scandinavian loanwords in English to be well over 1400, while Odenstedt 2000:53 mentions a more modest figure of at least 1000. These names are notable evidence that the Vikings once settled in England.

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The Scandinavian influence on the English language by Johannes Huhmann

scandinavian influence on english language

Of these, Loyn 1994:85 considers -by and -thorp to be the most significant elements, of which -by is found to a large extent in Yorkshire and in the areas of Lancashire, Lincolnshire and the central Midlands. Sometimes 3 meaning can help to determine the origin of the word. Though borrowed from Scandinavian, they, them and their are important currently in the politics of language and gender, said Evans. The Northern World: the History and Heritage London, 1980. It is also highly possible that some of the new inhabitants were bilingual. The Vikings, usually referred to as Danes, successfully took control of large parts of England, and towards the end of the ninth century their eyes turned to Wessex, the strongest of the Saxon kingdoms not yet under Danish control.


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Viking influence on the English language

scandinavian influence on english language

Previously these expeditions had been seasonal; winter was not a good time for war or travel, neither by sea nor by land. This situation could have resulted in six different scenarios Baugh and Cable 99-102; Ruiz Moneva 187-88. Instead, Evans argues, the scribe simply used a form of the word in common use in the area at the time--the Scandinavian-derived th- pronoun form. The following list serves only illustrative purposes and is not in any way exhaustive, as there are around 900 Scandinavian words in Modern English. Gates in London, such as 13 Newgate, were places literally at gates in the city wall, whereas in northern cites such as York the gate means street.

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Scandinavian influence on the English Language

scandinavian influence on english language

Similarly Old English sometimes had palatal c where Scandinavian retained the velar k. Thus the word awe is certainly of Scandinavian origin; the Old English form is ege. English has been shaped by a number of these other languages over the centuries, mainly French, Latin, German and Scandinavian. There probably existed words for the same concepts in OE, so the new words could have supplied no real need in the English vocabulary. There are many many more words in the English language that originate from Old Norse, so I made a short list below for you to check out. Even more Scandinavian words related to the legal area existed in Old English but were later replaced. Although little is known about the relations between the settlers and the English, it appears that the Scandinavians did not often force the Anglo-Saxon population to move elsewhere Leith 1997:22 ; instead, they mainly founded new settlements in areas that were less populated.

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Scandinavian Influence on English

scandinavian influence on english language

This was at the end of the Viking Age but that did not mean that Old Norse stopped being used in Britain; it was spoken for a long time thereafter as well. Influences of Celtic, Latin, Scandinavian and French left their mark from the beginning in Anglo-Saxon times onwards, and the colonial expansion of the British Empire in the last three centuries resulted in the contact with even more speech communities. The Age of the Vikings, starting around year 750 AD, had an important role in the making of modern Europe. Not much is known about the relation of the two languages. It is difficult to say if it was the Danes or Norwegians who affected the English language the most because the two languages are so similar.

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