The Scandinavian Influence On The English Language English Language Essay

The Scandinavian Influence On The incline Language face Language EssayThe Viking colonisation of the British Isles had a considerable effect on the English spoken communication and vocabulary. Even today, after hundreds of age, we can still see the assure of Scandinavian make. This paper deals with the function of Scandinavian on the English language. The aim of this paper is to show examples and explain the impact of Scandinavian on the English language.1. IntroductionThe history of English language is usually divided up into four major periods that can be justified two on the basis of linguistic differences and on the basis of historical withalts that influenced the later development of English language1. These periods be Old English (450-1150), Middle English (1150-1500), Early raw English (1500-1700) and Modern English (1700-present). These years are non strict boundaries but rough approximations.English has been influenced by many languages and one of them is Scandi navian (in the period of OE and ME). Scandinavian loans differ from other loans from the said(prenominal) period because they refer to common, everyday blushts and objects. Because of its extent, it is one of the most interesting of the foreign influences on the English language.2. The Scandinavian influence on the English languageTheir activities began in plunder and ended in conquest. (Baugh and Cable 92)2.1. Historical backgroundThe Viking Age lasted roughly from the middle of the eighth century to the beginning of the eleventh. The Vikings were the Germanic tribes of the Scandinavian Peninsula and Denmark. The reasons for their sudden attacks and voyages are unknown it is possible that they were of economic or political nature. In their adventures the Swedes established a kingdom in Russia Norwegians colonized parts of the British Isles, the Faroes, and Iceland, and from at that place pushed on to Greenland and the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland the Danes founded the duk edom of Normandy and finally conquered England (Baugh 92). Vikings conquered large areas of England but were stopped by King Alfred of Wessex. He signed the Treaty of Wedmore (878) with Gunthrum, the Viking leader. The treaty defined the boundary line, travel rapidly roughly from Chester to London, to the east of which the Vikings were to remain (Berndt 1989 22). This area was where Danish law and customs were followed and would later be known as the Danelaw. In the beginning of the eleventh century, the Vikings reached the aggrandisement of their achievement Cnut, king of Denmark, conquered Nor focusing England and obtained the throne of England (Berndt 23).Viking invasions led to an immigration wave from Scandinavia. Although most of the wise inhabitants were Danes, there were also Norwegians and Swedes. The twain peoples, the English and the Scandinavian, amalgamated. As is described in Baugh and Cable (98), the Scandinavians intermarried with the English, adopted many of th eir customs and accepted Christianity. Not much is known about the relation of the two languages. In fewwhat places the Scandinavian gave up their language early and in some places Norse was spoken as late as the seventeenth century. It is also highly possible that some of the new inhabitants were bilingual. Old Norse and Old English were similar languages so it is highly probable that the two may even have been mutually intelligible to a limited extent (Baugh and Cable 96) which made the process of borrowing and adoption easier.2.2. Scandinavian place- labelMany places in today England bear Scandinavian names (more than 1,400). These names are notable evidence that the Vikings once settled in England. These places are mostly situated in the district of the Danelaw but are not uni cast of charactersly distributed (Berndt 22, 64). According to Baugh and Cable (98-99), there are more than 600 places with names ending in -by (such as Whitby, Grimsby). The Scandinavian enunciate by m eans farm or town the parole can also be seen in by-law (town law). approximately 300 place-names end in the Scandinavian word thorp that means village (like Althorp, Bishopsthorpe, Linthorpe). in that respect are almost as much place-names that contain the word thwaite, an isolated piece of land (e.g. Applethwaite, Langthwaite). Around a hundred end in toft, a piece of ground, a messuage (Brimtoft, Nortoft).Even personal names bear witness to the Scandinavian influence. Names with the suffix -son like Stevenson or Johnson are the Scandinavian tantamount(predicate) of OE patronymic -ing (as in Browning).2.3. The tests of borrowed courseAs previously stated, Old English and Old Norse were similar languages some common wrangle of the two languages were even identical. Therefore, in some cases, it is difficult to determine whether a word in Modern English is native or a borrowed word. However, there are some reliable criteria that help to determine the origin of the word. Baugh an d Cable (96-97) enumerate and exemplify three criteria. One of the simplest is (1) the development of the sound sk. In OE, this sound was palatalized to sh (written sc), keep out in the combination scr while in ON it retained its hard sk sound. So, for example, native words like ship and fish have sh in Modern English, whereas words borrowed from Scandinavian are still pronounced with sk sky, skin, skill, scrape, whisk. An interesting example is that of the OE word scyrte that became skirt in Modern English, whereas the corresponding ON form skyrta became skirt. The belongings of the hard pronunciation of k and g in words such as kid, raise, give, and egg indicates Scandinavian origin. Occasionally, (2) the vowel of a word helps to determine the origin. For example, the Germanic diphthong ai became in OE ( in Modern English) and in ON it became ei or . Some examples of borrowed words are aye, nay, hale, reindeer and swain. These kinds of tests, based on sound-developments in the two languages, are the most reliable means of distinguishing Scandinavian from native words. Sometimes (3) meaning can help to determine the origin of the word. The Modern English word bloom (flower) could have come from OE blma or Scandinavian blm. The OE word meant an ingot of iron, whereas the Scandinavian word meant flower, bloom. The ON meaning is the one in median(a) use while the OE word has survived as a term in metallurgy. Another example where meaning helps us to determine the origin of the word is the word gift. In OE this word meant the price of a wife, and thus marriage in the plural, whereas the ON word had a more general sense with the meaning of gift, present.2.4. Scandinavian loanwordsAlthough the Scandinavian loan words began to enter the English language probably at the same time when the Vikings