Re: s-stems in Slavic and Germanic

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott" <BMScott@...> wrote:

>
> At 2:06:17 PM on Friday, February 6, 2009, Andrew Jarrette
> wrote:
>
> > Then again, England's North spoke a Scandinavian language
> > for quite some time,
>
> There were significant numbers of speakers of Scandinavian
> languages up to about 1100, but English never disappeared.
> There was enough Scandinavian influence to suggest a fair
> degree of bilingualism, and it's likely that English exerted
> a comparable influence on the local Norse dialect(s). The
> centre of Norse influence on ME seems to have been the East
> Midlands (e.g., Lindsey): 'Norsified' ME shows a core of
> Midlands traits and does not appear to have an Old
> Northumbrian basis. (I recommend the extensive and detailed
> discussion in Thomason & Kaufman.)
>
> Brian
>

OK. I was basing the description "North" on my impression, from
extensive consultation, that the majority of words of Scandinavian
origin in the OED are labelled "Scot. and north.", i.e. survive only
in Scots and northern dialects. This led me to believe that the
centre of surviving Scandinavian speech must have been fairly
northern. Were there two or several areas of major Scandinavian
influence, one in Scotland, one in England's North, and one in the
East Midlands? By the way, what are the traits in these
Scandinavian-origin words or language that are distinctively Midlands
rather than Old Northumbrian?

Andrew