History of english language

The Amalgamation of the Two Peoples
The amalgamation of two peoples is facilitating with the close kinship among them. The difficulty of English was not the absorption of an alien race instead of alien culture and talking a totally unfamiliar tongue. The rule of the English kings in the period when they were re-establishing their have power over the Danelaw was to accept as an conventional detail the merge population of the area and to piece of equipment a modus vivendi for its part basics. In this attempt they were aided by the normal compliance of the Scandinavian. Conception of get in touch with alien communities, into which their many enterprises had brought them, had made the Scandinavians a sophisticated people. The consciousness resultant from a study of early English institutions is that in spite of certain native customs which the Danes continued to observe their adapted themselves largely to the ways of English life. That many of them early accepted Christianity is attested by the large number of Scandinavian names found not only among monks and abbots, priests and bishops, but also among those who gave land to monasteries and endowed churches. It would be a great mistake to think of the relation between Anglo-Saxon and Dane, especially in the tenth century, as uniformly hostile. One must distinguish, as we have said, between the predatory bands that continued to traverse the country and the large numbers that were settled peacefully on the land. Alongside the ruins of English towns- Symeon of Durham reports that the city of Carlisle remained uninhabited for two hundred years after its destruction by the Danes- there existed important communities established by newcomers had fled, and preferring this form of settlement to too scattered a distribution in a strange land. Among such centers the Five Boroughs- Lincoln, Stamford, Leicester, Derby, and Nottingham- became the important foci of Scandinavian influence. It was but a question of time until these large centers and the multitude of smaller communities where the Northmen gradually settled were absorbed into the general mass of the English population.

The Relation of the Two Languages
The relation between the two languages in the district settled by the Danes is a matter of inference rather than exact knowledge. It usually has similarity as we can see in numerous parts of the world today where people speaking different languages are found living side by side in the same region. While in some places, the Scandinavians gave up their language early there were certainly communities in which Danish or Norse remained for some time other usual language. Up until the Norman Conquest the Scandinavian language in England was constantly being renewed by the steady stream of trade and conquest. In some parts of Scotland, Norse was still spoken as late as 1100 and considerable number who were to a greater or lesser degree bilingual. The last-named circumstance is rendered more likely by the frequent intermarriage between the two races and by the similarity between the two tongues. The Anglian dialect resembled the language of the Northmen in a number of particulars in which West Saxon showed divergence. The two may even have been mutually intelligible to a limited extent. Contemporary statements on the subject are conflicting and it is difficult to arrive at a conviction but wherever the truth lies in this debatable question, there can be no doubt that the basis existed for an extensive interaction of the two languages upon each other, and this conclusion is amply borne out by the large number of Scandinavian elements subsequently found in English.

The Tests of Borrowed Words
The similarity between Old English and the language of the Scandinavian invaders makes it at times very difficult to decide whether a given word in Modern English is a native or a borrowed word. Many of the more common words of the two languages were identical, and if we had no Old English literature from the period before the Danish invasions, e should be unable to say that many words were not of Scandinavian origin. In certain cases, however, we have very reliable criteria by which we can recognize a borrowed word. These tests are not such as the lay person can generally apply, although occasionally they are sufficiently simple. The most reliable depend upon differences in the development of certain sounds in the North Germanic and West Germanic areas. One of the simplest to recognize is the development of the sound sk. In Old English this was early palatalized to sh (written sc), except possibly in the combination scr, whereas in the Scandinavian countries it retained its hard sk sound. Consequently, while native words like ship, shall, fish, have sh in the Modern English, words borrowed from the Scandinavians are generally still pronounced with sk: sky, skin, skill, scrape, scrub, bask, whisk. The OE scyrte has become shirt, while the corresponding ON form skyrta gives us skirt. In the same way, the retention of the hard pronunciation of k and g in such words as kid, dike (cf. ditch), get, give, gild, and egg is an indication of Scandinavian origin. Occasionally, though not very often, the vowel of a word gives clear proof of borrowing. For example, the Germanic diphthong ai becomes ā in Old English (and has become ō in Modern English) but became ei or ē in Old Scandinavian. Thus aye, nay (beside no from the native word), hale (cf. the English form (w)hole), reindeer, and swain are borrowed words, and many more examples can be found in Middle English and in the modern dialects. Thus there existed in Middle English the forms geit, gait, which are from Scandinavian, beside gāt, gōt from the OE word. The native word has survived in Modern English goat. In the same way the Scandinavian word for loathsome existed in Middle English as leiþ, laiþ, beside lāþ, lōþ. Such tests as these, based on sound-developments in the two languages, are the most reliable means of distinguishing Scandinavian from native words. But occasionally meaning gives a fairly reliable test. Thus our word bloom (flower) could come equally well from OE blōma or Scandinavian blōm. But the OE word meant an ‘ingot of iron’, whereas the Scandinavian word meant ‘flower, bloom’. It happens that the Old English word has survived as a term in metallurgy, but it is the Old Norse word that has come down in ordinary use. Again, if the initial g in gift did not betray the Scandinavian origin of this word, we should be justified in suspecting it from the fact that the cognate OE word gift meant the ‘price of a wife’, and hence in the plural ‘marriage’, whereas the ON word had the more general sense of ‘gift, present’. When neither the form of a word nor its meaning proves its Scandinavian origin we can never be sure that we are dealing with a borrowed word. The fact that an original has not been preserved in Old English is no proof that such an original did not exist. Nevertheless when a word appears in Middle English that cannot be traced to an Old English source but for which an entirely satisfactory original exists in Old Norse, and when that word occurs chiefly in texts written in districts where Danish influence was strong, or when it has survived in dialectal use in this districts today, the probability that we have here a borrowed word is fairly strong. In every case final judgment must rest upon a careful consideration of all the factors involved.

