> A group of my fellow students interested in language and I
> often sit around and discuss language. Together, we speak
> Arabic, French, Spanish, Russian, German, Japanese, and so
> on. Basically as a group, at least one of us can speak any
> language you throw at us. We each have our own language
> interests. I represent Old Norse amongst others. An
> "argument" that we had one day, in which I was defending Old
> Norse against a young French scholar and a young Latin
> scholar, an interesting question was raised that I could not
> answer. I would like to know how much of English is from Old Norse.
> That was the argument: whether English is more Latin, French,
> or Old Norse (aside from it being rooted in German - the
> Anglo-Saxons). What perent of the English language is rooted
> in Old Norse. If anyone know the answer to this question, it
> may greatly aid and strengthen my defense!
> Thank you,
> William Calhoun

Interesting question! I don't know the answer, but I do know that almost a
quarter of the monosyllabic words that I've studied have ON roots. Also,
words like 'anger' and 'finger' have ON roots, rather than Germanic roots
through Anglo-Saxon channels. I'd love to do a computerised count of the
Oxford Unabridged dictionary and find out the answer. :)