Assess the nature and extent of the Scandinavian influence on the English Language.
Answers
Answered by
10
Apart from Greek, Latin, and French, only Scandinavian is the language whom the Anglo Saxons called ‘Danes’ that has made a substantial contribution to the English vocabulary.
Scandinavia is today’s Norway, Sweden, and Denmark: The Scandinavian invaders were known as Vikings.
With the proper setting down of the Scandinavians in England, Scandinavian words entered the English language in large numbers. Unlike the Latin language where the borrowings were usually learned, the Scandinavian borrowings were in the realm of daily give-and-take transactions.
An enormous similarity is found between the Scandinavian language and the English language. Scandinavian influence gave a fresh lease of life to obsolete native words. Further, some native words lost their original meaning the moment they encountered their Scandinavian counterpart. There exist a large number of places that bear Scandinavian names. More than 600 places in English have names ending in a way which clearly is an evidence of Scandinavian influence.
Scandinavia is today’s Norway, Sweden, and Denmark: The Scandinavian invaders were known as Vikings.
With the proper setting down of the Scandinavians in England, Scandinavian words entered the English language in large numbers. Unlike the Latin language where the borrowings were usually learned, the Scandinavian borrowings were in the realm of daily give-and-take transactions.
An enormous similarity is found between the Scandinavian language and the English language. Scandinavian influence gave a fresh lease of life to obsolete native words. Further, some native words lost their original meaning the moment they encountered their Scandinavian counterpart. There exist a large number of places that bear Scandinavian names. More than 600 places in English have names ending in a way which clearly is an evidence of Scandinavian influence.
Answered by
4
Scandinavian words that advanced into English were not just open class words (nouns, adjectives, and verbs). The Scandinavian impact reached out to syntactic words - pronouns, relational words, intensifiers, and even a piece of the verb to be. This isn't a typical situation with regards to borrowing.
As we have seen, even today, after such a significant number of years, we can, in any case, observe the confirmation of Scandinavian impact in English. There are a great many place-names of the Scandinavian source. Numerous common and ordinary words have a Scandinavian starting point.
We can't envision the English vocabulary without them. What is more intriguing that Scandinavian left an engraving on syntactic words and perhaps linguistic structure, which is an uncommon situation with regards to borrowing. It can be presumed that Scandinavian has significantly affected the improvement of the English vocabulary.
As we have seen, even today, after such a significant number of years, we can, in any case, observe the confirmation of Scandinavian impact in English. There are a great many place-names of the Scandinavian source. Numerous common and ordinary words have a Scandinavian starting point.
We can't envision the English vocabulary without them. What is more intriguing that Scandinavian left an engraving on syntactic words and perhaps linguistic structure, which is an uncommon situation with regards to borrowing. It can be presumed that Scandinavian has significantly affected the improvement of the English vocabulary.
Similar questions