Scandinavian Place-Names
There are many places in England that bear Scandinavian names. It is more than 600 places like Grimsby, Whitby, Derby, Rugby, and Thoresby, with names ending in –by, nearly all of them in the district occupied by Danes; we have a striking evidence of the number of Danes who settled in England. For these names all contain the Danish word by, meaning ‘farm’ or ‘town’, a word that is also seen in word by-law (town law). Some 300 names like Althorp, Bishops-thorpe, Gawthorpe, and Linthorpe contain the Scandinavian word thorp (village). An almost equal number contain the word thwaite (an isolated piece of land)- Applethwaite, Braithwaite, Cowperthwaite, Langthwaite, Satterthwaite. About a hundred places bear names ending in toft (a piece of ground, a messuage)- Brimtoft, Eastoft, Langtoft, Lowestoft, Nortoft. It has been remarked above that more than 1,400 Scandinavian place-names have been counted in England, and the number will undoubtedly be increased when a more careful survey of the material has been made. The names are not uniformly distributed over the Danelaw. The largest numbers are found in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. In some districts in these counties as many as 75 percent of the place-names are of Scandinavian origin. Again, names ending in –son, like Stevenson or Johnson, conform to characteristic Scandinavian custom, the equivalent of Old English patronymic being –ing, as in Browning.

The Earliest Borrowing
The extent of the influence on English was not as much as we expected because in the early relations of the invaders with the English were too hostile to allow to much intercourse. The infiltration of other words into the vocabulary needed time as the Anglo-Saxons learned from their enemies to find their own way into literature. The number of Scandinavian words in Old English is only two score. The largest single group of these is such as would be associated with a sea-roving and predatory people. Some words such as barda, cnearr, scegþ, liþ,scegþmann, dreng, hā, and hā-sǣta, bātswegen, hofding, orrest, rān, and fylcian express in what respects the invaders chiefly impressed the English. Then, we find a number of words relating to the law or characteristic of the social and administrative system of the Danelaw. The word law itself is originally from Scandinavian, as is the word outlaw. English legal terminology underwent a complete reshaping after the Norman Conquest, and most of these words have been replaced now by terms from the French. But their temporary existence in the language is an evidence of the extent to which Scandinavian customs entered into the life of the districts in which the Danes were numerous.

Scandinavian Loanwords and Their Character
After Danes had begun to settle down and enter into the ordinary relations of life with the English that Scandinavian words began to increase into the language. Nevertheless, the Danes contributions to culture and therefore to the English language were not significant. The Danish invasions were very much like that of the English themselves. Consequently the Scandinavian elements that entered the English language are such as would make their way into it through the give-and-take of everyday life. Their character can best be conveyed by a few examples, arranged simply in alphabetical order. Among nouns that came in are axle-tree, band, bank, birth, boon, booth, brink, bull, calf, crook, dirt, down, dregs, egg, fellow, freckle, gait, gap, girth, guess, hap, keel, kid, leg, link, loan, mire, race, reef, reindeer, rift, root, scab, scales, score, scrap, seat, sister, skill, skin, skirt, sky, slaughter, snare, stack, steak, swain, thrift, tidings, trust, want, window. Among adjectives are awkward, flat, ill, loose, low, meek, muggy, odd, rotten, rugged, scant, seemly, sly, tattered, tight, and weak. There are also in common verbs, like to bait, bask, batten, call, cast, clip, cow, crave, crawl, die, droop, egg (on), flit, gape, gasp, get, give, glitter, kindle, lift, lug, nag, raise, rake, ransack, rid, rive, scare, scout, scowl, screech, snub, sprint, tale, thrive, thrust. Everyday character of the words that the Scandinavian invasions and subsequent settlement brought into English.


