One of the biggest influencen of old Norse on English is the fact we form the pluralen of worden by adding an "s" instead of the Germanic "en" - as hinted at by your eggs/eyren example.
Funnily enough, both -s and -en plurals are found in Old English as -as and -an: wer 'man' pluralizes to weras 'men', and oxa 'ox' pluralizes to 'oxan'.
I recently finished reading “The Vikings: A History,” by Robert Ferguson. I never realized how large an impact the Vikings had throughout Europe, Russia, and the Middle East, not just on our language, but also on our system of government.
Interest in Vikings seems to be having a modest bump, which just could be I’m noticing it more. (Insert bad football team joke here.)
"Strangely, many Norse loanwords don't appear in written English until centuries after the Vikings settled. This suggests that words of Norse origin circulated in everyday speech long before they were deemed acceptable enough to write down."
Isn't this explained by the Danelaw being almost entirely illiterate after the destruction of the monasteries? The texts we have from the period are from Wessex, right?
To think of vikings as pirates is a good way of thinking about it. The Old English version of "viking" (wicing) is actually used to translate the Latin word pirata.
Extremely interesting. I am also interested in the names of our days of the week. A writer recently asked a theoretical question about Early Saxon religion and how we could know what that was. Alone in Europe, Britain has (some) days of the week named after Norse gods, offering a glimpse into this area. When I pointed this out to a colleague, they were flabbergasted. They had truly never noticed Thursday as Thor’s Day. Also fascinating that Wales still has a Roman god’s name for Friday (Venus day). Possibly the influence of the Saxons was not as strong there.
I wonder whether such close links, although Christianity was well established in Britain, could have cemented the two cultures, as well as the similarity of the two languages.
Happy to hear if this is idiotic.
One more point though, being a complete pedant, the 793 Vikings attack was probably not the first on Britain, just the first against people who could write it down, monks. I suspect the Vikings had been raiding up and down the coast prior to Lindisfarne.
Nevertheless, English is still a west not a north Germanic language. Also, some of this is speculative. I have my doubts about phrasal verbs coming from the Vikings. It could just be a natural development among the Germanic languages, including Old English.
Something else I've noticed is that here in England there's something I call the "Eccles cake line". Eccles cakes are small round cakes make of flaky pastry and containing currants. It seems you only get them north and east of a line that I like to think corresponds to the boundary of the old Danelaw. Here in Birmingham you never see them in cafes but you do if you do about 20 miles to the northeast towards Leicester, which was in the Danelaw.
One of the biggest influencen of old Norse on English is the fact we form the pluralen of worden by adding an "s" instead of the Germanic "en" - as hinted at by your eggs/eyren example.
Funnily enough, both -s and -en plurals are found in Old English as -as and -an: wer 'man' pluralizes to weras 'men', and oxa 'ox' pluralizes to 'oxan'.
"Children" and "oxen" being throwbacks to pre-Norse days!
"Children" was a Middle English innovation. In Old English the plural was "childer". "Oxen", though, is a throwback to Old English.
I remember one of my great aunts, born in the early years of the 20th century in Leeds, UK, using the word childer.
I recently finished reading “The Vikings: A History,” by Robert Ferguson. I never realized how large an impact the Vikings had throughout Europe, Russia, and the Middle East, not just on our language, but also on our system of government.
Interest in Vikings seems to be having a modest bump, which just could be I’m noticing it more. (Insert bad football team joke here.)
"Strangely, many Norse loanwords don't appear in written English until centuries after the Vikings settled. This suggests that words of Norse origin circulated in everyday speech long before they were deemed acceptable enough to write down."
Isn't this explained by the Danelaw being almost entirely illiterate after the destruction of the monasteries? The texts we have from the period are from Wessex, right?
Right, although interestingly there are a few Norse loans in literary Old English, e.g. griþ 'truce', which we see in the Battle of Maldon.
Because I'm a six foot, blue-eye, red head?
This is excellent! Thanks Colin!
Thank you, Omar!
þancword! A word of thanks!
Þē sīe þanc! Thanks to you!
Oh, how cool!
Grammatical cases and gender expressed by adding endings to words are still very much part of the Norwegian language
Is there a difference between vikings and pirates?
To think of vikings as pirates is a good way of thinking about it. The Old English version of "viking" (wicing) is actually used to translate the Latin word pirata.
Seriously, I appreciate the article. I have learned to look at the origin of words (etymology) from reading Tolkien (as a philologist).
Thanks! Tolkien is the perfect gateway drug to philology.
Was there any changes to old Norse from English?
Good question! Not to my knowledge.
Extremely interesting. I am also interested in the names of our days of the week. A writer recently asked a theoretical question about Early Saxon religion and how we could know what that was. Alone in Europe, Britain has (some) days of the week named after Norse gods, offering a glimpse into this area. When I pointed this out to a colleague, they were flabbergasted. They had truly never noticed Thursday as Thor’s Day. Also fascinating that Wales still has a Roman god’s name for Friday (Venus day). Possibly the influence of the Saxons was not as strong there.
I wonder whether such close links, although Christianity was well established in Britain, could have cemented the two cultures, as well as the similarity of the two languages.
Happy to hear if this is idiotic.
One more point though, being a complete pedant, the 793 Vikings attack was probably not the first on Britain, just the first against people who could write it down, monks. I suspect the Vikings had been raiding up and down the coast prior to Lindisfarne.
Nevertheless, English is still a west not a north Germanic language. Also, some of this is speculative. I have my doubts about phrasal verbs coming from the Vikings. It could just be a natural development among the Germanic languages, including Old English.
Something else I've noticed is that here in England there's something I call the "Eccles cake line". Eccles cakes are small round cakes make of flaky pastry and containing currants. It seems you only get them north and east of a line that I like to think corresponds to the boundary of the old Danelaw. Here in Birmingham you never see them in cafes but you do if you do about 20 miles to the northeast towards Leicester, which was in the Danelaw.