"Much more can be made out concerning the language of the
Scandinavian settlers from their personal names, the names they gave
to places, and the Norse loanwords in Old and Middle English. OE.
documents and inscriptions from the Scandinavian areas show that
there was not much blending of Norse and English during the OE.
period. Norse loanwords first become numerous in English in the
twelfth century. The Norse inscriptions also prove that Norse was
still used in some districts as a distinct language as late as the
twelfth century. Comparisons of the Norse loanwords in English with
literary Old Norse shows, however, that the forms adopted in English
were nearly the same as those of the viking period, such as appear
in inscriptions 11 and 12. (Note: these inscriptions are not
included in this post) Evidently the phonology of Norse changed very
little in England from the time of its introduction, c.875-950,
until the adoption of loanwords in English (chiefly 1050-1200). The
Norse forms that lie behind the loanwords are much more archaic than
those of the thirteenth-century Icelandic of selections 1-16. (Note:
these selections are not included in this post). It is clear that
the following changes had not taken place:

(1) Loss of final U: OE lagu = OI lög.
(2) U-mutation by retained U: ME axeltre = OI öxultré. But U-mutation
was usually absent in all types, as in ME addle = OI öðlask.
(3) Except initially, the stress had not been shifted in diphthongs,
as in ME derue, which presupposes ON dearfr - OI djarfr; but cf.
ME joten (Wars of Alexander) = OI jötunn; York = OI. Jórk; ME
jarme = OI jarma.
(4) w-mutation of a preceeding long vowel: ME has 'skew','skiw' from
the nom. 'skíw', beside 'sky' from the oblique cases with J-mut-
ation (stem 'skiuj-').
(5) Loss of W in certain positions: ME wrang = OI rangr. Loss of W
after Ó was not complete, the W surviving in some words as a bi-
labial V, giving V in ME. Thus ME has 'grove' = OI gróa, 'rove'
(beside 'ro') = OI ró 'rest' and ró 'rivet-plate'. Except in this
position the change of Norse W to bilabial V had not taken place
in Anglo-Norse: ME wand = OI vöndr.
(6) Assimilation of HT, MP, NK, NT is found only in a few words,
which were probably introduced later than the others (by the Nor-
wegians in the tenth century): ME aghtle = OI ætla, ME banke = OI
bakki; cf. ME attle, ettle from ONorw. ætla; ME slakke, from
ONorw. slakke 'hollow'.
(7) Final H was not lost: ME þoh = Icel. þó.
(8) Loss of N before L and W: OE Anlaf (but also Olafar) and Inwær =
OI Ólafr, Ívarr.
(9) Loss of Ð before N not complete: OE Scóneg = Icel. Skáney, ME.
bayne, but also ME bayþene, from 'beiðna'

Note: this post shall be continued under the heading "Anglo-Norse
Evidence from E.V. Gordon - Part 3"