Week 7 Flashcards
Describe the language of Iceland
A conservative language, few loanwords, morphology relatively conservative (case, number, gender, person, mood, inflections).
The most frequently used English vocabulary today
Old English (32%)
What plays a role in the distribution of words in actual usage?
Style
The Norsemen
From c. 750 AD there were Vikings raids and invasions.
• Dialects had diverged (separated)
• Roughly same areas OE’s ancestors came from
• Mutually intelligible (?)
Which areas of Germanic are closely related?
West and North Germanic
Basics of the Danelaw
- c. 865: full Viking military invasion
- Battle of Edington: Alfred the Great vs. Guthrum
- Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum (Wedmore): lasting peace through permanent settlement for Scandinavians
- Alfred’s successors: stole bits back and vice versa
Danelaw results
- (Language/dialect) contact.
- Some degree of political control: new language, some prestige (north and east).
- Intermarriage.
- Foreign but also familiarities.
- Linguistic two-way accommodation.
Viking traces
- -by ‘abode, village’: Rugby, Derby, Whitby, Kexby
- -toft ‘homestead’: Lowestoft, Langtoft (Norwegian)
- -Thorpe/throp ‘village’ (North): Scunthorpe (Danish)
- thwaite ‘field, woodland clearing’: Slaithwaite (Norwegian)
- kirk ‘church’: Ormskirk
Linguistic legacy: OE form and ON meaning
- Dream (OE joy)
- Bread (OE piece)
- Earl (OE hero, warrior)
- Dwell (OE stray, tarry)
- Starve (OE die)
What is the Danelaw and when did it occur?
The Viking military invasion and settlement in England around 865 AD.
What was the significance of the Battle of Edington?
Alfred the Great defeated Guthrum, who converted to Christianity under the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum.
What impact did the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum have?
It established peace through Scandinavian settlement.
How did Viking settlements impact English political and linguistic structures?
Some Viking language gained prestige in the north and east, and there was intermarriage and linguistic accommodation.
Name some place names of Viking origin in England and their meanings.
-by (village): Rugby, Whitby
-toft (homestead): Lowestoft
-thorpe (village): Scunthorpe
List some core vocabulary words from Old Norse that became part of English.
Sister, leg, neck, bag, cake, dirt, fellow, fog, knife, skill, skin, sky, window.
What change did Old Norse influence bring to English function words?
Words like “till,” “they,” “their,” “them,” “both,” “though,” and “are” were adopted from Old Norse.
Give examples of words with recycled forms due to Norse influence.
Skirt (from ON) and shirt (OE); skin (ON) and shin (OE).
Norse typically no palatalisation or i-mutation.
What are some words in Scots and Northern English that have Norse origins?
Bairn (child), clegg (horse fly), kilt (to fold), frae (from), drookit (drenched), braw (beautiful), burn (river).
Who were the key figures in the Norman conquest of England?
Harold Godwinson, William the Bastard (later William the Conqueror), and Harald Hardrada.
Edward the Confessor sparked the conquest.
What was the result of the Battle of Stamford Bridge?
Harold Godwinson defeated Harald Hardrada, shortly before William the Conqueror’s invasion.
What linguistic consequence did the Norman Conquest have on England?
Norman French and Latin became the languages of the court and administration, while English remained the common language.
How much of the English population spoke Norman French after the conquest?
Likely only about 10%, and the elite eventually switched to English.
What is typically not found in Old Norse?
Typically no palatalisation or i-mutation.
What is a key difference in inflectional endings between Old Norse and Old English?
Old Norse used -s or -sk endings for many verbs and words, but never used the -th ending that was common in Old English.
How did Old Norse inflectional endings influence Old English?
Old English traditionally did not use -s in verb paradigms, e.g., “telleth” (he/heo/hit/hie telleth), while Old Norse forms like “telja” introduced -s endings. Inflectional endings, especially in second languages (L2), are prone to changes due to misinterpretation or pronunciation differences.
When did Cnut die? And Edward?
1042, 1066
How many French loanwords were introduced during the first phase of Norman influence (1066-1250)?
About 1,000 loanwords, mainly related to law, feudalism, food, fashion, and art.
Give examples of French loanwords introduced in English law during the Norman period.
Justice, judge, plead, accuse, petty.
What French terms related to feudalism were introduced by the Norman elite?
Baron, servant, prince, duke.
Name some French food-related loanwords that entered English after the Norman Conquest.
Venison, pork, mutton, veal, beef, sauce, boil, soup.
During the second phase of Norman influence (1250-1500), approximately how many French loanwords entered English?
About 10,000 loanwords.
Why did more French loanwords enter English between 1250-1500?
Increased bilingualism and the growing presence of English in written records made these borrowings more visible.
What are “legal doublets,” and provide examples introduced by Norman French.
Pairs of words with similar meanings, like “acknowledge and confess,” “breaking and entering,” “fit and proper,” “keep and maintain,” “land and tenements.”
What shift in French influence occurred after 1250 in England?
Central French influence overtook Anglo-Norman, bringing terms like “convey” and “convoy,” “reward” and “regard,” “wile” and “guile,” “warden” and “guardian.
How did the Norman influence affect high-frequency versus content words in English?
High-frequency words mostly stayed Old English, while content words were borrowed from French.
HF: numbers: one, two, three
Content: Legal/Governmental: court, judge, jury, prison
What kind of morphological changes did Norman influence accelerate in English?
Case loss and the adoption of Scandinavian pronouns, conjunctions, and inflections, particularly in Northern dialects.
How did hybrid derivation reflect Norman-English contact intensity?
English often used English suffixes with French words (e.g., youthful), and French suffixes with English words (e.g., knowable), showcasing deep linguistic intermingling.
Repurposing words
Change in meaning
- Die and starve
Starve was OE word for die. Now starve has a very specific meaning (narrowing). Die became the more general term. - Skill and craft
- Skin and hide
- Ill and sick