The Relation of Borrowed and Native Words
From the words in the above list that in many cases the new words could have supplied no real need in the English Vocabulary. The Scandinavian and the English words were being used side by side, and the survival of one or the other must often have been a matter of chance. Under such circumstances a number of things might happen.
1. Where 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, such as burn, cole, drag, fast, gang, murk(y), scrape, thick.
2. Where there were differences of form, the English word often survived. Beside such English words as bench, goat, heathen, yarn, few, grey, loath, leap, flay, corresponding Scandinavian forms are found quite often in Middle English literature and in some cases still exist in dialectical use. Again where the same idea was expressed by different words in the two languages it was often the English word that lived on. The area in which the two languages existed for a time side by side was confined to the northern and eastern half of England. For example, the Scandinavian words attlen beside English think (in the sense of purpose, intend).
3. In other cases the Scandinavian word replaced the native word, often after the two had long remained in use concurrently. In the earlier part of the Middle English period the English word is commoner, but by 1300 the Scandinavian form begins to appear with increasing frequency, and finally replaces the old English word.
4. Occasionally both the English and the Scandinavian words were retained with a difference of meaning or use, as in the following pairs: no-nay, whole-hale, rear-raise.
5. In certain cases a native word that was apparently not in common use was reinforced, if not introduced, from Scandinavian. In this way we must account for such words as till, dale, rim, blend, run, and the Scottish bairn.
6. The last, the English word might be modified, taking on some of the character of the corresponding Scandinavian word. Give and get with their hard g are examples. Some confusion must have existed in the Danish area between the Scandinavian and the English form of many words (shriek and screech). All this merely goes to do with the intimate mingling of two tongues.

Form Words
The evidence we needed of the intimate relation that existed between the two languages, it would be found in the fact that the Scandinavian words that made their way in English were not confined to nouns and adjectives and verbs but extended to pronouns, prepositions, adverbs, and even a part of the verb to be. Such parts of speech are not often transferred from one language to another. The pronouns they, their, and them are Scandinavian. Old English used hīe, hiera, him. Possibly the Scandinavian words were felt to be less subject to confusion with forms of the singular. Moreover, though these are the most important, they are not the only Scandinavian pronouns to be found in English. The preposition till was at one time widely used in the tense of to, besides having its present meaning; and fro, likewise in common use formerly as the equivalent of from, survives in the phrase to and fro. The adverbs aloft, athwart, aye (ever), and seemly, and the earlier heþen (hence) and hweþen (whence), are all derived from the Scandinavian. Finally the present plural are of the verb to be is a most significant adoption. So, in the expression they are both pronoun and the verb are Scandinavian we realize once more how intimately the language of the invaders has entered into English.


Scandinavian Influence outside the Standard Speech
We should miss the full significance of the Scandinavian influence if we failed to recognize the extent to which it is found outside the standard speech. Our older literature and the modern dialects are full of words that are not now in ordinary use. The ballads offer many examples. When the Geste of Robin Hood begins “Lythe and listin, gentilmen” it has for its first word an Old Norse synonym for listen. When a llittle later on the Sheriff of Nottingham says to Little John, “Say me nowe, wight yonge man, What is nowe thy name?” he uses the ON vigt (strong, courageous). Example could be multiplied, but it is sufficiently evident that there is much Scandinavian material in the dialects besides what has found its way into the standard speech.

Effect on Grammar and Syntax
That the Scandinavian influence not only affected the vocabulary but also extended to matters of grammar and syntax as well is less capable of exact demonstration but is hardly to be doubted. Inflections are seldom transferred from one language to another. A certain number of inflectional elements peculiar to the Northumbrian dialect have been attributed to Scandinavian influence, among other –s of the third person singular, present indicative, of verbs and the participial ending –and (bindand), corresponding to –end and –ind in the Midlands and South, and now replaced by –ing. The words scant, want, athwart preserve in the final t the neuter adjective ending of Old Norse. But this is of no great significance. It is more important to recognize that in many words the English and Scandinavian language differed chiefly in their inflectional elements. The body of the word was so nearly the same in the two languages that only the endings would put obstacles in the way of mutual understanding. Likewise, the way words are put together in phrases and clauses –what we call syntax- is something in which languages less often influence one another than in matters of vocabulary. The probability of such influence naturally varies with degree of intimacy that exists between the speakers of two languages. Indeed, it is possible that similarities such as these are merely coincidences that the Scandinavian languages and English happened to develop in these respects along similar lines. But there is nothing improbable in the assumption that certain Scandinavian turns of phrase and certain particular usages should have found their way into the idiom of people in no small part Danish in descent and living in intimate contact with the speakers of a Scandinavian tongue.

Period and Extent of the Influence
It is hardly possible to estimate the extent of the Scandinavian influence by the number of borrowed words that exist in Standard English. That number, if we restrict the list to those for which the evidence is fully convincing, is about 900. These, as the examples given above show, are almost always words designating common everyday things and fundamental concepts. To this group we should probably be justified adding an equal number in which a Scandinavian origin is probable or in which the influence of Scandinavian forms has entered. Locally, the Scandinavian influence was tremendous. The period during which this large Danish element was making its way into the English vocabulary was doubtless the tenth and eleventh centuries. This was period during which the merging of the two people was taking place. The occurrence of many of the borrowed words in written records is generally somewhat later. A considerable number first make their appearance in the Ormulum at the beginning of the thirteenth century. But we must attribute this fact to the scarcity of literary texts of an earlier date, particularly from the region of the Danelaw. Because of its extent and the intimate way in which the borrowed elements were incorporated, the Scandinavian influence is one of the most interesting of the foreign influences that have contributed to the English language.