"As it is known when the Scandinavians came to England, the recon-
struction of the forms borrowed from them in English gives valuable
evidence of the quality of Norse sounds of that time and so of the
chronology of Norse sound-changes in the viking period. Thus loss of
Ð before N and of W after Ó can be dated ninth century; loss of
final H and final U are later than c.900; assimilation of HT, NT, NK
belongs to the first half of the tenth century; loss of N before L
and W is later than before R, and probably later than 950.
"The loanwords occasionally indicate forms that were peculiar to
Anglo-Norse. Thus ME has 'syte'(sorrow) presupposing Norse 'syt' =
Icel. sút. Either the levelling of the varying vowel of the i-stem
nouns had not taken place, or had taken place in the opposite
direction from the recorded forms in ON. OE also has 'hager'(skilful)
= OI hagr, gen. hags. The English form presupposes a Norse hagr, gen.
hagrs, and it is likely that such a declension of the word was
developed in Anglo-Norse on the analogy of 'fagr', gen. fagrs. No
doubt phonological changes also took place in Anglo-Norse, but they
are difficult to trace with certainty, and may have been parallel
with OE changes rather than with continental Norse. In its latest
stage Anglo-Norse evidently fell into the same state as the latest
Anglo-Norman, corrupt and Anglicized; this is illustrated by the
Pennington inscription, p.186. (Note: the "Pennington" inscription
reads as follows: '(ka)mial seti þesa kirk hubert masun uan' = OI
Gamall setti þessa kirkju; H. masun vann. The inscription is dated
to around 1150)
The composite origin of Anglo-Norse (Danish and Norwegian) is
illustrated by the loanwords in English. Though Danish and Norwegian
were not very different at the time of the settlements, a certain
number of the loanwords can be distinguished as belonging definitely
to one or the other. Words of Norwegian origin are: busk (WN búask),
boen (WN búinn), bú 'cattle', bú 'inhabitant'(WN búi), bouþ (WN búð);
words with i- j-mutation where it was absent in EN: lire (WN hlýr)
'face', þreue 'thrave' (WN þrefi); words containing assimilation of
HT, NK, NT: stutte (WN stytta) 'to stint', rukke (cf.WN hrukka
'wrinkle') 'to clean armour by rolling it', and slakke, attle, ettle;
three words of Celtic origin, brought by the settlers from Ireland:
caple (WN kapall) 'horse', cross (WN kross), erg (WN erg) 'hill-
pasture'. Probably also some words which are recorded only in WN:
addle (WN öðlask), greiðe, hold (WN höldr) 'large landholder', glaum,
gill, scale 'shieling', &co. Of Danish origin were tro 'faith',
boþ 'booth', bone 'ready', bule, kunung, hul 'hollow', hulm 'low-
lying land', lune 'peace' (ODan lugn), sum 'as', þraue, keling
'codfish'(ODan kéla), leghe 'pay'(ODan légha). Probably also some
words recorded only in EN, as busk 'bush', harsk 'harsh', kay 'left',
&co. It is uncertain whether ME dejen 'to die' is from ODan döja, or
from unrecorded OE 'dégan'; WN deyja would have given ME 'dejjenn'
in the Orrmulum, the only ME text which gives definite evidence of
the quality of the diphthong. So far as the chronology of the change
EY to Ö can be ascertained, Danish origin is possible, but not
probable, as few Norse loanwords, if any, came to England from the
continent after c.950."
The post entitled "Anglo-Norse Evidence from E.V. Gordon" is hereby
concluded. Comments, related material, and observations are welcome.