From: Alan Thompson
Message: 4089
Date: 2004-01-24
--- In norse_course@yahoogroups.com, pdhanssen@... wrote:
>
> There's a book entitled "The Viking Legacy" by Geipel
> dealing with the Norse contribution/influence to the English language.
>
>
>
>
> In a message dated 1/17/2004 1:04:37 AM Eastern Standard Time,
athompso@... writes:
>
> >
> >
> > The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (Ed. David
Crystal)
> > claims that, quote, "many general words (of Norse origin) entered
the
> > language, nearly 1,000 eventually becoming part of Standard English.
> > Only c. 150 of these words appear in Old English manuscripts, the
> > earliest in the treaty between Alfred and Guthrum, and in the
northern
> > manuscripts of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. They include landing,
score,
> > beck fellow, take, husting and steersman, as well as many words
which
> > did not survive in later English )mostly terms to do with Danish
law and
> > culture, which died away after the Norman Conquest. The vast
majority of
> > loans do not begin to appear until the early 12th century. These
include
> > many of our modern words which use sk- sounds (an Old Norse
feature),
> > such as skirt, sky and skin, as well as most of the words listed
below.
> > The closeness of the contact between the Anglo-Saxons and the Danish
> > settlers is clearly shown by the extensive borrowings. Some of the
> > commonest words in Modern English came into the language at that
time,
> > such as both, same, get and give. Even the personal pronoun system
was
> > affected, with they, them and their replacing the earlier forms.
And the
> > most remarkable invasion of all - Old Norse influenced the verb to
be.
> > The replacement of sindon by are is almost certainly the result of
> > Scandinavian influence, as is the spread of the third person
singular -s
> > ending in the present tense of other verbs.
> >
> > A few more Norse loans...again, anger, awkward, bag, band, bank,
birth,
> > brink, bull, cake, call, clip, crawl, crook, die, dirt, dregs, egg,
> > flat, fog, freckle, gap, gasp, get, guess, happy, husband, ill,
keel,
> > kid, knife, law, leg, loan, low, muggy, neck, odd, outlaw, race,
raise,
> > ransack, reindeer, rid, root, rugged, scant, scare, scowl, scrap,
seat,
> > seem, silver, sister, skill, skirt, sly, smile, snub, sprint, steak,
> > take, thrift, Thursday, tight, trust, want, weak, window"
> >
> > While the Encyclopedia says nearly 1,000 words, A.C. Baugh in A
History
> > of the English Language suggests that while about this number of
words
> > are of almost certain Norse origin, at least as many again are of
> > probable Norse origin.
> >
> > I hope this helps
> >
> > -Alyssean
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