settled spate (the period of Old English), the evidence in writing can be found mostly in Middle English texts. The loanwords were recorded long after they came in use because it took some time before they entered the standard English. Baugh and Cable divided the early loanwords (in OE) into two separates. The first group constitute words associated with sea-roving and predatory people (99). The second group is made out of words relating to the law or characteristic of the social and administrative system of Danelaw (99). After the Norman Conquest, most of the words from the second group were replaced by the French terms and thus can no longer be found in Modern English.It was only after the Danes had begun to settle down that Scandinavian words started to enter in greater numbers into language. We cannot divide these words into different domains of thought or experience because Scandinavian loanwords are wide-ranging and simple (as opposed to the French or Latin loanwords). They include common, familiar, everyday words. The following list serves only illustrative purposes and is not in any way exhaustive, as there are around 900 Scandinavian w ords in Modern English.NOUNSaxle-treebandbankbirthboonboothbrink forgecalf (of leg)crookdirtdown (feathers)dregseggfellowfrecklegaitgapgirthguesshaphusband keelkidlawleglinkloanmireracereef (of sail)reindeerriftrootscabscalesscorescrap initiatesisterskillskinskirtskyslaughtersnarestacksteakswainthrifttidingstrustwantwindowADJECTIVES awkwardflatilllooselowmeekmuggyoddrottenruggedscantseemlyslytatteredtight ricketyVERBSbaitbaskbattencalcastclipcowcravecrawldiedroopegg (on)flitgapegaspgetgiveglitterhitkindleliftlugnagraiserakeran-sackridrivescarescout (an idea)scowl bellyachesnubsprinttakethrivethrustAs already mentioned, these words are very common and of everyday use. There probably existed words for the same concepts in OE, so the new words could have supplied no real need in the English vocabulary. However, these words made their way into the English as the result of the mixture of two peoples. Scandinavian loanwords are very interesting because they refer to ordinary things and be cause they retained in the language. As Ruiz Moneva (184) points out, the most strategic source languages at OE and ME period were Celtic, Latin, French and Scandinavian. But, contrarily to what had happened with the Celts, the Scandinavian influence upon the English language is characterized by its intensity, the great and important areas of the language which were affected (Ruiz Moneva 184).As previously stated, at one time, both languages were used side by side. This situation could have resulted in six different scenarios (Baugh and Cable 99-102 Ruiz Moneva 187-88). (1) If words in the two languages coincided more or less in form and meaning, the modern word stands at the same time for both its English and its Scandinavian ancestors. Some examples are burn, cole, drag, fast, hang, murk(y), scrape, thick. (2) If there were differences in form, the English word often survived. Some examples are bench, goat, hea hence, yarn, few, grey, loath, leap, flay. Corresponding Scandinavian forms can often be found in ME literature and in some cases they still exist in dialectal use (e.g. screde, skelle, skere with the hard pronunciation of the initial consonant group the standard English forms are shred, shell, sheer). (3) In some cases, the Scandinavian word replaced the native word, often after two had long remained in use concurrently. For example, the word awe is of Scandinavian origin and its cognate eye (aye) was an OE word. In the earlier part of the ME period the English word was more common, but later on (by 1300) the Scandinavian form appeared more often and finally replaced the Old English word. The same happened with the words for egg ey (English) and egg (Scandinavian) words for sister OE sweostor, ON syster the ON verb take replaced the OE niman. (4) Sometimes, both the English and Scandinavian words survived with a difference of meaning or use (the English word is given first) no-nay, whole-hale, rear-raise, from-fro, craft-skill, hide-skin, sick-ill . (5) Some native words that were not in common use were reinforced or reintroduced from the Scandinavian. Examples are till, dale, rim, blend, run and the Scottish bairn. (6) Finally, the English word might have been modified by victorious on some characteristics of the corresponding Scandinavian word. Examples include give and get with their hard g and Thursday instead of the OE Thunresdg.2.5. Form (grammatical) wordsScandinavian words that made their way into English were not only open class words (nouns, adjectives and verbs). The Scandinavian influence extended to grammatical words pronouns, prepositions, adverbs, and even a part of the verb to be. This is not a common case when it comes to borrowing. The pronouns they, their, them are Scandinavian (OE were he, hiera, him). Both and same, although they are not pronouns, have pronominal uses and are of Scandinavian origin. Some other examples include the conjunction though, adverbs aloft, athwart, aye (ever) and seemly. One of the most important Scandinavian words in English is the present plural of the verb to be are. The Scandinavian form took place of both or sind.2.6. Syntax and grammarScholars do not agree on the Scandinavian influence on the English syntax. Baugh and Cable (103-105) read that the Scandinavian influence not only affected the vocabulary but also extended to syntax. They admit that it is less capable of exact demonstration, but then conclude that it is hardly to be doubted (103). Kirch (503), on the other hand, argues that all of the previous claims made about the influence of Scandinavian on English syntax are the subject of much controversy. It was considered that these syntactic features originated from Scandinavian (1) relative clauses without pronouns, (2) the omission of the conjunction that, (3) the use of shall and will in Middle English, (4) the genitive before nouns (Kirch 503). But Kirch (503-510) refutes the quoted features and concludes that the probe turns up no posi tive proof of Scandinavian influence on English syntax (510). Berndt does not even mention syntax, so it is possible that he considers that Scandinavian did influence it.3. ConclusionAs we have seen, even today, after so many years, we can still see the evidence of Scandinavian influence in English. There are thousands of place-names of Scandinavian origin. Many common and everyday words have Scandinavian origin. We cannot even imagine the English vocabulary without them. What is even more fascinating is that Scandinavian left an imprint on grammatical words and possibly syntax, which is a rare case when it comes to borrowing. It can be conclude that Scandinavian has had significant impact on the development of the English vocabulary.